New Season

As Royal Lopez start their new season in the Leinster League Division 3 after three straight championship victories. We are again looking out for new members and talent to join the club, and this year we are looking to add a second team into the Leinster League to provide and outlet for experienced and novice players alike. This season has seen the largest influx of new members since we started the club at all levels - and this is something we hope to build on as we build on the success of the last 3 years.

New members welcome on Monday nights from Monday November 10th at 7.30.

Królewskiej szachy klub zaprasza do gry za najbardziej udany zespół w naszym hrabstwie. Również teraz mamy drugi zespół utworzony w niższej lidze - więc możemy pomieścić zarówno silna i słabszych graczy graczy - wszyscy są mile widziane

2008/2009 Season

The club will re-open for the 2008/2009 season on Monday September 8th @ 7.30.

While your waiting you can always take a look at some chess openings

3 Championships in a row

Its almost unbelievable, but Royal Lopez Senior Team have claimed their 3rd Leinster League championship, and third automatic promotion in a row. In the most dramatic fashion imaginable the team from a small Meath Village -many of whom had never played chess prior to playing in the local team- overtook the largest chess club in the country in the final round of matches by the smallest possible margin, a half point, by 38.5 points to 38.


Going into the last round of six matches, Ratoath were two full points behind Phibsboro, and effectively an additional half point behind having lost the head to head vs Phibsboro in somewhat controversial fashion earlier in the season. Therefore Ratoath Royal Lopez had to overcome a 2.5 point deficit out of a possible six games for both teams in the last round to claim the trophy. 'Neither easy nor indeed likely' was one commentators realistic assessment of our chances before the last round commenced.

Ratoath played Balbriggan while Phibsboro played the Curragh in the last round. The critical factor that turned the contest in Ratoaths favor was the uttlerly unexpected and bizarre non appearance of Phibsboro's board 6 who appart from forfeiting his game (this getting a game score of zero) also incurred a one point penalty deduction for his team, effectively costing his team two points and leveling the scores at the start of board play - meaning that league would decided on the results of the games in the last round.

In scenes of high drama, which required 3 hours of technical deliberation, adjudication and rulebook consultation - involving league controllers, tournament directors, even an international arbiter the league declared and then redeclared for Ratoath, Phibsboro and then Ratoath again. But at the end, when the dust from the rulebooks had settled, it was the dogged Meath team who came through.


'In the end we won because we refused to accept 2nd place no matter how far behind we were going into the last round, in the end team discipline and organisation decided it.' - Captain David Eccles commented on the remarkable David vs Goliath victory.


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The club is keen to add additional talent to the player pool for both seniors and juniors, as we endevour to enter an additional 2nd team into the leinster leagues. All persons interested are invited to the club on monday nights (when the club resumes after the bank holidays on the 31st of March) or alternativey to contact
Laura Keating on 01 - 825 0293
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Community Games Winners

The Ratoath Royal Lopez junior team have won the Meath U16 Community Games for the first time. The Ratoath team with an average age of just 12, overcame a similarly young Julianstown team 4.5 to 0.5 in the county final at Whitecross School Julianstown. The final result did not reflect the close nature of the majority of the games, but in the end Ratoath's greater experience (Ratoaths 3rd year in the competition, and only Julianstowns first) gave them an edge in a couple of close endgames.

The organisation of the final, and in particular the hospitality shown by the parents, organisers and patricipants in Julianstown was greatly appreciated and really conveyed what the community games is all about.

The winning team who will now represent their county are

Yaroslav Baturov (Captain)
Elliot Gould
Tim Ryan
Lydia Rooney
Cian Mc Tearnan
Conor O Hare
Mark Rutherford

Alas ...

This month, January 2008, will forever more be remembered with sadness by all those associated with chess in Ireland.

On New Years day we learned of the tragic loss of the immensely likeable and talented 19 year old Irish Chess Union Chairman -and former underage international- Phillip Hogarty. Phillip was a bright and rising talent. He had a passion for the game and the development of the game which is rare today. Irish chess is much the poorer for his most untimely departing.


Today we hear about the loss of arguably the most gifted chess player ever, Bobby Fischer. Born into humble circumstances in Chicago, he taught himself chess and became US chamption at 14, achieving Grand Master status at 15. In 1972 he became the 11th world champion amid somewhat bizarre circumstances in Reykjavik age 29.

