The long-running Armstrong Cup

Tim Harding’s first article for Chess Cafe since its recent hiatus set out to answer the question “what are the oldest chess leagues in the world?” It will probably come as no surprise to many Irish players that the Armstrong Cup, Leinster’s premier league, featured strongly in that quest. Tim’s conclusion was that while there are a couple of longer established leagues, the Armstrong has enjoyed in total more league seasons than any other. As well as the historical perspective, Tim reported on the success of the Dublin University team, for which he scored an unbeaten 6.5/8, in this season’s league. Tim kindly referred in his article to my Armstrong Cup page; this reminded me to add the 2013-2014 final standings and while doing that I also took the opportunity to add a few extra details from earlier seasons.