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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:
29 April 2026
The Irish National Club Championship ended in a 3-way tie on 8 match points with Gonzaga taking the title again, on tiebreak from Knights of Eanna (to whom they had lost in round 3) and Master Chess Club (whom they defeated in the last round).
A 17th entry had been accepted at the last minute, creating a bye. It is questionable whether late entries should be allowed unless they even up numbers as this decision led to five of the teams only playing four matches. See the Irish Chess Union website for links to the team lists, results, etc.
The event was played over five rounds from April 24-26 at Colaiste Eanna, Rathfarnham, Dublin. This 6-board event decided which clubs can represent Ireland at the European Team Championships later this year.
There was also a good entry of 18 teams for the Queen Maeve Cup, a 4-board event, which was won by the Ireland Chess Technology team led by the Kanyamaralas. They won all their five matches. Their team, not being a regular club, was ineligible to play in the NCC.
Meanwhile twelve Irish players are in Albania have finished competing in the World Senior Team Championships which ended yesterday. See our Irish seniors page for details of how they got on. We are now looking to assemble teams for the European Senior Team Championships in C rete late this summer.
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)