Irish Interprovincial Championship

From 1926 to 1936, with the exception of 1930 and 1933, the chess players of Belfast and Dublin had played an annual friendly match. In 1945 the series resumed and from 1947 it incorporated a match between Ulster and Leinster. In 1956 the Irish Chess Union decided to build on this tradition and introduce a competitive element and established an Interprovincial Championship involving all 4 provinces. It was run on a knock-out system, played over 10 boards with Leinster playing Ulster in one semi-final and Munster playing Connacht in the other. Matches were to be over ten boards and played at intermediate venues.

The Ulster Chess Union disliked only playing on 10 boards (the old friendly matches had usually been over at least 20 boards). So after the first two years of competition, it was agreed that in future their match with Leinster would be over 20 boards, but the final would remain a 10-board match.

In 1963 and 1964 the ICU switched the semi-final line-up to Leinster playing Munster and Ulster playing Connacht. However this caused great organisational difficulties in regard to the Ulster -v-Connacht match and the old system was reverted to in 1965.

Details of the event in the 1970s and 1980s are sketchy and it may not have been played some years. What is known is that in 1983 the series was restyled. It was now played at one venue and over only 6 boards, further reduced to 5 boards the following year. After Ulster won the title in 1988 the event it was not competed for again until 1991 when it returned to a 10-player format. There does not appear to have been any Interprovincial series in the years 1993-1998 (or at least Ulster did not participate). There were events in 1999 when Ulster completed a sequence of 4 wins in a row and the last-to-date in 2000, when Ulster did not compete.

Interest in the series had been increasingly difficult to maintain with many players preferring to play 6 games in a weekend swiss tournament rather than just 2 in the Interprovincials. With the UCU no longer part of the ICU, a revival is unlikely.