I must apologise for not communicating with the members of the ICU until now. Taking over as chairperson of a national organisation was never going to be easy, and I have been deluged by emails from amongst others FIDE and the ECU. Matters have not been made easier by the fact that, Bernard Palmer, our secretary has been ill, and has been unable to act as secretary. For this reason, with agreement from the committee, I have appointed Rory Delaney as temporary acting secretary.

I have had the pleasure of working with Rory on the LCU committee, and I have no doubt that he will be excellent in his new role. I would like to publicly thank him for stepping up to this time-consuming position.

On to other matters: We held our first committee meeting on Sunday 26 September, and most of our discussions revolved around our budget. Our main focus for the coming year is, of course, the organisation of the Glorney and Faber Cups in Ireland next July. This will use up, as it does every 4 years, most of our savings. However, we have decided to keep the support for tournaments at the same level as last year. The four main tournaments, Kilkenny, Bunratty, Cork and Galway will receive a grant of €500, and other tournaments will receive €300.

Last year we payed €4500 to hold the Irish Championships. This year we can't afford that level of subvention, however, we believe that it is perfectly possible to run the competitions this year with the same high quality playing conditions and prize money for a lot less. Clubs and organisers who might be interested in running the Irish this coming year should contact the committee.

As mentioned above, we are organising the Glorney and Faber cups this year. Looking at the great results in the last few years, I believe that our young stars can win the competition this year. This will not be an easy task, and as such, I have appointed Darko Polimac, our junior officer, as chief team coach. If you have the time and ability, and would like to help with the coaching, please contact Darko.

I would like to thank all the members of the men and women's olympiad teams, the captains Pat Fitzsimons and Herbert Scarry, our acting FIDE delegate, Tony Ahearne, who stepped up to the plate when we needed it, Many of us watched Sam Collins with excitement, pride, amazement, and in the end, sadness, when he missed his final GM norm by a hair. I have no doubt that Sam will earn his final norm in his next few tournaments. Special thanks go to Eamon Keogh, my predecessor, who somehow managed to secure the participation of three very strong Bulgarian players in our major weekenders. I am very happy to announce that Ivan Cheparinov rated 2661 (Gulp) will be playing in Kilkenny this year.

Finally, to those of you who have already renewed your memberships, thank you very much, and I hope you have enjoyed the relaunched Irish Chess Journal. Tony Foley has done a terrific job. He is hoping to publish two more issues before the end of the year. The current issue will only be accessible to logged in members. To those of you who haven't yet, please do so as soon as you can.