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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:
3 October 2026
The FIDE chess olympiads (Open and Women's) ended last week in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Detailed results for Ireland and our analysis of their overall results have now been archived to this special Olympiad 2026 page, while other Irish news remains here.
The Irish Rapid and Blitz championships will be played on Sunday 11th of October at the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan.
The Women's Chess Festival, including the Irish Women's Championship, will be held at the same venue over the bank holiday weekend, 23-26 October.
The inaugural festival was a success last year and we hope it will be even bigger this time, encouraging as many women and girls as possible to enter the various events.
The Irish Chess Union annual general meeting was held last Sunday. We did not attend and the only adverse comment we heard was that a major change to rules for the National Club Championship were passed, making it hard for clubs in Ulster and Connacht to enter.
That event is supposed to be a qualifier for the European Club Championship but since there seems to be no real restriction on countries entering multiple teams for the Euros we are not sure what is the point of restrictions about the Irish event.
There is a proposal to start a new Connacht league but are there enough clubs in the province to make it happen?
The City of Dublin Championships were played on the weekend 4-6 September at Colaiste Eanna, Rathfarnham, Dublin. Congratulations to Oisin O Cuilleanain who won the Master section by a clear point with 4.5/5. Kevin Burke and James Joseph O'Brien won the second (so-called Championship) section with 4.5 points also, Kevin having the superior tiebreak. There were two other sections for lower-rated players.
Our Irish Seniors news page has news (and a photograph).of our squad at the European Senior Team Championships in Crete which was played a few weeks ago. We wish to note here the outstanding performances by FM John Delaney, unbeaten on top board in the 50+, and Donal O'Boyle who only lost one game on board four for the 65s. They were the mainstay of their teams and both earned a heap of rating points while the other players lost points.
The 2026 Irish Championships ended on Sunday 9th August, at the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan, Dublin, in victory for 21-year-old FM Adam Collins after five dramatic playoff games against 40-year-old Brazil-based FM Stephen Jessel.
This was the second year in succession that a rapid and blitz tiebreak match has been required to decide the title after the main tournament ended in a tie. We believe that this was the first time ever that an Armageddon game was required to decide the Irish Championship. Previously the players had traded wins in two rapid and then two regular blitz games.
Collins, as mentioned above, might have had to wait for the 2028 olympiad to take up his automatic olympiad place but it turns out that he has been able to go this year, which is good for him. It is not clear whether Adam remains entitled to an automatic place on the 2028 team. This is probably something that the new ICU executive will need to clarify with the player himself and the selectors before it can become an issue at a later date.
The result was another disappointment for Jessel who already has his IM norms but still needs to raise his rating to 2400. In 2014 Jessel was runner-up to Sam Collins (no relation of the new champion) with a very high score that in normal years would have won the title. He did win the title in 2016.
The main 2026 Irish Championship tournament (and some subsidiary events) were not submitted to FIDE in time for inclusion in the September rating list (though it has now been rated for the ICU list). We are assured that the missing events will be rated for FIDE in October.
The Irish Championship proper ended in a tie on 7/9 between Jessel and Collins after they drew their last round game. On the second board, 15-year-old FM Anuar Tureshbayev (who had been the leader through the early rounds) and 17-year-old Oliver Barnes also drew their last round game and finished in an impressive tie for third/fourth on 6.5.
The stage had been set by a dramatic round 8 on Saturday in which several games lasted five and a half to six hours. Eventually, from an apparently equal position, Jessel defeated Tureshbayev (who had been half a point ahead of the field), in a tricky rook endgame. Meanwhile Collins won another very tense game against FM Jacob Flynn.
Both Collins and Jessel had made a slow start to the tournament because the former had several draws in early rounds while Jessel's time trouble led him to blunder and lose from a pawn up against teenager Lukian Hushpit in round 2. However both Collins and Jessel played stronger as the event progressed.
Probably because the FIDE Olympiad is later this month, there were few entries from our highest rated players and IMs. Teenage FM Kavin Venkatesan (who will be on our team in Samarkand) tried hard to defend the title he won last year in Ennis. His challenge was ended by losing to Collins in round 7. Eventually Kavin finished outside the prize list on 5.5 points.
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)