The Ulster Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament organised by the Ulster Chess Union which has been held since 1892. It is currently open to all players who qualify as having been born in any of the 9 counties of Ulster. Nearly all Championships since 1982 have been played in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. Among the winners in recent years have been two players, both also Irish Champions, who now have the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(IM), Mark Orr (4 times, most recently in 2001/02) and Brian Kelly (1994/95). Recent winners are *Michael Waters (4 times) *Stephen Scannell (8 times) *Eugene O'Hare (6 times) *Adrian Gillen (3 times) *Tom Clarke (3 times) *Michael Holmes (twice) *Stephen Gillen (twice) *David Houston (4 times) Some winners have represented Ireland at

chess Olympiads The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

and

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

Champions

Early Champions

* 1892 - E.A. Robinson * 1893 - E.A. Robinson * 1895 - Ernest Louis Harvey * 1897 - William Steen * 1899 - C.E. Smith * 1902 - J. J. O'Hanlon

After 1932

''The Ulster Chess Union was founded in 1932 and relaunched the Ulster Championship.'' * 1933 -

William John Allen William John Allen was a Canadian politician from Ontario. He represented Hastings North in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its ...

* 1934 - W. J. Allen * 1935 - P. J. (Joe) McMahon * 1936 - J. Watson * 1937 - R. Lennox * 1938 - J. D. Peebles * 1939 - William Minnis * 1944 - A. L. Davies * 1945 - William Minnis * 1946 - R.A. Heaney * 1947 - J.D. Peebles * 1949 - J.A. Flood * 1950 - G. A. Kearney * 1951 - W. D. Kerr * 1952 - Robert Jones * 1953 - G. J. Boyd & W. D. Kerr * 1954 - Douglas Eric Arnold Riley * 1955 - R. A. Heaney * 1956 - A. Torney * 1957 - Jack Wrigley * 1958 - G. J. Boyd * 1959 - E. McGlinchey * 1960 - Eugene O'Hare * 1961 - E. O'Hare * 1962 - H. Harte & E. O'Hare * 1963 - E. O'Hare & Edward Whiteside * 1964 - Hugh MacGrillen & E. O'Hare * 1965 - John Larkin Moles & M. O'Leary * 1966 - H. Boyd * 1967 - J. L. Moles * 1968 - M. O'Leary * 1969 - E. O'Hare * 1970 - F. Coll * 1971 - John Nicholson * 1972 - Ray Devenney * 1973 - J. Nicholson * 1974 - Adrain McDaid * 1975 - P. Hadden & D. Harkin * 1976 - J. Nicholson & E. Whiteside * 1977 - J. Nicholson * 1978 - Keith Allen * 1979 - K. Allen * 1980 - K. Allen, John Hegarty, John Kennedy & Derek McGill * 1981 - James Quigley * 1982 - David Houston & Michael Smyth * 1983 - M. Smyth * 1984 - M. Smyth & Tom Clarke * 1985 - Mark Orr * 1986 - K. Allen * 1987 - Tom Brown & Niall Carton * 1988 - K Allen, D. Houston & M. Orr * 1989 - K. Allen & M. Orr * 1990 - D. Houston * 1991 - Diarmuid Simpson * 1992 - Kieran Greer * 1993 - Adrian Gillen * 1994 - Stephen Gillen & K. Greer * 1995 - S. Gillen & Brian Kelly * 1996 - A. Gillen * 1997 - A. Gillen * 1998 - Michael Holmes & James McDonnell * 1999 - J. McDonnell & Stephen Scannell * 2000 - Timothy Douglas, M. Holmes & S. Scannell

Champions since 2000

* 2001 - Stephen Scannell * 2002 - Mark Orr IM * 2003 - Tom Clarke * 2004 - Stephen Scannell * 2005 - Tom Clarke * 2006 - Michael Waters & Stephen Scannell * 2007 - Stephen Scannell * 2008 - Stephen Scannell * 2009 - Stephen Scannell * 2010 - Michael Waters * 2011 - Michael Waters * 2012 - Michael Waters * 2013 - Mike Redman * 2014 - Gábor Horváth * 2015 - Gábor Horváth * 2016 - Stephen Rush (QUB) * 2017 - Stephen Scannell * 2018 - Thomas Donaldson * 2019 - Daniil Zelenchuk * 2020 - no championship due to covid * 2021 - Thomas DonaldsonA brilliant tournament - face to face play at the Ulster Championships 2021
Ulster Chess Union, www.ulsterchess.org

References

{{reflist Chess national championships Chess in Ireland