Equal first in an Irish championship, but never Irish champion

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Sean Coffey

The answer to Thursday’s trivia question, what do

William Edward Thrift
P.J. McMahon
W.J. Allen
Oscar Aidan Quigley
William Richard Dunphy
Alex Montwill
Matt O’Leary
Tom Clarke

have in common, is as in the title: all finished equal first in an Irish championship, but for one reason or another didn’t win or share the title that year, and never won or shared it any other year either. The reasons why the tie wasn’t enough varied from losing on tie-break to losing a playoff match to forfeiting when a playoff match schedule couldn’t be agreed.

The full details can be tracked down on the ICU web site with a bit of work, but are much more conveniently presented all on one page on the Irish championship page on David McAlister’s Irish Chess History web site.

1925 8-player all-play-all, Dublin, J. J. O’Hanlon and W. E. (William Edward) Thrift =1st on 5½/7. “It was intended to have a play-off match but “Thrift being unable to continue the play” the ICU awarded the championship to O’Hanlon.”

1926 8-player all-play-all, Belfast, J. J. O’Hanlon, W. J. Allen, and P. J. McMahon =1st on 5/7. O’Hanlon won the double-round playoff tournament convincingly on 3½/4.

1937 9-player all-play-all, Dublin, Thomas Cox and O. A. (Oscar Aidan) Quigley =1st on 6½/8. Cox won the playoff match 3-2.

1957, 8-round 20-player Swiss, Galway, D. J. O’Sullivan and W. R. (William Richard) Dunphy =1st on 6/7. O’Sullivan won on tie-break.

1962, 8-round 16-player Swiss, Derry, John B. Reid, Michael Littleton, Alex Montwill and Brian Reilly =1st on 5½/8. Reid and Littleton were declared joint champions on tie-break. (Reilly was champion in 1959 and 1960.)

1972, 9-round 20-player Swiss, Dublin, Wolfgang Heidenfeld and Matt O’Leary =1st on 7/9. Heidenfeld won the playoff match 2½-1½.

1996, 9-round 25-player Swiss, Dublin, Richard O’Donovan, Tom Clarke and Colm Daly =1st on 6½/9. O’Donovan won on tie-break. (Daly was champion in 1998, 1999, 2005, and 2009.)

[13 Dec 2011, correction added: in 1962 the joint winners scored 5½/8, not /7.]

Posted in Players, Puzzles, Tournaments | 2 Comments

Trivial pursuit (Irish chess edition)

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Sean Coffey

Here’s a puzzle: what do the following players have in common?

William Edward Thrift
P.J. McMahon
W.J. Allen
Oscar Aidan Quigley
William Richard Dunphy
Alex Montwill
Matt O’Leary
Tom Clarke

Answer in a couple of days.

The players all have something definite in common. In fact when I emailed the question to David McAlister, he spotted it immediately, with full details also.

Posted in Players, Puzzles | Leave a comment

J.J. Walsh unpublished manuscript: selected Irish games 1896-1967

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Sean Coffey

At IRLchess we’re interested in all aspects of Irish chess history and records, but above all in games. The ICU games archive has good coverage, of course, but there are many other published games that are not included there. And every so often a new source of unpublished games turns up, best of all. One such source is an unpublished manuscript of J.J. Walsh, containing 99 selected Irish games from 1896 to 1967. I visited him in April—and as you can imagine, he has an absolute mine of information about Irish chess down the years—and he kindly allowed me to copy the manuscript. It has taken me a while to get around to comparing it to the ICU archive, but having finally done so I find that 41 games are already in, leaving 58 ‘new’ ones. I recognise a few (8 or so) from other sources, leaving around 50 that were completely new to me, which I plan to put up here. (Gradually, of course! I don’t want to run out of topics to post on.)

Duignan-Ryan: JJ Walsh manuscript, game 8

The first ‘new’ game is game 8. White was P. A. (Paddy) Duignan, Irish champion in 1947 and Leinster champion in 1946 and 1950 (source: Irish Times, 4 April 1957, p. 4), and this is a win from his second Leinster championship (click for playable version). Some more information on him is contained in a brief profile on the ICU web site.

