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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:
5 June 2026
This is a page for news about Irish players who are 50 years of age or older.
We also invite you to read our main Irish news page and international Seniors news and Seniors calendar pages.
Three Irish players are competing in the 2026 European Senior individual championships which run from 2-10 June in Acqui Terme, Italy.
John Delaney, Vjekoslav (Hector) Novak and Gabriel Mirza are all in the 50+ tournament. There are no Irish players in the 65+. Delaney is doing best so far with 2.5/4.
The ICU has banned Mirza from playing in Ireland but they cannot stop him playing overseas.
There are nine competitors in the 65+ tournament at the Ennis Congress in County Clare this weekend (5-7 June). Pete Morriss, who could have played, preferred to enter the top section to get stronger competition.
On our main Irish news page we mention the Churchtown Seniors Cup for teams (4-5 July). Last year we fielded an impromptu 50+ team called the Silver Foxes and it was quite fun. Six players were involved with four playing each round.
Last year Tim Harding organised that team but David Salter has offefred to captain and organise this year.
We are not sure whether the programme of events for the Irish Championships in early August will include any seniors tournament. The ICU website provides no details as yet.
The Kilkenny Chess Congress (20-22 November) will again hold the FIDE-rated Seniors event that they began in 2025, but as an event for players aged 60+ this time. The venue will be the Club House Hotel. There are details on the ICU website, where you can download an entry form (MS Word document).
Details of the European Senior Team Championships, to be held in Crete in late August and early September, can be found on our Seniors calendar page.
Please respond to the new poll in the Whatsapp group as soon as possible to say if you wish to be considered for a team, or also to register unavailability.
It is now looking a sif we shall just have one team each in the 50+ and 65+. Contact Gerry MacElligott soon if you are interested.
Composition of our teams for Crete must be decided shortly because the closing date to enter teams (including payment of deposits) is in mid-June.
Also please save these dates for next year: the 2027 World Senior Team Championships will be played from 31 March to 11th April in Magdeburg, Germany. So it starts just after Easter which falls early next year. For more about this, please visit our Seniors news page.
Three teams of four players representing Ireland competed in April at the World Senior Team Championships in Durres, Albania. Well done to all our players for fighting hard against mostly higher-rated opposition.
The teams had no reserve players and there were no rest days so this was a busy campaign, although one team had a day off when opponents had to forfeit a match due to serious illness.
We had two teams in the 65+ section and one in the 50+ tournament although only three players aged under 65 were available to travel. So Jim Murray, a veteran of 65+ teams since 2016, kindly agreed to play on board three for the 50+ team and captain it so that the others would not be disappointed.
Our 50+ team was initially seeded 32nd of the 36 teams and they indeed finished exactly as the initial rankings predicted. They won three matches, drew one and lost five, so scoring 7 match points.
Although the oldest member, Jim was the top performer for the 50+ team, scoring 4.5/9. The other team members were Gerard McIlroy, Vjekoslav ("Hector") Novak and Joseph A. McDonnell.
There were 54 teams in the 65+ tournament. Ireland-1 were initially ranked 33rd and Ireland-2 were seeded 49th. They finished respectively 36th and 48th so performed roughly to par. Ireland-1 won three matches, had one walkover against a team they would probably have beaten, and lost five. So they scored 8MP. Ireland-2 won two matches and drew two, so finishing on 6MP.
Ireland-1 had a very experienced campaigner on top board, former British Senior Champion FM Andrew P. Smith who lives in Buckinghamshire. He scored 4.5/8 and gained a few rating points.
The current Irish 65+ champion Joe Noone played board 2, CM Gerard MacElligott (captain and head of delegation) was on board 3 and Michael Gaffney was board 4.
In the following game from round one, which was broadcast live, Andrew defeated French IM, Aldo Haik.
Smith-Haik: 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 d6 4. Be3 e5 5. Qd2 Nf6 6. f3 O-O 7. O-O-O exd4 8. Bxd4 Nc6 9. Be3 Re8 10. Bh6 Ne5 11. h4 Nh5 12. Bxg7 Kxg7 13. Nge2 Be6 14. Nf4 Nxf4 15. Qxf4 Qf6 16. Qd2 Rad8 17. f4 Ng4 18. h5 c6 19. Bd3 b5 20. hxg6 fxg6 21. f5 Bf7 22. Be2 gxf5 23. exf5? (23 Rdf1 would maintain the advantage; fortunately Black failed to exploit this mistake.) 23...Ne3?? (23...Nf2 would have turned the tables. Now White is winning again.) 24. Rdg1 Qxf5 $4 25. Bd3 Qg5 26. Rxh7+ Kg8 27. Ne4 Rxe4 28. Bxe4 d5 29. Bd3 d4 30. Rgh1 Kf8 31. Kb1 Qd5 32. b3 a6 33. Qf2 Ng4 34. Qh4 Ne5 35. Qf6 Ke8 36. Re1 1-0
The Ireland-2 were Bernard Boyle, Martin Wallace (captain), Brian Moore and Noel Quinn. Bernard undoubtedly found that playing top board in this company was tough and he deserves an easier spot next time he plays on one of these teams.
Noel was the team's best performer, winning four straight games at the end to finish with 5/9 and a small rating gain.
Some Irish seniors are also entered for the congress in Bruges (August) and will probably fly the flag at various events later in the year in Spain. For details of these see our seniors calendar.
See our Senior calendar for more details of events for the over-50s and our seniors news page for more information about tournaments for the over-50s.