​A new members' night was held in the Club on April 24. This followed an influx of eight new players who had recently joined. The occasion allowed them to meet each other and the more long standing members and to learn about the Club's history.
Club President Eddie O'Connor gave a brief talk on the Club's long history and this was followed by a chess blitz graded into two sections each of eight players.
The higher section was won by Daniel Martinez Otero but not without having to triumph over the other Daniel (Schlachter) in a series of play-offs as both had finished on 5.5/8. The other section also resulted in ties for first place between John Baragwanath, Dave Hunter and visitor Adrienne. As time had run out no play-offs took place and John took the modest prize.
The evening finished with refreshments in the bar which concluded a very enjoyable evening.

Chess lessons are being offered again 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:
​

​If you are not able to attend some of the lessons, the materials will be provided through email.
​
Extras:

• More exercises of the topic covered in the lesson will be provided after each lesson.
• A group in www.chess.com will be created where students can play positions related to what is covered in the lesson.

Price: The cost of attending the course is shown in the table below. This is equivalent to a very reasonable €7.7 per hour including the extras above. A 10% discount is available for Dublin Chess Club (DCC) or United Arts Club (UAC) members, even if you only join the club at the start of the course.

​An introductory talk free of charge will be provided on the 5th of February at 19:00.
If you are interested please contact Daniel Martinez Otero at daniotero93@gmail.com or Tel. 083 8477712 (Whatssap if possible).

The Club's Annual Christmas Dinner was held on Nov. 30 in the United Arts Club dining room. Some 30 guests, which included spouses and partners of members, had a very enjoyable evening in the Georgian ambiance of this beautiful room.
​Special guests at the dinner were Kaye O'Mullane widow of recently deceased member Brian and Denis Dempsey with his wife Joan. This year Denis attained 50 years membership of the Club. He was presented with an engraved chess ornament from the Club to mark the occasion.

Prizes for the Club's Summer Tournament were also presented after the dinner. Eddie O'Connor presented Ronan Nolan with the Senior Section winner's trophy and Patrick Spillane with the Junior Section winner's trophy.

The Annual General Meeting of the Club was held on Nov. 14 in the club premises. The meeting considered new club rules which had been drafted by the Committee as the old rules were now out-dated. The new rules, with one amendment, were passed with unanimous approval.
The other main business at the AGM was the election of the Officers and Committee  with the following team appointed:
​President: Eddie O’Connor, Hon. Secretary: Rory Broderick, Hon. Treasurer: Ronan Nolan,
Committee members: Martin Schmidt, Joe Durkan, Nezar Ammari, Daniel Schlachter, Patrick Spillane and Daniel Otero.
Following the AGM, a blitz event was held with Daniel Otero winning the Senior Section and Ronan Nolan successful in the Junior Section.

The senior and junior sections of the tournament finished on Aug. 30. There was a clear winner in each section with no need for play-offs.
Congratulations to the Senior winner Ronan Nolan with a fine score of 5/6 and the Junior winner Patrick Spillane who was unbeaten with a very impressive score of 6/6.
A total of 48 matches were played in the tournament over the summer and the competitors deserve credit for participating and arranging their own matches.
The tournament prizes will be presented at our Christmas dinner.

​A structured course of 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:
​

​If you are not able to attend some of the lessons, the materials will be provided through email.
​
Extras:

• More exercises of the topic covered in the lesson will be provided after each lesson.
• A group in www.chess.com will be created where students can play positions related to what is covered in the lesson.

 
Price: The cost of attending the course is shown in the table below. This is equivalent to a very reasonable €7.7 per hour including extras above. A 10% discount is available for Dublin Chess Club (DCC) or United Arts Club (UAC) members.

​An introductory talk free of charge will be provided the on Tuesday 4th of September at 19:00.
If you are interested please contact Daniel Martinez Otero at daniotero93@gmail.com or Tel. 083 8477712 (Whatssap if possible).

It is with great regret and sadness that the club has learnt of the death of Brian O'Mullane. He passed away peacefully on June 15 in the Blackrock Clinic where he had been receiving medical treatment.
​Brian was an esteemed member of Dublin Chess Club for over 50 years having joined in 1967. He was a keen league player, a stalwart supporter of the club and will be sadly missed by us all.
Our deepest sympathies go out to his wife Kaye and family including his son Ross our fellow club member.

Club member Patrick Spillane has been organising monthly "Themed Club Nights" which aim to provide a talk on an opening or other chess theme followed by a discussion and over the board try-outs of the ideas presented. Patrick ran the first one on Feb. 7 which examined the English Attack version of the Sicilian Najdorf opening.
Daniel Marhofer presented the second one on March 7 on the Sicilian Dragon. 
Stanley Yin covered his own opening (yet to named but the Dublin Opening has been suggested) on March 28.
Daniel Otero explored end game strategy on April 25 including hand-outs of end-game problems to be solved.
These special evenings have proven popular with members and the next one will take place in the club on May 30 starting at 7.00 PM - the theme will be about the Benko Gambit. This is an aggressive response by black to White's D4 opening, involving a positional pawn sacrifice which gives Black a very strong and swift initiative on the queen side; It was a favourite of Mikhail Tal, infamous for his deadly attacking style.

Following a great campaign in the O'Hanlon Leinster League in which they secured second place, Dublin was promoted to the Ennis Division for next season. A team panel of some 12 players was involved with strong motivation and management provided by Ollie Sinnot the team captain.

A club blitz event was held on Feb. 21. The entry was lower than usual, possibly due to a BEA match falling on the previous evening and the Bunratty event coming on the following weekend. As a result the competitors were not split into sections and instead competed on an "all play all" round robin basis under the watchful eye of Club President Eddie O'Connor who presented a prize to Daniel M Otero the overall winner.