Paul Shanahan is the Tralee Chess Club treasurer.

The Seed Sewn in the CBS

The roots of Tralee Chess Club started in the CBS School in Tralee, where Brothers Tobin and Turner encouraged chess and set up the school chess club in the 1970’s. Both John Hoare and Maurice Carroll played in the school club and later played in houses and venues around the town and county. Including Benner’s Hotel where they played against the Killarney Chess Club. On the 13th Nov. 1991 they started the Tralee Chess Club in the CYMS Hall, Denny Street, which also had a dance hall and snooker club on the premises. Only seven players turned up on the first night. The hall cost £10 per night. This is where Declan Kelly first played for the club on the 20th Nov 1991 and later became a stalwart member.

The Club in Harty's Bar

In September 1993 the club moved to its new home upstairs over Harty's Bar in Castle Street, with many thanks to the owner Tom Harty. This is when Paul Shanahan first played chess for the club, on the 15th Oct 1993 (Paul didn't win a single game that night) and went on to win the clubs first league championship in the 1994/95 season and is still playing for the club. Mike O Meara started with the club in 1994 and also went on to become league champion and is still playing with us. Padraig O'Sullivan, who started playing with us in 2001, is our current league champion. We started competing in Division 3 of the Munster Leagues which we won in 1998 and then progressed to Division 2 and won that for the first time in 1999. We then progressed to Division 1, which we competed bravely in. We hosted the Munster Chess Championship on 18th April 1997 in the Grand Hotel with 32 entrants (9 from our club). Paul Walsh was the winner. Declan Kelly was our outstanding player with 3½/6 games.

Growth and Flourish

Harty's Bar was renovated in 2004 and the club looked for a new home and settled upstairs over the Bridge Club on the 17th Nov 2004. Since this was a much bigger space, we had up to 30 junior members playing, one of our outstanding juniors was Ronan Magee who would, in 2012, win the Kerry Chess Championship, we hosted in the Grand Hotel in Tralee. We moved to our current home of chess in 2009, upstairs over The Castle Bar, Rock Street, with many thanks to the owners Adrian and Gerard O'Sullivan. We returned to Munster League Chess in 2012 and again won Division 2. The club plays every Wed night from September to April. We run several competitions, demo board nights and we have an annual Christmas party for members.

Here’s to many more years of fantastic chess in Tralee Chess Club.

Irish Chess Champion Under 16, 2011 - Ronan Magee

Tralee Chess Club - Munster League Division 2 Champions 2012/13 Eric Salsac, Paul Shanahan, Padraig O’Sullivan, John Keane and Alan Salsac.