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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 June 2026
The Droheda Congress was held over the bank holiday weekend; 116 players competed in four tournaments based on rating. IM Tarun Kanyamarala and Jacob Flynn finished on 5/6 in the Thomson Masters with Tarun having the superior tiebreak. FM Oleg Artemenko was the only player on four and a half points. There were 22 players.
There was athree-way tie on 4.5/6 in the O'Boyle Championship section, which had 24 entries. Jacob Nelson (DCU) finished first on tiebreak ahead of George White (Kinghts of Eanna) and Illia Smoliarenko (Ukraine).
There was a clear winner in the Major section, Aken Pinitha Palihawadana scoring five and a half points.Sam Keogh won the Challengers outright with the same score. Congratulations to all the prize-winners.
The Churchtown Chess Club in south Dublin will again stage its fun event for teams over five rounds on Saturday 4 July and Sunday 5th. Four play in each round. Squads (maximum 6 players) need not represent clubs but multiple teams can be entered.
Last year this was a good fun event of mixed strength and we hope it will be well supported again, preferably with an even number of teams to avoid byes.
Last year the decision was by game points. We hear they may change that this year to match points, as is normal in team events, with game points used as a tiebreak.
For more details and to contact the organisers, see the ICU website. Because there are three games on the Saturday and the time increment per move is only 15 seconds, this means the event will be rated by ICU but not by FIDE.
The final round of the Leinster Leagues was played in May. Gonzaga are Armstrong Cup champions again. Dun Laoghaire and Bray/Greystones were relegated. Ballinasloe and Master Chess Club will be promoted from the Heidenfeld (the second division) although Ballinasloe is not in Leinster. Go figure...
It is worth noting that the Armstrong Cup is one of the very oldest inter-club competitions in the world, having been first played for in the 1888-89 season, which was even earlier than the start of the London League. Only the Woodhouse Cup in Yorkshire began earlier.
Unfortunately since the closure of the Rathmines Chess Club (which started in the second season), none of the early competing clubs exists any more - unless you count the Dublin University club. They played from the first year but the club collapsed and had to be reconstituted at least twice in subsequent years.
The 2026 Irish Championships will be held from 1-9 August, at the Talbot Hotel in Dublin. An online entry form is available at the ICU website and there are 21 entries to date. Probably because the FIDE Olympiad is in September, there are no entries yet from our highest rated players and IMs.
The first subsidiary tournaments will start on Friday evening, 31st July. There will be a weekday open as usual (five rounds with morning play) and a programme of events on the final weekend whch may include one or more seniors tournaments depending on entries. Entry forms are now open online at the ICU website.
The ICU has announced the teams and captains who will represent Ireland at the FIDE Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September. You can only read the full reports if you are logged in as an ICU member.
The Open team consists of GM Alex Baburin, IMs Tarun Kanyamarala, David Fitzsimons and Tom O'Gorman, and FM Kavin Venkatesan. The reserves are Adam Collins and Conor O'Donnell.
The women's team is WGM Trisha Kanyamarala, WFM Diana Mirza, Alice O'Gorman, WFM Lara Putar and WCM Antonina Góra. (We thought Alice earned a WFM title in the past but it doesn't seem to have been claimed?)
Conor O'Donnell will captain the Open team and Jacob Flynn captains the women's team. Board order for the teams will be decided just before the start, probably by consensus but with the captains having the final say.
Meanwhile please see our updated Irish seniors page for details of recent and upcoming events for players over the age of 50.
The Irish National Club Championship was played over five rounds from April 24-26 at Colaiste Eanna, Rathfarnham, Dublin. It 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.
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.
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)