Author Archives: Sean Coffey

N. McCluskey-M. O’Nolan, Armstrong Cup 1932-33

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Sean Coffey

The Armstrong Cup has received excellent coverage in the papers down the years, and for many seasons we even have most match scorecards. However actual games from long-ago seasons are still quite rare and so it’s difficult to judge the … Continue reading →

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Daly-O’Connor, Irish championship qualifier 1986

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Sean Coffey

In 1986 it was decided to make the Irish championship a 10-player invitational all-play-all. There was also a separate qualifying tournament that decided at least some of the places (one?). In the last round Colm Daly (White) and Jonathan O’Connor … Continue reading →

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D. Dunne-N. Short, Glorney Cup 1977

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Sean Coffey

In 1977 the Glorney Cup was held in Ireland (Gormanston College), and six teams competed, including the Netherlands and France. The English team included Nigel Short, Nigel Davies, Glenn Flear, Daniel King, and William Watson—and they didn’t even win. (See … Continue reading →

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Glorney Cup 2016

Posted on July 23, 2016 by Sean Coffey

The Glorney Cup 2016 has concluded with a victory for the Irish team (Tom O’Gorman, Henry Li, Luke Scott, Ross Beatty, Scott Mulligan), retaining the trophy from last year, and finishing clear first for the first time since Cardiff 1958 … Continue reading →

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Joe Ryan achieves final IM norm

Posted on July 7, 2016 by Sean Coffey

Congratulations to Joe Ryan who has achieved his third and final IM norm at the 4th Montcada IM Tournament near Barcelona, June 25 to July 3. Many thanks to Daire McMahon and Martin Crichton for supplying the news; so far … Continue reading →

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Irish championship 2016

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Sean Coffey

The Irish championship runs from July 2 to July 10 at U.C.D. (Student Union building in Belfield). Already the tournament is causing a great deal of discussion, though unfortunately for all the wrong reasons: this year almost all players who … Continue reading →

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Brian Tomson, series helpmate in 26

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Sean Coffey

We’ve written previously here about the Irish player and problemist Brian Tomson. He played in the Glorney Cup, Armstrong Cup (for T.C.D.), finished equal 4th in the Irish championship in 1965, and represented Ireland in the Student Olympiad in 1967, … Continue reading →

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5 years of IRLchess

Posted on June 15, 2016 by Sean Coffey

Today marks the fifth anniversary of IRLchess. The very first post was a short one, to whet the appetite, before moving to more substantial topics. Many thanks in all this to my co-author David McAlister, who has contributed many articles … Continue reading →

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A famous ending—epilogue

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Sean Coffey

I had never seen the original article in “the Irish chess magazine” that Golz and Keres quoted, but now it has been supplied by David McAlister, for which many thanks. The article appeared in Chess in Ireland, September 1959, p. … Continue reading →

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A famous ending—III

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Sean Coffey

J. J. Walsh has scorebooks covering all of his games, going back to the late 1940’s, and in the collection is included the full score of the game from the last two posts. White was Barney O’Sullivan, and the event … Continue reading →

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