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Noone and O'Connor retain Irish senior titles

 

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.

 

The 2026 Irish 65+ and 50+ Championships were played at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, last weekend (1-4 January) over seven rounds. Congratulations to Joe Noone (65+) and Jonathan O'Connor for retaining their titles.

The 65+ tournament was actually won by English GM Keith Arkell with 7/7 although a few opponents gave him a tough test. Joe was clear second with 5.5, a whole point clear of the highest rated home competitor, Gerry O'Connell, whom he beat in the last round. Gerry MacElligott and Lars Madebrink from Sweden also scored four and a half points.

There was fierce competition in the 65+ section but there was a disappointingly small field of 12 for the 50+, although the cold weather may have been a factor here.

The ICU calendar hints there may be pre-Easter 50+ and 65+ tournaments again at the Talbot Hotel (3-6 April) but as yet there are no details.

Full details for the 2026 World Senior Team Championships may be found on our Senior calendar page or the FIDE website. The event will be held in Durres, Albania, from the 18th to 29th of April. This resort was the venue for the European Club Cup in 2023.

If you are interested in playing for Ireland on a 50+ or 65+ team, please contact Gerry MacElligott, who is now busy recruiting the teams, without further delay. He hopes to complete that process by the end of January if not sooner. He expects that there will be at least two Irish 65+ teams and hopes that a 50+ team can also be formed.

The similar European Senior Team Championship has finally been rescheduled, for the Greek island of Crete (instead of Rhodes) between the 26th August (arrival day presumably) and 5th September (return home).

Full details probably will not be released for several weeks but there will as usual be 50+ and 65+ sections for teams of four with an optional reserve. Again please contact Gerry MacElligott if you are interested in this event but he wants to finalise teams for Albania first.

Even if our main effort is for the World teams, it would be good for Ireland to be represented in Crete by one team at least and your editor is interested in going.

There were 24 players in the inaugural 65+ tournament at the Kilkenny congress on the weekend of 21-23 November. Congratulations to Joe Noone who was clear winner with 4.5/5, ahead of Stanislav Hohelj (Ukraine) who scored 4. Hohelj apparently lives in Norway at present.

NM Eamon Keogh, who drew with Noone in the last round, and Bram van Dijk (Netherlands) scored three and a half points each.

Meanwhile, your editor was away in Bad Soden-Salmünster (Germany) where he managed to win the 75+ tournament on tiebreak with 5.5/7 in the Spessart senior festival there, one of several events organised each year by the impressive Förderkreis der Senioren im DSB, the senior citizens' support group of the German chess federation.

This is the second recent Irish senior success abroad, following Jim Murray's win last month in the B section (for 65+ players) at the 47th International Chess Open Cittą di Arco congress in Italy. You can see in detail how Jim performed, and also the results of the A section, on chess-results.com.

 

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.