‘A national phenomenon’: Behind the ‘chess boom’ and the push to become Ireland’s newest sport

Malahide Chess Club has gathered for its summer blitz tournament upstairs in St Sylvester’s GAA clubhouse.

Rows of players move pieces across chequered boards with silent intensity.

While the atmosphere is tense, smiles travel between opponents. Mutual respect is tangible. A chess player will let you know when you have made a good move.

These players have gathered at a time when the game has “never been stronger” in Ireland, says John Sheeran, organiser and arbiter for the north Dublin chess club. The ambition doesn’t end here, however, with a push under way to make one of the world’s oldest games officially recognised in Ireland as a sport.

While chess is “quite cheap” to fund, says Sheehan, such designation, potentially unlocking fresh investment, is “beyond due”.

Jacob Flynn, the highest-ranked member of the club, says that on a global ranking scale, Ireland has never really been a part of conversation but now we’re “on the precipice of change”.

Flynn says the “chess boom” that began during the Covid-19 pandemic, and was boosted by the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit and the accessibility of online chess, has brought a new wave of Irish talent to the game.

The Irish Chess Union (ICU) last month submitted a document outlining the request for recognition to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport. The move is set against the backdrop of significant growth in the popularity of chess in Ireland. The number of active ICU members has risen from 1,200 in 2018 to more than 2,500 in 2026. The most popular online platform, Chess.com, has roughly 950,000 registrations in Ireland. More than 88,000 Irish accounts have registered this year so far, following a trend of around 100,000 additional registrations per year.

ICU chairperson Desmond Beatty says recognition of the game as a sport could one day pave the way for a national governing body (NGB) to be recognised by Sport Ireland. Recognition opens the door for funding for governing bodies. In 2025, NGBs Snooker & Billiards Ireland and GAA Handball Ireland received €115,000 and €130,000, respectively, in funding from Sport Ireland.

Flynn – who is aiming to become a FIDE master, the third-highest international ranking – says “funding is the key really for developing the game”, adding that Iceland pays a wage to the 15–25 chess grandmasters living in the small island nation.

Flynn says there has never been an Irish grandmaster – a goal for the future for Flynn and for Irish chess – but there is a “big gap” requiring a lot of funding and support to bridge.

Anastasiya Kelbas has recently been attending Monday night games in Malahide. She arrived in Ireland from Ukraine in January 2023 and says chess is taken much more seriously back home, treated as a competitive sport. Kelbas has been playing since she was five years old and says chess is taught for hours after school in Ukraine, and that it is played far more frequently by women in comparison to Ireland.

Milan Dinic, spokesman for the International Chess Federation (FIDE), says chess has similar structures to any other sport. It has competitions, anti-doping agencies and a national federation with elite and grassroots structures.

“You cannot be a good player without being in good physical condition,” Dinic says, adding that Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, the FIDE world number one, is quite a good soccer player. Carlsen’s fellow countryman Manchester City footballer Erling Haaland is one of many athletes with a predilection for chess. The Norwegian striker made a significant, undisclosed investment in the new Total Chess world Championship Tour launching next year, which has an annual prize pool of $2.7 million (€2.3 million).

Dinic says: “Whether you call it a mind sport or a sport in general, it requires speed interaction with other players.”

Frank McMahon joined Malahide Chess Club over a decade ago and returned to chess in 2000 after a love of tennis and a busy schedule took him away. In 1961, McMahon recalls, he beat the former Irish Times chess columnist JJ Walsh and in 1962 captained the Irish team that beat England and tied for first place in the 1962 Glorney Gilbert youth tournament.

McMahon says Ireland is not a leading chess nation but, like Flynn, believes that could change, with the best players in the country today generally under the age of 25.

Damien Fallon, chairperson of Ficheall, a network of primary schoolteachers in Ireland promoting chess in schools, says there has been an “explosion” of popularity of chess in recent years, adding the game is a “national phenomenon”. More than 43,000 primary school pupils play chess in schools associated with Ficheall, a number expected to reach 50,000 next year.

Michelle Gayer, who teaches fifth class at Ballyhass National School in Co Cork, says it was a struggle to initially field four teams for the annual Féile Fichille tournament in 2022 but now it is “cut-throat”. Gayer has woven chess into SPHE and maths lessons and she says chess has fostered respect in her students as it forces one to “lose graciously and win humbly” and shake hands before and after the game.

Gayer says one of her students, who had previously struggled socially, is now “out in the middle of the soccer pitch and giving banter” after connecting with other students through chess.

Ficheall, founded in Cork in 2017, is associated with 800 primary schools in Ireland – up from 38 at its foundation. It organises tournaments and chess events between schools to be held in nearby venues. Fallon says that before Ficheall, many schools would have had to travel to the bigger towns for chess events, which made organising rural events particularly difficult.

Whether or not chess is a sport, Fallon says at the very least, children are “absolutely exhausted after playing six rounds of chess”.

Ficheall only has one problem. The growth in popularity of the game has added an extra 100 schools per year to the mix, a figure that could present a struggle for organisers if it increases any further.

“It just hasn’t slowed down,” Fallon says.

Ireland is one of three nations in the EU not to recognise the game as a sport, alongside Belgium and Sweden. The ICU, which has more than 2,500 active members, is, however, one of 204 member federations of FIDE.

The English Chess Federation made an application for recognition in the UK in 2008 which was rejected as funding authorities did not consider chess to be a physical activity.

Under the Sport Ireland Act 2015, a “competitive sport” is any form of physical activity which, through organised participation, aims at expressing or improving physical fitness, and obtaining improved results in competition at all levels.

Under the same Act, a “recreational sport” means any form of physical activity which, through casual or regular participation, aims at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental wellbeing, and forming social relationships.

According to FIDE, an estimated 60 million games of chess are played every day on average. Dinic says this makes it the second most popular sport in the world behind soccer.

Chess is also recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through its recognition of FIDE.

While the ICU is seeking recognition of chess as a sport, it has not specifically requested in its submission to the Oireachtas committee for the union to gain NGB status. Beatty says this “remains a matter for Sport Ireland”.

A spokesperson for Sport Ireland says: “It is important to clarify that Sport Ireland does not designate who is the NGB for a sport in Ireland. The Sport Ireland NGB recognition process is secondary to that of an organisation’s international federation.”

Sport Ireland currently recognises more than 60 NGBs of all kinds of sport in Ireland from the Trout Anglers Federation of Ireland to the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport is due to begin public consultation on a new national 10-year policy for sport in the State this autumn. A spokesman for the department said the aim of the consultation is to “conduct extensive engagement with the sports sector” as well as with the public.

He said the department would also conduct research into “international best practice and any other appropriate means to gather the best possible information”.

In the meantime, the sport – or pursuit – is preparing for one of its biggest events of the year. The 105th Irish Chess Championship takes place in Dublin from August 1st to 9th.

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