Irish champions

Listed in descending order of number of championships won.

If ordering by number of years as reigning champion, J. A. “Porterfield” Rynd would be first at 42 years (1865-1886 and 1892-1913), John O’Hanlon second at 21 years, and the entries for R. W. Barnett, G. D. Soffe, and T. G. Cranston would change slightly.

The list includes 50 players and reflects all championships up to and including 2023.

• 9
• O’Hanlon, John J. (1913, 1915, 1925, 1926, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1936, 1940; no championships held 1914, 1916-21 and 1941-45 so champion for 21 years)
• Brady, Stephen (1991, 1992, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007 (j.), 2011, 2012 (j.), 2015 (j.))
•  
• 6
• Heidenfeld, Wolfgang (1958, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968, 1972)
• Daly, Colm (1998, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2012 (j.), 2013)
•  
• 5
• Short, Philip (1981 (j.), 1986 (j.), 1988, 2015 (j.), 2017 (j.))
•  
• 4
• Baker, Philip (1924, 1927, 1928, 1929)
• Delaney, John (1982, 1986 (j.), 1987, 1990)
•  
• 3
• O’Sullivan, Dónal J. (1948, 1956, 1957)
• Ludgate, Alan T. (1975 (j.), 1977 (j.), 1978)
• Dunne, David (1979 (j.), 1981 (j.), 1983)
• Lopez, Alex (2010, 2017 (j.), 2018)
•  
• 2
• Rynd, James Alexander “Porterfield” (1865, 1892) (no championships 1866-1885 and 1893-1912, so champion for 42 years)
• Cranston, T. G. (Thomas George) (1922, 1931) (no championship held 1923 so champion for 3 years)
• Creevey, James C. (1933, 1934)
• Cox, Thomas (1937, 1938)
• O’Sullivan, Barney (1939, 1946)
• Maher, T. Vincent (1950, 1955)
• Reilly, Brian (1959, 1960)
• Reid, John (1961, 1962 (j.))
• Littleton, Michael (1962 (j.), 1965)
• Moles, John (1966, 1971)
• Keogh, Eamon (1975 (j.), 1979 (j.))
• Curtin, Eugene (1984, 1985 (j.))
• Orr, Mark J. L. (1985 (j.), 1994)
• Carton, Niall (1989, 1993)
• Kelly, Brian (1995, 2007 (j.))
• Ryan, Joe (1997, 2004)
• Heidenfeld, Mark (2000, 2021)
• Collins, Sam (2002, 2014)
• Baburin, Alexander (2008, 2023)
•  
• 1
• Barnett, R. W. (Richard Whieldon) (1886) (no championships 1887-88, so champion for 3 years)
• Soffe, G. D. (George Daniel) (1889) (no championships 1890-91, so champion for 3 years)
• Duignan, P. A. (Paddy) (1947)
• Kennedy, Paddy (1949)
• Bourke, Austin (1951)
• Schuster, Michael (1952)
• E. N. (Noel) Mulcahy (1953)
• Kelly, Terry (1954)
• Patterson, Nick (1969)
• Henry, Paul (1970)
• MacGrillen, Hugh (1973)
• Doyle, Tony (1974)
• Kernan, Bernard (1976)
• Devenney, Ray (1977 (j.))
• Delaney, Paul (1980)
• O’Donovan, Richard (1996)
• Jessel, Stephen (2016)
• Murphy, Conor E. (2019)
• O’Gorman, Tom (2020)
• Kanyamarala, Tarun (2022)

• References:
• David McAlister, History of the Early Championships, The Irish Chess Archive, 1999 (via the Wayback Machine); reposted (History of the Early Irish Championships) at Chess Archaeology.
• David McAlister, Irish Chess History web site.
• Irish championships page, IRLchess.

Last updated April 11, 2024.