The Irish Chess Union (ICU), formed in 1912, is the governing body for chess in Ireland and a member of FIDE since 1933 and the European Chess Union. The ICU promotes Chess in the Republic of Ireland and maintains the chess rating for players registered with the ICU, which are published three times a year. It runs competitions such as the Irish Chess Championship and selects teams to participate in international competitions for Ireland.
Until 2005, the Ulster Chess Union, which administers and develops chess in Northern Ireland, was affiliated to the Irish Chess Union.
Before the establishment of the ICU, chess competitions in Ireland were run under organisations named The Irish Chess Association (formed in 1885), the Hibernia Chess Association, or various chess clubs. The Armstrong Cup is the oldest Irish team league competition and has been played every year since 1888, perhaps giving it a claim on the longest running chess competition in the world.
While chess in Ireland has been concentrated around the big cities of Dublin, Belfast and Cork, there are a number of clubs throughout the country such as those in Ballinasloe, Derry, Drogheda, Ennis, Enniscorthy Galway, Kilkenny, Portadown and Wicklow, to name but a few. Leagues are held in the provinces, with the winning teams (and runners up) playing off in the National Club Championships (although in recent years the Ulster leagues have not participated). The winning team and runners up are entered into the European Club Championships.
Read more about Irish Chess Union: Irish Chess Journal, Competitions, Junior Chess, Irish Braille Chess Association, Correspondence Chess
Famous quotes containing the words irish, chess and/or union:
“The next forenoon we went to Oldtown.... The Indian is said to cultivate the vices rather than the virtues of the white man. Yet this village was cleaner than I expected, far cleaner than such Irish villages as I have seen.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Remember...that each child is a separate person, yours forever, but never fully yours. She can never be all you wished or wanted, or all you know she could be. But she will be a better human being if you can let her be herself.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,—the union between themselves and the State,—and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the State?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)