New king of the chessboard!

IRELAND got its newest and youngest International Chess Master recently when David Fitzsimons from Drumcondra based Elm Mount Chess Club beat a top English player.

The 26-year-old defeated International Master (IM) Peter T Roberson while playing for leading English club Wood Green in the Four Nations Chess League.

David’s victory ensured that he gained his third and final norm to attain the International Master title from FIDE (the International Chess Federation).

He is only the eighth Irish player to attain this much coveted title, and the first player from the Northside to achieve the distinction. 

In 2003, David was selected to play for the Irish Under 12 team in international matches against Wales and Scotland. In May 2007, when aged 15, he became the youngest Irish player to defeat a Grandmaster when playing in a major international event in Spain.

Since then, he has represented Ireland on the Senior Men’s Team at the Chess Olympiad in Siberia in 2010. He also became the first Irish player to win a major international open tournament when he won the Prague Summer Open in 2014, finishing ahead of 20 International Masters and FIDE Masters.

David has also achieved numerous domestic successes in various tournaments all over Ireland. He is a four-time Leinster Champion, having won the event outright in 2008 and 2010 and jointly in 2011 and 2015, and is the current Irish Blitz Champion.

David teaches in Glasnevin Educate Together National School and runs a thriving chess club there on a voluntary basis. He points out that International research has demonstrated that children who play chess attain higher grades in Maths and English.

As well as these important educational benefits, David also says that chess provides a valuable recreational outlet for children who may not be physically able to play other sports.

David continues to play domestically for Elm Mount in Drumcondra and has helped the club’s first team to a number of league and cup successes in recent years.

He has been the Head Coach of the Irish Junior International Chess Squad since 2011, and contributed significantly in that role to the progress Irish underage teams have made in the last five years, winning a number of international events involving the English, Scottish, Welsh and French International teams.

David has recently been selected to represent Ireland on the Senior Men’s Team competing at the Chess Olympiad, which will be held in September in Batumi in Georgia.

There, he will have the opportunity to compete against the world’s best chess players over 11 rounds of matches.

We will watch with interest David’s continued progress at the chessboard!