Author Archives: Sean Coffey

Irish Women’s Championship 2026

The Irish Women’s Championship 2026 was held over the last weekend in October at the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, as part of the 2nd Annual Irish Women’s Chess Festival. A full report has been added to the Tournament … Continue reading →

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Irish Championship 2026

The Irish Championship opened today in Dublin, at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan. The field of 55 is the largest ever for an Irish championship, eclipsing the previous record of 53 set two years ago at the same venue. There are … Continue reading →

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Irish championship players

The lists of Irish championship players have been updated to reflect the 2025 championship, to make corrections, and to add some details. The full list is available in alphabetical order and in descending order of number of championships played. Thirteen … Continue reading →

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Drogheda Congress 2026

The Drogheda Congress took place last weekend, with 115 players playing over four sections. A full report for the Thomson Masters has been added here. Tarun Kanyamarala and Jacob Flynn tied for first, each with an unbeaten 5/6, with the … Continue reading →

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Irish Championship 2006, contd.

A report for the Irish Championship 2006 appeared here in 2011 (cf. cover post), and has been updated in only minor ways since. Only 14 of the 52 games were available, which meant it had the sparsest coverage of any … Continue reading →

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S. A. French, Seán French

David McAlister’s post on O’Hanlon at the 1940 Irish Championship included an additional postscript comment by him, saying that the original version of the post had a couple of naming errors, now corrected. This post concerns the second of these, … Continue reading →

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National Club Championship 2026

The National Club Championship was held last weekend at Coláiste Éanna in Rathfarhnam, Dublin. Seventeen teams contested a 5-round Swiss. The event was well covered, with live games available at Lichess and Livechesscloud, and results, etc., available at Chess-Results.com. The … Continue reading →

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Tony Miles simuls: Dublin, Cork, and Galway

In the recent post on Tony Miles and the Dundrum International Congress 1975, I wrote that Miles had greatly raised the profile of the event via a series of mammoth simuls in Dublin, Cork, and Galway in the lead-up. On … Continue reading →

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Tarun Kanyamarala, Javokhir Sindarov, and the World School Open U15 Championship 2019

Following Javokhir Sindarov’s resounding victory at the Candidates Tournament this week, Tarun Kanyamarala posted a congratulatory message on Facebook. They had met at the World School Championship in Antalya, Turkey in 2019, where they both competed in the Open U15 … Continue reading →

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Tony Miles and the Dundrum International Congress 1975

In describing the life and contributions of the late Henry Higgins here a few months ago, I gave my impressions of the Dundrum International Congress of 1975, the first of a series of two mammoth events that were his landmark … Continue reading →

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