A "chess simul with clocks" is a challenging form of simultaneous exhibition where the chess clock is used for every game, meaning the exhibitor must play all their games in a set time frame, just like a normal tournament game. In contrast to a traditional simul where players wait for the exhibitor, a clock simul allows opponents to make their moves and hit the clock at their own pace, making the exhibitor's time management even more critical.
Jonathan O'Connor introduced the club to this type of chess by giving such a simul on Oct. 7 with all clocks set to 60 mins.. He played against eight opponents and won all of his games - quite an achievement.

Chess lessons are offered for those interested in improving at this game. The course will be run by club member Daniel Martinez Otero who is a highly rated player and experienced chess instructor. These lessons are for players of 18 years or older who know the basic rules of chess. It is recommended for unrated players and those with a rating below 1500.
Venue: The venue is Dublin Chess Club (United Arts Club at 3, Upper Fitzwilliam St., Dublin 2). Our room (Room No. 9) is located on the top floor of the building.
Structure: 13 lessons of 2 hours each on the following dates:

Dublin CC entered three teams in this competition - one in each division. All three came tops in their round robin sections and reached the semi-final stages where they lost. Our William Brennan team however, captained by Tom Lavelle, won the play-off for third place and collected Bronze. Five members of the team are pictured below. From the left are Karl McDonald, Matthew Brophy, Tom Lavelle, Josip Krsticevic and Keith Noctor holding their plaques.

Jonathan O'Connor (shown below) gave a lecture on the Frankenstein-Dracula Variation on Thursday 17/7  in the Club. 
This was a 1/2 hour lecture, followed by a brief game playing the variation by the members present. The evening  concluded with a follow up lecture and analysis. 
This chess opening comes about in the Vienna Game where Black sacrifices a knight on move 3, leading to a complex and aggressive position. It is named for its aggressive, even "monstrous," nature, drawing inspiration from the characters in the novels Frankenstein and Dracula.
Those who came learned and had fun. Those who didn't will possibly be haunted.

On Tuesday June 10, starting at 8.00 pm, Davide Cesaro our Events Organiser is holding a 960 Chess event at the Club.
In 960 Chess, or “Fischer Random Chess”, the pieces are placed randomly at the beginning of the game. This offsets completely opening knowledge and therefore players are left to face unexpected challenges.
As in traditional chess, the white pieces mirror the position of the black pieces, castling follows the same rules, where possible.
The initial positions will be generated, for each board, through a random position generator.
 
We will hold a mini tournament with 7-minute games, no increment and no handicap. First to reach 5 points is the winner.
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The annual members' night was held again on May 7. The main purpose of this event is to allow new and established members to meet socially away from the chess board. Some two dozen members attended the function in the UAC bar where a drink and a bite of food were available. 
This was followed by a blitz event in the club room. Martin Schmidt won the Senior section and Davide Cesaro won the Junior. As organiser, Davide generously declined his prize and donated it to the runner-up. 

The 2024-25 Winter Tournament for members which was run in three separate graded divisions finished in early May. The respective winners were:
                - Senior Division; Alejandro Sanchez
                - Intermediate Division; John Lucas.
                - Junior Division; Nootesh Kuppam.
​The results were submitted by organiser Darren McLean to the ICU for rating purposes.

A fun blitz event on the theme of the "Fried Liver Attack" was held on March 19. The starting position on all boards was that arising from this variation of the Italian Opening. New member Cyro Pamplona won an exciting final play-off and is pictured receiving his prize of two steaks (not liver) from Davide Cesaro the Event Organiser. The runner-up was Krzysztof Jakubiak pictured while being presented with some lesser meat.

This dinner was originally scheduled to take place on Nov. 29 but had to be postponed to Jan. 31 to avoid clashing with the General Election and some important league matches. More modestly attended than usual, perhaps due to post Christmas gastronomic fatigue, the event was nevertheless enjoyed by all as evidenced in the photos below.