Albéric Joseph Rodolphe Marie Robert Ghislain O'Kelly de Galway (17 May 1911 – 3 October 1980) was a Belgian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

Grandmaster (1956), an

International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is a correspondence chess title created by FIDE in 1953, second only to that of world correspondence champion. Currently, this title is awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (IC ...

(1962), and the third ICCF World Champion in

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

(1959–1962). He was also a chess writer.

Chess career

O'Kelly won the Belgian championships thirteen times between 1937 and 1959. He placed first at

Beverwijk Beverwijk () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The town is located about northwest of Amsterdam in the Randstad metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal very close to the North Sea coast. A ...

1946. In 1947, he became one of Europe's leading players, having finished first at the 1947 European

Zonal tournament Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the C ...

at Hilversum, tied for first place with Pirc at Teplice Sanov, and tied for second at Venice. The next year, O'Kelly finished first at São Paulo ahead of Eliskases and Rossetto. He earned the title

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(IM) in 1950, the first year the title was awarded. He placed first at Dortmund 1951. O'Kelly finished first at the round-robin Utrecht 1961 with 6½/9, followed by Karl Robatsch second with 6 points and

Arthur Bisguier Arthur Bernard Bisguier (October 8, 1929April 5, 2017) was an American chess player, chess promoter, and writer who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). Bisguier won two U.S. Junior Championships (1948, 1949), three U.S. Open Chess Cham ...

and

Aleksandar Matanović Aleksandar Matanović (; 23 May 1930 – 9 August 2023) was a Serbian chess grandmaster, one of the leading Yugoslav players in the 1950s-1970s. In 1966 he founded the company Chess Informant, which publishes regular game collections from recen ...

tied for third and fourth with 5½. He took part in The Gijón International Chess Tournaments (1949 and 1956), achieving respectively 2nd and 4th places. In 1958, he was awarded the Belgian decoration of the ''Golden Palm of the Order of the Crown'', for his chess successes and the distinction he had brought to the nation. O'Kelly was made an

International Arbiter In chess tournaments, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed. International Arbiter ''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter ...

in 1962 and was the chief arbiter of the

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

matches between

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vardani Petrosian (; ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster and the ninth World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing s ...

and

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...

in 1966 and 1969. In 1974, he was the arbiter for the Moscow

Karpov Karpov (masculine, ) or Karpova (feminine, ) is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aleksandr Karpov (1917–1944), Soviet ace, double Hero of the Soviet Union * Andriy Karpov (born 1987), Ukrainian motorcyclist * Anatoly ...

– Korchnoi match. He spoke French, Dutch, German, English, Spanish, and Russian fluently, and also some Italian. He published many books and articles, often in languages other than French. As a youth, he took lessons from the legendary

Akiba Rubinstein Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandma ...

Ancestry

O'Kelly was descended from John O'Kelly, an Irish-born British army officer who was granted a nobility title in 1720 in what was then the

Austrian Low Countries The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the ...

. Consequently, he was often styled as 'Count O'Kelly de Galway', for example on the front cover of his 1965 book about Petrosian.

Legacy

The O'Kelly Variation in the

Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. The opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for Whi ...

: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 a6 is named after him.

Books

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Notable games

Alberic O'Kelly de Galway vs Arnold Denker, Mar del Plata 1948, Spanish Game: Schliemann Defense, Dyckhoff Variation (C63), 1–0Christian Poulsen vs Alberic O'Kelly de Galway, Dubrovnik olm 1950, Sicilian Defense: O'Kelly Variation. Normal System (B28), 0–1Alberic O'Kelly de Galway vs Jonathan Penrose, Olympiad 1962, Sicilian Defense: Paulsen, Bastrikov Variation (B47), ½–½Robert James Fischer vs Alberic O'Kelly de Galway Havana CAP 1965, Spanish Game: Marshall Attack, Modern Variation (C89), ½–½

References

Notes Bibliography * * *

External links

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Visa with photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Okelly De Galway, Alberic 1911 births 1980 deaths Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors World Correspondence Chess Champions Correspondence chess grandmasters Chess double grandmasters Belgian male writers Sportspeople from Brussels Belgian chess writers Chess arbiters Chess theoreticians Counts of Belgium Belgian people of Irish descent 20th-century Belgian chess players 20th-century Belgian sportsmen