I was very sorry to hear of the passing this week of Maurice Coveney. Sincere condolences to his family.
His playing career spanned six decades, and he also contributed heavily in several administrative roles.
He played in four Irish championships—1967, 1971, 1972, and 1977—and also acted as controller in the 1971 event, where he scored 4½/9 for joint 9th place.
“Maurice Coveney, Laskerville, Carrigaline East, has lived all his life in the locality except for ten years he trained at Baldonnell and worked in the aircraft industry overseas. Over a period of 25 years running his own business he employed between 20 and 100 mostly local people” ran a profile, from which the photograph above is taken, in the Southern Star in 2009, when he ran as an independent candidate for Cork County Council.
The first records of his chess career date to the 1962-63 season, when he was stationed at Baldonnel Aerodrome in Dublin (renamed Casement Aerodrome in the mid-1960s). He played for Kevin Barry in the Ennis Shield that season, and also competed in the Irish Correspondence Chess Championship, in a junior section. He moved to Middlesex at the end of 1964, but continued to compete in I.C.C.C. events, winning his section in 1963-64. He returned to Ireland by the end of 1966, and played with Bellevue C.C.
He took a variety of roles in the Cork Chess Association, including Chairman from 1969-71, and served as Cork representative on the ICU. He compiled the first C.C.A. rating list in 1968, in the days when there was no unified ICU rating list, and provincial unions maintained their own lists.
He was Irish Veterans joint champion in 2001, and played in last year’s Sligo Challengers.
Maurice James COVENEY, b. Cork?, 25 July 1939, d. Cork, 4 September 2024.
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