Happy New Year for Irish Chess

sodacat11

At this time of year we all tend to look forward and indeed back, make resolutions and targets and lament the ones that we didn't reach in the previous year. A few lucky ones can look back with pride on the year gone by and look forward to the future with justified optimism and in this group belongs the Executive of the ICU ably marshaled by John Mc Morrow.
I have often criticized the ICU in the past and some of it's past executives whose only motivation for getting elected was pure malice and self interest but since John and his pals took over the ICU has (in my mind at least) been completely reformed and quite frankly now stands higher in my estimation than I would ever have thought possible; and bear in mind that I have been playing chess for over forty years .
I don't remember a time when so much innovation has taken place. We now have norm events, all play alls , very successful, junior teams, thriving women's chess , senior tournaments etc etc and one just has to look at the fields for tournaments like Gonzaga and Bunratty to be filled with optimism for the coming year. Obviously a lot of what happens is down to individuals in different clubs but these people are now operating in a far more positive and happy environment than before. My one bugbear is the state of the Irish Ch but hopefully this too will get sorted out in the coming year!!

Tim Harding

I second that emotion.

zeitnot

Hear, hear. Very well done.

Previous executives also worked hard but struggled to various extents with the feuding, bickering, and infighting that has been endemic for years now. This year has been completely different and there must have been some serious diplomatic work behind the scenes to make it happen. Not everyone would have the patience for it.

Tychoo

~Nicely put