Club Success at the Irish Women's Chess Festival 2026
The second annual Irish Women’s Chess Festival took place from 23rd to the 26th October. The event was organised by Knights of Éanna member, ICU Women’s Officer and former Irish women's champion WCM Antonina Gora.
The festival featured three competitions: the Irish Women’s Championship, the Challengers tournament for those U1600 and the Irish Schoolgirls Competition, which opened the festival on Friday with separate primary and secondary school sections.
Knights of Éanna players had a big representation of eight players among the participants, with Lorena in the Irish Womens Championships and Deekshita, Eva, Sathvika, Erica, Niamh and Eloise in the Challengers, along with Anna in the Schoolgirls. We had some excellent results across the weekend:
Women's Challengers
Deekshita and Eva had a great run in the Women’s Challengers, finishing joint first alongside Shasini Maniraj with a tiebreak deciding the places.
1st place: Deekshita Dukanam on 4/5
2nd place: Eva Sharma on 4/5
Irish Girls Secondary School Competition
1st place: Eva Sharma on 5/5
2nd place: Deekshita Dukanam on 4/5
Irish Girls Primary School Competition
2nd place: Erica Bermingham on 4.5/5
6th/7th medals: Anna O'Connell and Eloise Prendergast on 4/5
Congratulations to all our players, to the new Irish Women's Champion Diana Mirza and to Antonina for organising another successful festival celebrating women’s and girls’ chess!
Full results:
Portraits of the Knights of Eanna participants
by Antonina Gora.
Schoolgirl competition photos
by Sarah Scott