While Bobby's victory was hailed as a great triumph for the West over the East at the height of the cold war, Bobby saw his victory as a personal triumph over opponents whom he respected. He refused to become a propaganda weapon for the US, in much the same way that Borris Spassky and later Gary Kasparov also refused to be pawns for the Soviet cause. Fischer's views won him few friends at home and he became an exile for the remainder of his life.

Bobby suffered from mental illness in his later life and his anti-American views, and his increasingly anti-semitic views (both of Bobby's parents were of Jewish descent) were reported in the press, his public comments became ravings which cast a shadow over his legacy.

But for all his faults and they are many, he is still held with the deepest regard among all chess players who appreciate his natual talent, his unique dedication to improvement and his ruthless competitive play which was always matched by his dignity and the upmost respect he showed for his opponents, away from the board.

Bobby and Phillip we will miss you both. Chess has lost two of its kings.

The games of Bobby Fischer can be viewed by clicking the spinning knight at the top right of this page (requires Java).

Einstein, chess & half dead cats

When Hitler came into power in 1933 a number of eminent Jewish scientists fled including Einstein. Einstein who had been a keen chess player in his youth fled Germany and was given permanent residence in the United States. He accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

The director of the Institute was Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer, famous for leading the secret Manhattan project which developed the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer was also a chess player. Only one game between Einstein and Oppenheimer played at Princeton appears to have surived. Played in 1933 Einstein (white) uses the Ruy Lopez opening after which our club is named.
Einstein vs Oppenheimer.

Dr Emanuel Lasker the second chess world champion and friend of Einstein fled Berlin at same time. Einstein later wrote the preface to Lasker's biography in particular praising Laskers commitment to humanitarian causes.

Another friend of Einsteins, Nobel prize winning Jewish Physicist Erwin Schrödinger fled Berlin too and later became the very first Director of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, which was originally modeled on Princeton and continues research in theoretical physics and other areas today. Schrödinger is probably best known for a whimsical thought experiment he created to describe the absurdity of quantum states at larger scales.

His famous thought experiment focussed on his cat (Schrödinger's cat) who in 'theory' could be both alive and dead at the same time. If this was not enough someone with far too much time in their hands more recently invented Schrodinger's chess, where pieces are randomised and covered at the start of the game and can display different properties until their final state is observed.

Truly the human imagaination is limitless.

On a related note another German Jew, Wolfgang Heidenfeld, fled the Nazis and after some years moved to Ireland and played Chess for Ireland with distinction for many years. Wolfgangs son Mark is a current Ireland International. The Leinster League Division 2 Trophy, the Heidenfeld Trophy is named in Wolfgangs memory.

"Chess grips its exponent, shakling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom and independence of even the strongest character cannot remain unaffected." Albert Einstein

Different Approaches ...

Chess is a game of understanding and creativity. Understanding enough in a position to be able to find or sense the correct balance between attack and defense. The great creatives in the game could conjure fantastic sacrifies that delight and amaze and achieve victory thorough vision and brilliance. Players such as first (unofficial) world champion Paul Morphy, the magician of Riga Mikhail Tal, Gary Kasparov & Judit Polgar produced spectacular games all throughout their careers.

Other players prefer to turn games into turgid trench warfare, and achieve victory by removing advantageous squares from their opponent. As if they are attempting to starve enemy forces of oxygen, or entrap them in their coils like a constrictor. Players in this category include the founder of scientific chess Wilhlem Steinitz, Tigran Petrosian and Anatoly Karpov. Their patient and deep approach is very difficult to break, and behind their so called 'quiet moves' many a cleverly set trap can hide, as Tal once said "Karpov's intentions become understandable to his opponents only when salvation is no longer possible."

Of course chess is also a game where, over the centuries, less scrupulous 'innovators' have sought victory through other means, from leading chess players hiding inside so called chess machines such as 'The Turk' in the 18th century, to the concealment or use of computers or mobile communication devices in the modern era. The lengths some people will go to pursue pyrhic victories never ceases to amaze, here Paul Merton tries such an audacious approach with just a touch of humour..