Posted in Games, Irish champions, Leinster championships, Players | 2 Comments

Monthly roundup

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Sean Coffey

I haven’t posted in a while, due to a nasty problem with my computer: the hard disk became corrupted. It seems that all the data is fine (touch wood), but most of the software wouldn’t run, so the complete operating system had to be reinstalled. For various reasons this took 10 days.

As it happens, I wouldn’t have had that much to post anyway, beyond the weekly set of Irish games from TWIC and one or two minor revisions of other pages. From now on, I think I’ll just upload these directly to the relevant pages, without also having a separate post, and will collect all such minor items into one post at the end of each month. The changes for November are:

TWIC: TWIC 889 (21st November) had 6 Irish games: 5 with Anthony Breen and 1 with Joe Ryan. TWIC 890 (28th November) had 1 Irish game, with Joe Ryan. The relevant files are on the Games page.

Simuls: Details on 9 more simuls have been added to the main Simuls page. These are all from the leadup to An Tóstal 1955, with simuls given by Albéric O’Kelly de Galway, Ossip Bernstein, and T. D. van Scheltinga in various locations around the country. Last year Tony Foley had a great series of posts on An Tóstal 1955 itself.

Up to now all the simuls listed have been by visiting players. Of course there have been many by local players also, indeed so many that they dwarf the simuls given by visitors. Rather than lump them together, therefore, there’s a new Local simuls page, which we’ll be building up gradually. Currently only one simul is listed but we have to start somewhere.

Irish championship 2010: The report on last year’s Irish championship has been revised slightly. The new version (v1.2) adds an Annotations index and a link to John Redmond’s blog.

FICHEALL: Úna O’Boyle’s Ficheall, the first ever chess book in Irish, was shortlisted some time ago for Gradam Réics Carló (Irish Language Children’s Book of the Year) 2011. The final decision was due on November 15th, but I haven’t seen any results announced yet, even after doing a search on the other shortlisted books.

Posted in Administrative | 2 Comments

O’Hanlon, Cox and the female impersonator

Posted on November 18, 2011 by David McAlister

John (“J.J.”) O’Hanlon won the Irish championship nine times between 1913 and 1940. His most significant international successes were at Broadstairs 1922 where he tied with the future World Champion Max Euwe (winning their individual encounter) and Hyѐres 1928 where he tied with the famous artist Marcel Duchamp and Vitaly Halberstadt.

Thomas Cox only started playing chess in 1933 but within 3 years had already won the Leinster championship. He then went on to take the Irish championship title in 1937 and 1938, before sadly succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 27 in October 1939.

The Jover family entertained in circuses, theatres and music halls all over the world for three generations. The family, headed by Julian Jover had performed as “The Mirthful Jovers” at the Royal Variety Performance in 1922. Amongst the troupe was Julian’s son, Tommy. By 1937 Tommy was now part of a duo “The Comical Jovers” and at the beginning of March that year they were topping the bill at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. When that duo broke up two years later, Tommy started a new act with his son Raf and daughter Nena. Nena’s autobiography “My Father was Carmen Miranda: Memoirs of an English Show Girl” chronicles their performances in Britain during the Second World War when Tommy did a turn as a female impersonator – topping his head with a fruit basket like Carmen Miranda.

Tommy Jover was also a chess player of some ability. The Irish Independent for the 5th March 1937 put it this way:

“In his travels all over Europe Mr Jover, who is an accomplished linguist, has played with the leading masters. The experience thus gained has given him a very attractive style of play.”

During his stay in Dublin performing at the Gaiety Theatre Jover found time to play friendly games with O’Hanlon, at the time the Irish champion and who was a personal friend, and Thomas Cox, then Leinster champion, on the 4th March. The second of those games against Cox was drawn but, as the Irish Independent put it, Jover “caught the Irish champion napping.”

O’Hanlon, John – Jover, Tommy
Friendly game, Dublin 1937 [C29]
[Source: Irish Independent, 5th March 1937]

O'Hanlon-Jover after White's 20thJover offered a pawn sacrifice with a view to attacking down the g-file against O’Hanlon’s castled King. In a normal tournament game, O’Hanlon might have decided to take a more careful course but he snapped up the proffered pawn, perhaps to ensure his friend had an entertaining game. Jover gained sufficient compensation for the pawn but then unsoundly sacrificed a bishop. However when O’Hanlon then played an obvious move to occupy the g-file (but also the one his opponent was probably hoping for), Jover then uncorked a queen sacrifice leading to checkmate.

