Summary

27 tournaments were rated in the January list list including the Dresden Olympiad, seven other foreign tournaments and 3 late submissions: the 2007-08 Munster League (see September's report), Phibsboro's 2007-08 Club Championship and the 2008 National Club Championships.

Late Subscriptions

A week before publication of the January list a news item was posted to the web site announcing the publication date and reminding players that only paid-up ICU members for season 2008-09 would appear in the list. This produced a flurry of about 50 online subscriptions in just a few days. It's normal for subscriptions to trickle in throughout the season so the fact that the current number of subscribers is only about 70% of the expected total (judging by the last few seasons) is not necessarily to be taken as a sign that the credit crunch has hit Irish chess just yet.