The Dublin Chess Club '1867' Rapid-play on May 20 featured 20 players, will Killian Delaney emerging in first place with a fine score of 5/6.

A key encounter in the early rounds included a time scramble between Colm Daly and Tom O'Gorman which many spectators considered to be a drawn knight v. bishop endgame, but Colm found a winning resource. 

Three players ended up tied for 2nd place after the final round as shown in the table below. The sudden death play-offs lasted for a further six games. Tom O'Gorman defeated Jonathan O'Connor first, but he then lost to David Murray who was in turn defeated by Jonathan to restart the play-off cycle. Jonathan then defeated Tom and drew with David to secure 2nd place as David lost to Tom with a checkmate in the early middle-game.

​To celbrate our 150 anniversary the club is hosting a tournament for players rated over 1867.

It will take place at ​10am on May 20th 2017 at the Dublin Chess Club, 3 Fitzwilliam Street Upper, Dublin 2. Entry €25. 

Prize fund will be announced prior to event (dependent on entry numbers.)

A limited number of tickets are available on our eventbrite page.

The Dublin Chess Club is hosting a night for people who are new to the game. See below for details.
To book tickets for €5 visit the event page on eventbrite.

The club this year celebrates its 150 years anniversary with a number of special events. The first of these took place on Feb. 16 with an “Evening with GM Nigel Short” which was attended by 50 people drawn from the wider chess community including club members.

In his illustrated talk on the evening, Short explored a number of top tournament games played in 1867 and illustrated in a graphic way how the strategies and tactics employed by the top players has improved so much in the intervening 150 years. He also displayed some of his own games and totally engaged the audience with anecdotes from his impressive chess career. Nigel's talk obviously did not drain all of his energy as he went on to win the Masters Event in the Bunratty International Chess Festival played over the following weekend, thus retaining his title.

Nigel's talk was followed by a celebratory dinner for members and guests in the function room of the United Arts Club.
Photos from the evening can be viewed in the slide-show below.

Eight players from Dublin CC played in the 40th Kilkenny Chess Congress held over Nov. 25 - 27 and four won prizes - a remarkable achievement. New Dublin member Stanley Yin and our Armstrong Captain Mark Collins shared first place in the Major. Hannah Lowry-O'Reilly got a grading prize in the Major and ​Ollie Sinnott won the ungraded player award in the Challengers.

Left to right in the photo above are Stanley Yin, Jack Lowry, Mark Collins and Maurice Buckley.

A full account of the Congress is available on the ICU website at http://www.icu.ie/articles/647

The first of the club's series of 2016-17 winter blitzes was held on Oct. 20. There was a good attendance at this with a total of 17 players taking part. Our Armstrong Captain Mark Collins won the senior event. Visitor Vihanga Gamage won the junior section with an impressive score of 11/14. Vihanga is from Sri Lanka and is studying computer science in DIT.

The Club Summer Tournament finished on Sept. 16 when new member Daniel Martinez Otero drew his last section match which was against Jonathan O'Connor the reigning trophy holder. This half point was enough to make Daniel the overall winner of the senior section of the tournament. Daniel hails from Spain and is doing his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in UCD.
The junior tournament was split into two sections and the section winners were Denis Dempsey and new member Ronan Murphy. They battled it out in the final play-off which Ronan won. Tough on Denis who was also a runner-up last year but congratulations to Ronan who was unbeaten in all of his tournament games.

Another blitz event was run in the club on March 3. The winner of the senior event was Jonathan O'Connor (again) but a surprise winner of the junior event was newcomer Eugen Vocheci who hails from Romania but now lives in Dublin. Congratulations to them both in winning on the evening which was organised by Club President Eddie O'Connor.

The Fischer Chess Club from Amsterdam, on their way to the Kilkenny Annual Chess Congress, paid a visit to Dublin Chess Club on November 26. Here they enjoyed a meal and some liquid refreshment before sitting down to he serious part of the evening - a battle with Dublin for the Louis Pieterse trophy. This event is held in the memory of Louis who, originally from the Netherlands, became an esteemed and much loved member of Dublin Chess Club before his untimely passing.
Since it's inception, when the event had been planned as an annual affair to be played on alternate years in Dublin and Amsterdam, the trophy had spent most time in the Fischer Club. This time however, the Dublin Team Captain Martin Schmidt was determined to win and packed his team with a couple of strong imports. His strategy paid off with Dublin emerging as the overall winners.
The photo below shows Martin holding the Pieterse Trophy flanked by fellow team members Andrew Mendelson and Ravshan Khaydarov (on his right) and John Kennedy, Eddie O'Connor and David O'Connell (on his left).

The AGM of the Club was held on November 11. The outgoing Committee of President Eddie O’Connor, Hon. Sec. Rory Broderick, Hon. Treasurer Ronan Nolan, Members Martin Schmidt, Cormac Reid and Joe Durkan were re-elected along with new Committee member Ross O’Mullane.
At the AGM Hon. Sec. Rory Broderick presented the Summer Tournament trophies to the senior winner Jonathan O’Connor (first photo) and the junior winner Cormac Reid (second photo).