The Cavan Crystal Chess Tournament 1974 - 1980
The Cavan Chess Tournament began in December 1972 soon after the formation of Cavan Chess Club and the organisers, Paud O’Reilly and Rick Lewis were active club members who were anxious to bring chess to Cavan as opposed to continually travelling to other venues to play any kind of competitive games.
The first tournament was held in St. Felim’s N.S. in Cavan town in December 1972 and had a small local entry of 30 players. The highest rated player was Seán Galligan(1956) and the tournament winner was Paud O’Reilly.
Following this the organisers decided to see how they might expand the tournament and attract players from other clubs. The 2nd tournament was organised in December 1973 and attracted about 50 players to a tournament controlled by Tom O’Sullivan and held in the Imperial Hotel Cavan. The tournament was won by Sai Prakash.
We continued to develop and secured sponsorship from Cavan Crystal for the subsequent tournaments from 1974-1980. As the tournament grew we needed a bigger venue and we moved to the new Vocational school in Cavan as the entry numbers grew to 200 or so players from all parts of the country. J.J. Walsh attended, played and gave reports in the Irish Times.
A great number of the country’s best players played in the tournament: Bernard Kernan, Michael Littleton, Eamon Keogh, Alan Ludgate to name but a few. The final tournament took place in 1980.
Thanks to Paud O’Reilly for providing us with this history.