Irish Club Championship
In the early 1950s Enda Rohan became Secretary of the Irish Chess Union. His aim was to modernise the administration of the game in Ireland, to establish new domestic competitions and to expose Irish chess to an international dimension.
Among Rohan's initiatives was the creation of an Irish Club Championship in 1954. Three new Leagues had been formed - a South Leinster League, an Oriel League (incorporating North Leinster and South Ulster) and a North Ulster League. The winners of the three new Leagues would compete in a knockout competition with the winning clubs from the established club competitions in Belfast (Ulster Trophy), Dublin (Armstrong Cup), Munster and Connacht for the Championship. The following year Connacht was divided into two Leagues - Midland and Western - to provide a perfect number (for a knockout competition) of eight teams.
After the first few years the competition became notorious for the length of time it took to complete. This was possibly due to Rohan's retirement from chess administration in 1957. Both the 1957 and 1958 competitions did not finish until the June of the following year, the 1959 and 1961 finals both involving Queen's University seem never to have been played at all, while the 1960 final was played in May 1962.
From 1975 on, it appears to have become a knock-out competition between the four provincial champions, with the Ulster representative decided by a match between the winner of the Belfast & District Leagues and City of Derry Chess Club. In 1985 the Ulster Chess Union established an Ulster Team Championship, with the winner going through to the Irish Club Championship.
In recent years the Irish Club Championships has become an all-play-all event played over a weekend, Because it was not uncommon for one or more provinces not to send a representative, the rules were changed to allow substitute teams. This was to ensure 4 teams competed, though even this was not always successful - for instance only 2 teams competed in 2000.
The split between the Ulster Chess Union and the Irish Chess Union means that UCU teams are no longer entitled to compete, so Fisherwick's participation in 2004 may be the last by a UCU club.
Records of the competition are sketchy, and the UCU has only been able to establish the winners in the following years: 1954-1961, 1964-1966, 1971, 1976, 1982, 1984, 1988-1989, 1991-1992, 1994 and 1997-2006.
Ulster winners
1957 - QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY
1964 - CITY OF DERRY
1966 - QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY
1976 - FISHERWICK
1988 - FISHERWICK
1994 - FISHERWICK
1997 - NORTH BELFAST
As stated above, Queen's University also reached the final in 1959 and 1961 but on both occasions the competition was not completed.
