The next year, O'Kelly finished first at São Paulo ahead of Eliskases and Rossetto.

O'Kelly finished first at the round-robin Utrecht 1961 with 6½/9, followed by Karl Robatsch second with 6 points and Arthur Bisguier and Aleksandar Matanović tied for third and fourth with 5½.

[2] 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.

He spoke French, Dutch, German, English, Spanish, and Russian fluently, and also some Italian.

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