Our summer sojourn at the Cottage Bar has now come to an end, and we are returning to the Bridge Centre (upstairs) until next summer.  We will meet there every Thursday from 7.30 (with the exception of a short break over christmas/new year).  We are starting off (on 19 September) with a blitz tournament: 10 […]

This year’s Galway Chess Congress takes place from Friday 4th October to Sunday 6th.  As usual, there are tournaments for players of all strengths – from Grandmasters to people who have never played in a tournament before.  So there is certain to be something for you!             We are trying out a different venue: the […]

Just to inform you that the Cork World Minigames Rapidplay and Blitz, which was advertized in the “Upcoming National Events” box for the last weekend in August, has been cancelled.  The reason, as I understand it, is that hardly anyone had signed up ten days before the event, and so the organizers, faced with a […]

The Glorney Cup (the annual tournament between junior teams representing England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) starts tomorrow (Sunday) in Wales.  The Irish team includes John Cormican, from Galway.  (Oissine Murphy was also selected for this team, but was unable to play.)  Unfortunately, for the first time for many years there is no representative from Galway […]

The Irish Championship, held in Limerick, has finished, being won by defending champion Colm Daly.  Philip Short followed up his second place in the Galway Rapidplay with second (equal) in the Irish: at one point it looked as if he would go one better this time, as he beat the leader in the penultimate round; but […]

The Irish Championships are now on in Limerick.  John Cormican is playing in the Irish Championship proper, and had a very fine win yesterday.  Also playing in the subsidiary events are Ruth Cormican, David Baird and John Hensey, though they seem to be finding the going a bit more difficult.  More Galway Club members will be […]

The Galway Rapidplay was won convincingly by Galway’s own Yury Rochev, with 8½ points out of 9; second was Philip Short, also of Galway, with 7; there was a tie for third place, on 6 points, between Brendan Buckley (Galway), Karol Marzec (Poland), and Diana Mirza (Limerick).  Grading prizes were won by Andrew Barber (Galway) […]

We are reviving our old habit of having a one-day early-summer rapid tournament, and trying to make it even better than it used to be when it was held several times in the early 2000s. One thing we are now able to do is to have the tournament FIDE rated.  As far as we know, […]

Galway Chess Club has now started its summer break, so we will not be meeting in the Bridge Centre until mid-September (date to be announced in due course). However, as four months without chess is scarcely bearable, and we all know that really it isn’t summer at all (it’s winter with extra light until late), […]

Our May blitz – the final one of the season – was won by Brendan Buckley, with 5½ points out of 7.  Second placed was a new member Steven Brannigan, who scored 5 points.  Steven also won the grading prize: usually we don’t allow anyone to win two prizes in this way, but his performance […]