Elm Mount sent a team to the European Chess Club championship for the first time ever in 2026. The tournament was held in Budva, on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro.

The team consisted of Alex Goss, Ciaran Quinn, Jack Herring, Harry Braine, Pat Reynolds and Kieran Barry. Thanks to Pat Reynolds who joined from Bray/Greystones to make up a 6-player team. Alex Goss was the team captain.

The team travelled to Budva by flying to Dubrovnik and then taking a bus (arranged by the organizers) to Budva. Both the flight and the bus were delayed and crossing the border between Croatia and Montenegro took a long time but we got there eventually. The event was held in the Slovenska Plaza hotel complex which also accommodated all the participants.

Elm Mount were seeded 105th of the 108 teams and finished in 104th place. The team’s only victory was against Morriston of Wales, but there were some excellent individual performances:-

• Harry Braine scored 6½/7 to register both a CM and an FM norm
• Jack Herring scored 4/7 to register a CM norm

The full results can be seen here and the official website is here.

The following links show the Elm Mount team in action and give a good view of the venue, with 108 teams in the open competition and 22 teams in the women’s event. It was a great experience to be playing in the same event as Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and many other top players.

The links below show the Elm Mount team playing and also show the full event, with over 700 games taking place simultaneously.

• Elm Mount v Zuid-Limburg R1
• Close-up of Elm Mount in R1
• Elm Mount v Morriston in R5

The photo below shows the Elm Mount contingent.

Hopefully Elm Mount will be back playing in the event next year!

Congratulations to one of the club’s youngest members, Anvita Ramesh Nair, who was amongst the prizes at a recent junior event held in Greystones. Anita is pictured below with her medal:-

A list of the 2026-27 fixtures has been drawn up showing all the fixtures for the new season for the 6 Armstring, Heidenfeld, Hanlon Cup and BEA Cup teams.

There is a link to the fixtures here Match_Fixtures_26-27

There is also a link from the top of each page. Thanks to Eugene McMorrow for compiling the complete list.

The club hosted the finals of the Leinster Chess Union’s three Cup competitions on Sunday 26^thJuly.

Elm Mount’s Junior Players were amongst the Prizes at a recent Junior Chess Event held in the Le Chéile Centre, in Donnycarney.  Ten of the Club’s Junior members took part in a recent competition for young chess players.

Congratulations to all of the club’s junior players involved which included a number who were playing in their very first competitive chess event. One of the club’s youngest members, Shanvi Dash, won her section of the event as well as the best girl prize and Eric Yuze Lin finished as runner up in his section. Shanvi and Eric are pictured below with their prizes.

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!