Tony Dennehy's last competitive game, which is given here, was played against me exactly a year ago in the fourth round of the Dun Laoghaire Club Championship. He died shortly afterwards.

It was a privilege to have known and played with Tony. He was a true gentleman and was universally popular among the chess fraternity. I never heard anybody say a bad word about him. He played the game as it should be played, always giving his best, modest in victory and dignified in defeat.

He was also a very strong chess player. As many will remember, he was the only player to defeat Paul Keres in the latter's simultaneous display in Dublin and that game was published here when Tony died last year. But he was also in the very top echelon of Irish chess during the sixties and into the seventies. He won the Leinster Championship in 1964 and came very close to winning the Irish Championship on at least one occasion - finishing second in 1974.

Tony always played interesting chess and his games were full of life. They were never boring. His style had a tactical bent- he loved playing against the Sicilian Defence- but he could also play a very good positional game when warranted. He loved chess and I heard at his funeral last year that he was nearly always to be found analysing some game or position on his chess board when visitors called to his home.

Tony has left an enviable legacy, both in terms of his interesting and quality games and, perhaps equally important, the spirit in which he played chess.