1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4 d5 4.fxe5 Nxe4 5.Nf3 c5 6.d3 Nxc3 7.bxc3 Be7 8.Be2 Be6 9.O-O h6 10.Qe1 Nc6 11.Qg3 Qd7 12.Qxg7 O-O-O 13.Qg3 Rdg8 14.Qe1 Rg7 15.Rf2 h5 16.Kh1 h4 17.Bf4 Rhg8 18.Qd2 Bh3 19.gxh3 Qxh3 20.Rg1 (diagram) Qxf3+ 0-1 [Click to replay]

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

TWIC 888

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Sean Coffey

This week TWIC has 25 Irish games: 2 each from Sam Collins, Ryan-Rhys Griffiths, and Gavin Wall (4NCL), 1 from Joe Ryan (III Tancat IM), 5 from Sarah Hegarty (4 from European Women’s Team Ch and 1 from 4NCL), 7 from John Nicholson (37th Guernsey Open), and 6 from Anthony Breen (FSFMC November). These are all available in pgn format on the updated Games page.

This reminds me that the original post introducing this feature didn’t give the exact definition being used for an Irish player. The script runs through all FIDE rating lists from 2002 to the present day, and if a player has ever been recorded as Irish on any of those lists, the player is Irish for purposes of this feature. So Sarah Hegarty, for example, currently registered as English, is included based on her registration as Irish in FIDE lists in 2003, even though none of the games included here were played while she was Irish-registered. This is a little arbitrary, of course, but it’s all much easier if a FIDE ID maps to a definite permanent nationality without having to fiddle with different nationalities at different times, and besides it does no harm to take the inclusive definition.

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Irish championship 2009

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Sean Coffey

The 2009 Irish championship, described by Peter Cafolla as one of the most enjoyable for years, had a larger-than-usual field of 29 players, featuring all the perennial contenders and in addition IM Mark Quinn, playing for the first time since 1998, and four-time champion John Delaney, playing for the first time since 1991. The highest-rated player was IM Valeri Atlas from Austria (the tournament was open to non-Irish players but they were not eligible for the title of Irish champion).

Colm Daly ended up champion, a clear point ahead of Atlas and Quinn on 7½/9, for his fourth national title, the others being 1998, 1999, and 2005.

A report is now up on the Tournaments page, with 91 of the 123 games. The chess was excellent and entertaining, and it was difficult to trim the selection of interesting games down to a manageable collection. As it is, 20 games are on the shortlist.

[12 November 2011, later: after uploading the first version I played through Cafolla-O’Leary from round 6, a very interesting game that Peter Cafolla annotated on the ICU web site. But the finish of the game as shown in the first version didn’t match, and didn’t seem to make sense. I tracked the problem down to the ICU web site itself, which has two versions of this game, one with notes (number 29422) and one without (number 29493). I had taken the one without notes, as this is easier for the processing routines. But the versions don’t match! Now corrected.]

Posted in Irish championships, Tournaments | Leave a comment

TWIC 887

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Sean Coffey

This week’s issue of TWIC contains just three Irish games. It did not contain any games from last week’s e2e4 Gatwick International; the FIDE tournament reports don’t give the games either, and they’ve even disappeared from the organiser’s web site. I’m still hoping they’ll reappear: sometimes it’s a matter of the last-round games not being quite finished.

In any case this week’s games, now up on the Games page, include one by Sarah Hegarty and two by Joe Ryan. Of these the most interesting is Ryan-Cruz. There was a discussion a while back on the LCU Blog on the merits or otherwise of 1. b3. Based on much personal experience I think this is correctly written 1. b3?, and this game, in which Joe Ryan tries it against a 2400+ opponent, is a searing example.

Posted in Games | 2 Comments

Lilienthal in Dublin

Posted on November 3, 2011 by David McAlister

Andor Lilienthal died last year at the age of 99. At the time Chessbase published this fine tribute to him. Featured in that article is Lilienthal’s famous queen sacrifice victory over Capablanca, played at Hastings on the 1st January 1935. Coincidentally earlier the same day the Irish Independent had reported that:

“The Irish Chess Union, through their representatives at the Hastings Tournament, have engaged the services of the world-famous young Hungarian master, A. Lilienthal, to give exhibitions in Dublin next week.”

