Author Archives: Sean Coffey

Irish championship 2008

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Sean Coffey

A tournament report for the 2008 Irish championship has now been added to the archive here. The champion was Alexander Baburin, who was playing in his first, and so far only, championship, after finishing joint first with Alon Greenfeld, who … Continue reading →

Posted in Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

World Under-16 Team Championship, Viborg 1979

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Sean Coffey

The news that an Irish team is currently competing at the World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad in Győr brought back memories: I was on the Irish team that participated in the first World U-16 team championship, far back in … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Tournaments | 2 Comments

City of Dublin championship 2014

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Sean Coffey

A full report on last September’s City of Dublin Masters (1st Juri Firstov, for the second consecutive year, though not without a little controversy) has been added to the Tournaments page. Though the turnout was on the small side (14 … Continue reading →

Posted in City of Dublin championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

Games collection

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Sean Coffey

The games page here had not been updated in over a year. Previously the pgn files provided included most games on the site, but far from all, and there was no easy way to generate a full compilation. The new … Continue reading →

Posted in Administrative | Leave a comment

William Armstrong B.L.

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Sean Coffey

Up until recently little was known (at least to me) of the donor of the Armstrong Cup. He appears to have been well known as a philanthropist when the cup was donated, and he died in Dublin on August 5, … Continue reading →

Posted in News | 1 Comment

Games, October and November

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Sean Coffey

The games collection here had not been updated for over a month—pressure of work and massive amounts of travel—but now 71 new games have been added: see the November 2014 folder. These include: 2 Armstrong Cup (from Colm Daly’s dublinchess.com … Continue reading →

Posted in Games | Leave a comment

“A French Labyrinth”

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Sean Coffey

“A French Labyrinth” was an article by Timman in New in Chess 1997/7, concerning the 13. Qxc3 variation in the (traditional) main line of the Poisoned Pawn. This leads to some of the most complicated and difficult lines in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Articles | Leave a comment

Walsh-Botvinnik, Munich 1958

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Sean Coffey

It’s a rare honour for any amateur player to play a reigning world champion. How many Irish players can claim this distinction? The number must be very small. One player who can is J. J. Walsh. And here is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Photos | 5 Comments

First impressions and second thoughts

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Sean Coffey

The latest issue of The New Winawer Report has now been posted. This one concerns the new main line of the Poisoned Pawn, where Black plays … dxc3 instead of … Bd7, and follows with 12. … d4 (diagram). Theory … Continue reading →

Posted in Articles | Leave a comment

Myles na gCopaleen

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Sean Coffey

The last post mentioned that Gerry O’Nolan, member of Dublin C.C. for fifty years, was a brother of the journalist/author Brian O’Nolan, better known as Myles na gCopaleen or Flann O’Brien. As Flann O’Brien he wrote several celebrated novels: At … Continue reading →

Posted in Players | 4 Comments