The club recently hosted the annual Mick Germaine Cup competition which is an event for teams of 4 junior players. 16 teams took part including 4 from Elm Mount. The event was won by the Drogheda  Dragons and the best placed Elm Mount team was the Elm Mount Kings who finished 5^th overall.  A number of the Elm Mount players were representing the club for the first time in a chess competition. Well done to all the players involved.

Conall, Ewan, Alon and Eric

Lily, Benjy, Nikheev and Anvita with Paul McAuliffe T.D.

Daniel, Bati and Kirill with Paul McAuliffe T.D.

Shanvi, Patrick Chau, Theo and Jack with Paul McAuliffe T.D.

Elm Mount Kings v Elm Mount Rooks with Alon (left) in foreground playing Shanvi. Ewan and Conall (background on left) and Theo, Jack and Patrick Chau Background on the right)

Anvita left playing against Bati in foreground. Lily and Nikheev (left) and Daniel and Christopher (right) also visible in the background

The playing hall

The last round of the 2025/26 Leinster League season took place on Sunday in Coláiste Éanna in Rathfarnham. It was a successful year for Elm Mount with 4 teams winning promotion. Both the BEA Cup A and BEA Cup B teams won promotion to next years O’Hanlon Cup and their spaces will be taken by Elm Mount’s Bodley A and Bodley B teams who won promotion to play in next years BEA Cup.

Congratulations also to Alex Goss who won an LCU board prize for scoring over 75% in the Heidenfeld Trophy.

The Armstrong Cup (division 1) team finished on a score of exactly 50% (44/88) winning 5 matches, losing 5 and drawing 1. The top scorer on the team was Alice O’Gorman who scored  6½ points.

The Heidenfeld Cup (division 2) team finished in 8th place with 39 points out of a possible 88. The top scorer on the team was captain Alex Goss with 8½  /  11.

The O’Hanlon Cup (division 4) team finished in 6th place with a score of 35 / 66. Bernard Boyle was the highest scorer on the team with 7½ / 10.

In the Division 5 North league, the BEA Cup A team finished in 3rd place with a score of 31½ / 55. The top scorers in the team were Pat Fitzsimons and Eugene McMorrow who both achieved 8 / 11.  The BEA Cup B team finished in 5th place with 24½ / 55. The highest scorer on the team was Eric Yuze Lin who scored 7 / 11.  There were 7 promotion spots available this year due to the restructuring of the O’Hanlon Cup and both the A and B teams were comfortably promoted.

In the Division 6 North league, the Bodley Cup A and Bodley Cup B teams finished close together in 3rd and 4th places respectively. There were 4 promotion spots available so both teams will be playing in next year’s BEA Cup,  The top scorer on the Bodley A team was Wayne Crawley with a score of 5½/8 points.  For the Bodley B team. Trevor Corcoran was the top scorer with 5½./9.

The full league tables can be seen here.

A new section has been added at the top of the page with a list of the books in the trolley in the club. These books are available for borrowing by club members.

Click Library Book List to view the list.

Club librarian Eugene McMorrow provided the list.

Congratulations to Eric Yuze Lin who won the March  Grandmaster School of Chess tournament organised by Alexander Baburin GM, and to Anvita Ramesh Nair who finished in 3rd place,

Eric and Advita are pictured below, along with grandmaster Alexander Baburin.

Congratulations to one of the club’s youngest members, Anvita Ramesh Nair, who was amongst the prizes at the East Coast Junior Chess Championships 2026 held recently in Greystones. Anvita won prizes in 3 separate sections of the event including a very creditable third place finish in the under 14 girls competition as well as prizes in the overall under 12 and under 18 events.

Anvita is pictured below at the prize giving ceremony with the tournament organisers Stephen and Bernie Stokes and with her trophy from the under 14 Girls competition.

Well done!

Elm Mount’s 2025 Christmas Blitz was held on Monday 22nd December in the Artane-Beaumont Family Recreation Centre. There were 29 participants in 4 all-play-all sections. Food was provided after the chess was over, and then the winners were presented with their prizes by club secretary Pat Fitzsimons.

The winners of the 4 sections were David Fitzsimons (7/7), Thomas Syms (7.5/10), Cormac McCarthy (6.5/7) and Fionn Maher (5/6). After the section winners selected their prizes, the second and third place finishers made their selections.

All the prize-winners are pictured below, followed by the cross-tables of the 4 sections.

Happy New Year to all!

The fixtures for the 2025-26 season for all seven Elm Mount teams can be seen here Match_Fixtures_25-26_v1

There is also a permanent link to the fixture list at the top of the page.

Thanks to Eugene McMorrow for compiling the complete list.

The Annual General Meeting of Elm Mount chess club was held on Monday 8th September. Club President Alan McDonagh opened the meeting and the principal reports were given by club secretary, Pat Fitzsimons, and club treasurer, Fred Armstrong. After the main reports were presented, there was a general discussion of various items, including eligibility to play in the club championships, the size of the sections in the club championship and the possibility of opening on bank holiday mondays.

The club is in a healthy state going in to the new season, with strengthened teams throughout the divisions, a thriving junior section and healthy finances.

Following the discussion, trophies were presented for the club championships for the last few years. Outstanding board prizes were also presented to the highest-scoring players on each team.

Only Section A of this years championship is complete – this was won by Gavin Melaugh with a 100% score. The likely winners of Sections B and C are known but have to wait for the completion of the outstanding games,

Following the AGM, food was supplied for the attendees.

The photos below show Alan McDonagh presenting the trophies and board prizes:-