On the evening of the 7th January Lilienthal paid an informal visit to the Dublin Chess Club where he engaged in lightning, blindfold, simultaneous and consultation play. However the major public exhibition was held the following night at Regent House, Trinity College where he encountered 45 players simultaneously. At the end of the evening Lilienthal had won 28, drawn 10 and lost 7. The first player to beat the simul-giver on the night was the Cork player Barry St John Galvin, one of Munster’s best players.

Lilienthal, Andor – Galvin, Barry St John
Simultaneous display, Dublin 1935 [D90]
[Source: Irish Independent, 9th January 1935]

Lilienthal-Galvin after White's 13thGalvin made an enterprising piece sacrifice on his 13th move and Lilienthal soon went spectacularly wrong. Lilienthal could have safely resigned when queens were forced off on the 21st move, but perhaps he wanted to get a few wins of his own first. He later praised his opponent’s forcing tactics.

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Qb3 Nxc3 8.bxc3 c5 9.Bc4 h6 10.Ba3 Nc6 11.Be2 cxd4 12.cxd4 Qa5+ 13.Nd2 (diagram) 13…Bxd4 14.exd4 Nxd4 15.Qc4 Nxe2 16.Bb4 Qe5 17.Kd1 Qxa1+ 18.Kxe2 Qxh1 19.Qh4 Qxg2 20.Bxe7 Qg4+ 21.Qxg4 Bxg4+ 22.Kd3 Rfe8 23.Bc5 Rac8 24.Be3 Red8+ 25.Ke4 g5 26.h4 f5+ 27.Ke5 f4 28.Bd4 Rxd4 29.Kxd4 Rd8+ 30.Kc3 Rxd2 31.Kxd2 gxh4 0-1 [Click to replay]

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Eugene O’Hare

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Sean Coffey

Eugene O'HareEugene O’Hare of Derry was Ulster champion six times and played in three Olympiads, all in the 1960’s, but he was still an active player long after that, winning a City of Derry Championship in 2004 at the ripe old age of 86. (I played in the same event as him at least once, in the 1979 Irish championship–and we finished in the same half of the field–but can’t recall whether I ever played him.)

His memoirs, Roast Beef on Sunday, were published in 2008 and are a really excellent read, highly recommended. (I found the entire book on the web, but am not sure if this is an authorised copy. To be on the safe side I will omit a link; in any case you should be able to find it easily with any search engine.) He was a pharmacist by trade, and was also a councillor in Derry, serving on Londonderry Corporation from 1964 until its abolition in 1969, and his account of these turbulent times is well worth reading. (These memoirs deserve to be much better known.)

Though there are no actual games, there is also much discussion of chess. Here is one excerpt, set after the 1962 Varna Olympiad, which the team (John B. Reid, Ray Cassidy, P. J. Murphy, Des De Loughrey, and O’Hare) had reached by car:

We left the Olympiad without waiting for the final banquet and started out at 10pm to drive through the night. We crossed the border early afternoon the following day and reached Belgrade around tea time. European games were being held there and accommodation was extremely hard to find. We drove away from the town centre and stopped in a tree-lined square in the suburbs. Here we formed three parties to search for somewhere to stay. I went with Cassidy, Reid with De Loughrey, and Murphy went on his own. I drew blank, Reid drew blank, but Murphy came back waving his arms.

“I’ve got us digs,” he shouted, “round this way.”

We followed him and around the corner stood a lovely fair haired girl of about twenty five, smartly dressed but not obviously a hotel clerk. Poor innocent family man P. J. Murphy from Dublin was not a man of the world. The girl’s face was a study, P. J., by sign language, had indicated five. She took a rather different meaning of the figure, and her look as she surveyed the five of us could not be described. We burst out laughing and she caught on and joined in. The only one bewildered was Murphy. In halting German and English I did my best to explain. She nodded and in a few minutes had got us bed and breakfast nearby.

A biography has been added on the Players section.

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