1951 Report
The Williamson Shield Competition commenced on 24th Oct. 1950. There were originally eight entries but two players withdrew and the schedule had to be rejigged. G.A. Kearney and W.D. Kerr tied on 4 pts from 5 games. The three game play-off also ended tied and Kearney then won a further fourth game to win the Shield.
Correspondence was received from the Belfast Chess Club explaining its reasons for not entering the inter-club league in the previous season. We put forward proposals to maximise the time available to play matches, including the use of clocks. Agreement was reached but there was then insufficient time to fit in the League season. A number of friendly matches were however arranged which provided an opportunity to test the new rules.
The Junior Championship commenced on 13th Jan., J. Orr being the winner out of 8 competitors, J.W.A. Mills being runner-up. This was run on the knock-out system.
The Intermediate Championship commenced 27th Jan. resulting in a win for J.B. Steen from W. Clements. There were 8 competitors in this competition which was also run on the knock-out system.
The first round of the Ulster Championship was played on 20th Feb. with 8 players competed on the American system [single round all-play-all]; W.D. Kerr (6½) winning ahead of G.A. Kearney (5 pts). .
The Schoolboys Championship was run in two sections and commenced 4th April. There were 9 entries for the Senior Section which was won by S. Ferris (Grosvenor High School) with J.Reilly (Grosvenor High School) runner-up.
The Junior Section had 7 entries and was won by C. Nelson (Grosvenor High School) with S. H. Johnston (RBAI) runner-up.
In the annual Inter-City match (incorporating the Interprovincial) played on 28th April in Dublin our players faced 20 from Dublin. The result was: Leinster 7 Ulster 3 (on the top ten boards) and Dublin 4 Belfast 6. The aggregate score in favour of the home team being 11–9.
To close the season a Lightning Tournament was held for a second year at the Ard Sgoil on There were 28 entries. After 8 rounds the winner was W. D. Kerr and runner-up W. Minnis.
Ulster sent three players to take part in the Irish Championship in Cork, who scored as follows: G.A. Kearney (4 pts), G.J. Boyd (3½) and J.B. Steen (3). The winner was A. Bourke.
