Category Archives: Players

Two small miracles

Philidor Cup, Hyères 1928 A total of 45 games were played in the tournament but unfortunately we have so far succeeded in finding only one brilliant game from the 2nd round, when M. Duchamp crushed the last player E.H. Smith. … Continue reading

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De Búrca or Cranston again, and other Warsaw reverberations

“At the time I was 22 years old and easily the youngest member of the Irish team. Cranston, Creevey and O’Hanlon were already veterans of the chess-board; so that Ireland’s team had the doubtful distinction of being the oldest, in … Continue reading

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Sonja Graf – Part 4: A Bewitching Visit to Cork

The Evening Echo for Saturday 9th February 1935 gave Sonja Graf the big build-up, with some impressive evidence to back it up. TO VISIT CORK. FRAULEIN SONJA GRAF. Up to recently, Fraulein Wally Henschel (Hamburg) was the sole, and none … Continue reading

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Sonja Graf – Part 3 Overlapping Matches

MATCH AGAINST  JOHN J. O’HANLON John James O’Hanlon, as the saying goes, needs no introduction, but the Irish Chess Union website does have this fine tribute from J.J. Walsh. The Irish Independent reported on Day 1 of the match in … Continue reading

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Sonja Graf – Part 2: Simultaneity, Dancing and Blitzing

The Evening Herald in its 2nd February 1935 edition reported on Sonja Graf’s imminent arrival and gave a brief preview of her likely engagements. The German lady chess champion, Fraulein Sonja Graf, who will arrive in Dublin this (Saturday) evening, … Continue reading

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Sonja Graf – Part 1: Foundation

“Many highly-coloured stories have been written about Sonja Graf, but the majority of these have been found to be without foundation.” Anne Sunnucks, The Encyclopaedia of Chess, 2nd Edition, 1976, Robert Hale, London. This is the first of four posts … Continue reading

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Koltanowski Simuls and Match -v- O’Hanlon 1937

On the 21st January 1937, after playing in the famous Hastings Christmas Congress and then an international tournament in Birmingham, George Koltanowski embarked on a lengthy exhibition tour of Britain and Ireland, but when he arrived in Dublin, it seemed … Continue reading

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O’Hanlon at Cambridge 1932

Throughout his career, J.J. O’Hanlon would send a selection of his game scores to the editors of Irish chess columns, frequently with his own annotations appended. Here we present the result of one such offering, as described by T.P. Donnegan … Continue reading

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Gerard Kerlin, and the 1942 Champions’ Chess Tourney

On the 25th of August 1969 Albert Long, Honorary Secretary of the Ulster Chess Union, wrote to Brenda Kerlin about her brother Gerard. In the letter, by way of introduction, he indicated that he had been given her address by … Continue reading

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North City, Ennis Shield champions 1936-37, contd.

In response to the recent post on North City and the Ennis Shield 1936-37, Philip Doyle has written to provide more information on two of the players, much more in the case of one of them. “W. Breen” in the … Continue reading

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