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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
31 August 2026
This is a page for news about Irish players who are 50 years of age or older.
We also invite you to read our main Irish news page and international Seniors news and Seniors calendar pages.
Two Irish teams are competing at Hersonissos, on the Greek island of Crete, in the European Senior Team Championships. Play began on 27th August and the last round will be on the 4th of September.
After five of the nine rounds, the 65+ team is on 5 match points (two matches won, one drawn and two lost) while the 50+ team have scored a win (against England-4) and a draw (against Sweden). Round 4 was a golden day when both teams won.
The Irish senior squad before the first round. From left: Joe O'Hanlon, Tim Harding, Gerry MacElligott, Gabriel Matthews, Donal O'Boyle, Brendan Lyons, John Delaney, and Vjekoslav Novak. Photo by Carol Lyons.
The 65+ lost 1.5-2.5 in the first round to sixth seeds Switzerland, an above-par result for us. The 50+ team lost to a team from France with John Delaney's draw on top board the only positive result. As they are the lowest seeded team in the 50+ they can expect all their matches to be against higher-rated opposition.
In tomorrow's round two the 65+ team play Denmark and the 50+ play an Italian club.
You can see more about the event on our special page on these championships.
There were eventually 12 entries for an Irish seniors tournament over five rounds at Stillorgan during the second weekend of the Irish championships. The 50+ and 65+ had to be combined. Joe Noone and Sean Nolan shared first with 4.5/5.
Three players aged over 65 competed in the main Irish championship in which the average age of players was about 20. Gerry O'Connell reached 5.5/9 with a strong finish that should see his FIDE rating go back over 2000 in September. Tim Harding scored 5 with a rating gain also; it may be noted that he played most of his games against higher-rated opposition because his score was never below 50%. Anthony Fox had more mixed fortunes and finished on 4 points.
Four Irish players competed earlier this month in the 7-round Seniors tournament at the Bruges congress in Belgium. You can see how they did on chess-results. Round 3 is this afternoon.
John Delaney, Vjekoslav (Hector) Novak and Gabriel Mirza played in the European Senior individual 50+ Championship at Acqui Terme, Italy, in June. Delaney did best with 5/9. Mirza scored three and a half points and Novak scored 3. The ICU has banned Mirza from playing in Ireland but they cannot stop him playing overseas.
There were ten competitors in the 65+ tournament at the Ennis Congress in County Clare (5-7 June). Gerry Casey and Eugene Donohoe shared first with 4/5.
The Kilkenny Chess Congress (20-22 November) will again hold the FIDE-rated Seniors event that they began in 2025, but as an event for players aged 60+ this time. The venue will be the Club House Hotel. There are details on the ICU website, where you can download an entry form (MS Word document).
Also please save these dates for next year: the 2027 World Senior Team Championships will probably be played from 31 March to 11th April in Magdeburg, Germany. So it starts just after Easter which falls early next year. For more about this, please visit our Seniors news page.
Three teams of four players representing Ireland competed in April at the World Senior Team Championships in Durres, Albania. Well done to all our players for fighting hard against mostly higher-rated opposition.
The teams had no reserve players and there were no rest days so this was a busy campaign, although one team had a day off when opponents had to forfeit a match due to serious illness.
We had two teams in the 65+ section and one in the 50+ tournament although only three players aged under 65 were available to travel. So Jim Murray, a veteran of 65+ teams since 2016, kindly agreed to play on board three for the 50+ team and captain it so that the others would not be disappointed.
Our 50+ team was initially seeded 32nd of the 36 teams and they indeed finished exactly as the initial rankings predicted. They won three matches, drew one and lost five, so scoring 7 match points.
Although the oldest member, Jim was the top performer for the 50+ team, scoring 4.5/9. The other team members were Gerard McIlroy, Vjekoslav ("Hector") Novak and Joseph A. McDonnell.
There were 54 teams in the 65+ tournament. Ireland-1 were initially ranked 33rd and Ireland-2 were seeded 49th. They finished respectively 36th and 48th so performed roughly to par. Ireland-1 won three matches, had one walkover against a team they would probably have beaten, and lost five. So they scored 8MP. Ireland-2 won two matches and drew two, so finishing on 6MP.
Ireland-1 had a very experienced campaigner on top board, former British Senior Champion FM Andrew P. Smith who lives in Buckinghamshire. He scored 4.5/8 and gained a few rating points.
The current Irish 65+ champion Joe Noone played board 2, CM Gerard MacElligott (captain and head of delegation) was on board 3 and Michael Gaffney was board 4.
In the following game from round one, which was broadcast live, Andrew defeated French IM, Aldo Haik.
Smith-Haik: 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 e5 5. Qd2 Nf6 6. f3 O-O 7. O-O-O exd4 8. Bxd4 Nc6 9. Be3 Re8 10. Bh6 Ne5 11. h4 Nh5 12. Bxg7 Kxg7 13. Nge2 Be6 14. Nf4 Nxf4 15. Qxf4 Qf6 16. Qd2 Rad8 17. f4 Ng4 18. h5 c6 19. Bd3 b5 20. hxg6 fxg6 21. f5 Bf7 22. Be2 gxf5 23. exf5? (23 Rdf1 would maintain the advantage; fortunately Black failed to exploit this mistake.) 23...Ne3?? (23...Nf2 would have turned the tables. Now White is winning again.) 24. Rdg1 Qxf5 $4 25. Bd3 Qg5 26. Rxh7+ Kg8 27. Ne4 Rxe4 28. Bxe4 d5 29. Bd3 d4 30. Rgh1 Kf8 31. Kb1 Qd5 32. b3 a6 33. Qf2 Ng4 34. Qh4 Ne5 35. Qf6 Ke8 36. Re1 1-0
The Ireland-2 were Bernard Boyle, Martin Wallace (captain), Brian Moore and Noel Quinn. Bernard undoubtedly found that playing top board in this company was tough and he deserves an easier spot next time he plays on one of these teams.
Noel was the team's best performer, winning four straight games at the end to finish with 5/9 and a small rating gain.
Some Irish seniors are also entered for the congress in Bruges (August) and will probably fly the flag at various events later in the year in Spain. For details of these see our seniors calendar.
See our Senior calendar for more details of events for the over-50s and our seniors news page for more information about tournaments for the over-50s.