1) The origins of chess are murky but the earliest documentary evidence available shows that it probably originated in India around the seventh century from the game chaturanga. This later spread to the East to form Japanese chess Shogi and to the West to form the Western-style chess we play today.

2) The extent of dirty tricks in chess in the USSR was recently uncovered in a trawl of the archives which showed that in 1978 over 20 KGB operatives were dispatched to help Russian stalwart Anatoly Karpov defeat a defector from the USSR, Victor Korchnoi, in a world championship match in the Philippines.

3) Although Irish influence on international chess has been minimal we have lent our name to an opening variation called the Irish Gambit. As The Oxford Companion to Chess points out, however, this is an unsound opening whose author finally admitted his mistake on his deathbed.

The Kilkenny tournament can be followed live on the Internet at www.chesscentre.com/ twic/twic.html