Author Archives: Sean Coffey

Irish International Open 2025

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Sean Coffey

Last weekend’s events also featured the Irish International Open, which attracted a mammoth field of 75. The top seed, by a margin of over 300 rating points, was IM Kristian Stuvik Holm of Norway. Only four other players were rated … Continue reading →

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Irish 50+ Championship 2025

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Sean Coffey

The Irish chess year sprang to life over the weekend, with a large number of events at the Talbot Hotel Stillorgan, including an International Open, a GM norm and an IM norm event, the Irish 50+ and 65+ championships, a … Continue reading →

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Downloading games from IRLchess

Posted on December 20, 2024 by Sean Coffey

The “Search games” function here (see right column and the games page) has been modified to add a link to download a pgn file corresponding to the results of a search. I hope this will be useful for readers. For … Continue reading →

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Kilkenny Masters 2024

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Sean Coffey

The Kilkenny Congress took place last weekend, attracting 246 players (apparently a record) over three sections. A report on the full Congress by Gerry Graham, with many photos, can be found on the ICU web site. The Masters attracted a … Continue reading →

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Ireton – Cox, Wexford Premier 1973

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Sean Coffey

The 1968 Irish championship, covered here recently, featured seven teenagers. Two of these were David Cox of Dublin C.C., and Oatlands College, Dublin (my own school), who finished equal 3rd-4th, and Tom Ireton of C.C.Y.M.S. and Sullivan’s Quay C.B.S., Cork, … Continue reading →

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A game of Jim Phelan’s

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Sean Coffey

John Saunders’ outstanding BritBase website provides a constant stream of newly discovered games, aided by contributions from a set of regular contributors at the English Chess Forum, and some of these involve Irish players. One game, added there today, is … Continue reading →

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Irish Championship 1968

Posted on October 31, 2024 by Sean Coffey

The first Irish championship held under the newly introduced rules discussed in the last post was the 1968 event, held in Dixon Hall in Trinity College, Dublin. The field of 21 included the defending champion Wolfgang Heidenfeld, previous champion and … Continue reading →

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Changes in the Irish Championship

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Sean Coffey

From an article in the Cork Examiner on February 16, 1968, by “The Knight”: Changes In The Championship A number of important changes in the Irish Championship have been announced recently by the Irish Chess Union, who last year appointed … Continue reading →

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Sligo Spring Tournament 2024, other sections

Posted on October 7, 2024 by Sean Coffey

The Sligo Spring Tournament had four sections in all, and the organisers made live boards available for all games in each. Full reports have been added here for the Championship (40 players, 1st Nitish Arun), the Major (44 players, 1st … Continue reading →

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Sligo Spring Tournament Masters 2024

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Sean Coffey

The Sligo Spring Tournament was held in Enniscrone from February 2-4, 2024. The flyer gives testimonials from players (“the best tournament in Ireland at present”, “by far the most professional weekender I’ve been to”), and these seem no idle boasts. … Continue reading →

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