Author Archives: Sean Coffey

Arbitrary and capricious—II

Posted on August 1, 2015 by Sean Coffey

The last post asked how it could be that the tie-break system placed Philip Short ahead of Stephen Brady. The tie-break system was Median Buchholz followed by Buchholz, i.e., just sums of opponent scores (with median dropping the highest and … Continue reading →

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Arbitrary and capricious

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Sean Coffey

The close finish to this year’s Irish championship brought the possibility of a three-way tie for first place. When two players tie for first, the rule is (as it has been since the 1970s) that the players share the title. … Continue reading →

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Irish championship 2005

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Sean Coffey

A report on the 2005 Irish championship has been added to the tournament pages here. Colm Daly won his third championship, after 1998 and 1999, by a full point. All games are available. It’s interesting that fully half of the … Continue reading →

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Glorney Cup 2015

Posted on July 23, 2015 by Sean Coffey

Congratulations to the Irish Glorney Cup team, who won the Cup for the first time since 1963! Full coverage is available at the tournament web site. By all accounts it was a very well organized tournament, with live boards for … Continue reading →

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Irish championship 2015

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Sean Coffey

This year’s Irish championship, in progress as I write this, has a report available here, including all 35 games from the first four rounds. The report will be updated round-by-round. Though the field is markedly smaller than last year’s, it … Continue reading →

Posted in Irish championships, Tournaments | 1 Comment

Drogheda 2015

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Sean Coffey

Drogheda 2015 was held over the weekend before last, May 30-June 1. The top section, which was won convincingly by Colm Daly–by far the highest-rated player–on 6/6, had two live boards in each round. I missed round 1 but the … Continue reading →

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Samuel Beckett, once removed

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Sean Coffey

Oliver Dunne asks the exact question I had been wondering about myself: is it possible that any of Beckett’s games survive? So far I have not found any. But I did find what may be the next best thing: a … Continue reading →

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Samuel Beckett, contd.

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Sean Coffey

In Samuel Beckett and the Armstrong Cup, I thought I had made an original discovery of Samuel Beckett’s career as a chess player, as chess players would understand the term, in the form of an Armstrong Cup scorecard from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Armstrong Cup, Players, Tournaments | 2 Comments

Ballyfermot Open 1994, contd.

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Sean Coffey

On Ray Woodhouse’s photo of the Ballyfermot Open 1994, we’re a little further along but matters are still not entirely clear. David McAlister convincingly demonstrated that it was the 1994 event, the position on the top board identifying it as … Continue reading →

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Ennis Congress 2015

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Sean Coffey

Last weekend’s Ennis Congress featured live boards for the top two games in the Open and the top board in the Under 1400. The 18 games have now been added to the games archive here. There were several interesting games, … Continue reading →

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