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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:
18 April 2026
At least 17 teams have entered the Irish National Club Championship which will be played over five rounds next weekend, April 24-26 at Colaiste Eanna, Rathfarnham, Dublin. This 6-board event decides which clubs can represent Ireland at the European Team Championships later this year.
There is also a good entry for the Queen Maeve Cup, a 4-board event for lower rated players whioch will be held alongside.
At present the ICU website shows the names of the captains who have paid entry fees for these tournaments but the team names and line-up of players are not yet available.
Colaiste Eanna will also be the venue for a rapid tournament to be held tomorrow and online entries close tonight.
Meanwhile twelve Irish players have travelled to Albania to compete in the World Senior Team Championships which start tomorrow. See our Irish seniors page for more details and to follow their progress.
You have a choice of FIDE-rated tournaments for the bank holiday weekend, 2-4 May. The Malahide Millennium will be held at the Clayton Hotel, Dublin Aiorport, in various sections. A welcome innovationsis that there will be a special prize in each group for the highest scoring player aged over 55.
Over the same three days the City of Belfast championship will be played at Lisburn Chess Club. See the ICU website for details of these and other upcoming competitions.
The last round of the Leinster Leagues will be held on Sunday 10th May; details to follow.
The ICU calendar is also now showing provisional dates but no further details for several other tournaments later this year including the 2026 Irish Championships, which will be from 1-9 August, at the Talbot Hotel in Dublin. This means yet again a clash with the British Championships. No entry form is available as yet. The subsidiary events will start on Friday evening, 31st July.
If you are involved in organisation, please also read our page for chess arbiters. We are aware the page is somewhat out of date and intend to update it eventually.
For further information on Irish chess, including ratings, how to join, a tournament calendar and a list of officials, please see the Irish Chess Union website.
IRLchess: Sean Coffey's Irish chess history and news site
Chess discussions on boards.ie (not very active)