Club History

Limerick Chess Club was established in 1926 and is one of Munster’s most active chess clubs. In 2018-19 it had approximately 31 members, and it fields teams in the Munster Chess Union (MCU) leagues.

League honours

The Limerick A team won the MCU Division 1 title in 1999 and went on to represent the province in the Irish Chess Union’s National Club Championship in Belfast, finishing third. The A team won Division 1 again in 2009, after a wait of ten years.

The Limerick B team won the MCU Division 2 title in 2000 and was promoted to the top division. The B and C teams were temporarily withdrawn from the leagues in 2005 due to lack of players; the B team was restored to Division 3 in 2006 and won promotion to Division 2 in 2007. In season 2011 the club had one team in Division 1. In 2018-19 the B team won the Division 2 title and was promoted to Division 1, giving Limerick two teams in Division 1 for 2019-20.

The North Munster Championship

The club has hosted the North Munster Chess Championship since its inception in 1926, when the Limerick Leader donated a cup for the first tournament. It has been run ever since almost without fail. From 2003 Ennis Chess Club took over organising it. In 2009 Frank Noonan of Sarsfield Chess Club, Limerick City’s other club, initiated the North Munster Chess League Individual Championship, a nine-round Swiss with a game every three weeks, open to players from Limerick and Ennis.

Tournaments in the region

Apart from club chess, the Limerick region has the Limerick Open and the Bunratty Chess Festival, both national weekend Swiss tournaments. The Bunratty Chess Festival is held in mid-March at the Bunratty Castle Hotel and, according to the club’s earlier history page, averages over 200 players.

Honorary Presidents

Records of competitions from the early years were lost, but past winners of the club competitions are listed in the Archive. For more information, contact one of the officers listed on the Contact page.