A Country Victorian Tournament was organised in Castlemaine on Sunday 23 July 2000

THE VICTORIAN COUNTRY CLUB COMPETITION 2001

Country Victorian Club Tournament in Castlemaine-July 2000

A Country Victorian Tournament was organised in Castlemaine on Sunday 23 July 2000. Following on from a similar event, held two years ago in Ballarat, John Lavery this time was the driving force and DOP of this very successful and enjoyable event. It was played in Saff’s café, in Castlemaine’s town centre amongst the regular customers, creating a very warm atmosphere.

Teams from Bendigo, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Geelong and LaTrobe Valley travelled the various distances and played an innovative format of 7 rounds Swiss (Allegro time controls) to decide not only the team competition but also the individual outcome.

Pairing avoided meeting fellow club/city members until the last round. The total scores of the top four players of each team decided the team competition.

Geelong (A.Anderson, O.Grigoryan, I.Boasman, S.Fletcher) convincingly defended their previous win in Ballarat and took the trophee home with 21.5 points, followed by Bendigo (17.5), Ballarat (15.5), Castlemaine(14) and LaTrobe Valley (13.5).

Individually, Oleg Grigoryan (Geelong) had a perfect run with 6/6 when he had to face Allistair Anderson in the last round. An unfortunate touch-move situation decided their game in Allistairs’ favour, both sharing the top honours. Nigel Barrow (Bendigo) had a good run, winning ao. from B. van Riel, and A.Anderson but losing on time against O.Grigoryan. He finished third on 5.5/7.

B.van Riel, S.Fletcher finished on 5/7. A total of 29 players participated and had a good time.

Country Victorian Championship-Individual Tournament-Bendigo 1999

Ballarat 25^th August 1999

Some chess news from Victoria’s ‘outback’.

Probably not too many within the Victorian chess community do know that Country Victorian Chess is alive and well. During many (tenth of) years the Country Victorian Chess Championships have been held annually in various shapes and country towns. And always in that weekend in October, and always trying to avoid the footy Grand Final weekend. As long as we can remember it was organised and DOP-ed by Kevin Perrin.

After these championships were held for at least 10 years in conjunction with the Maryborough Wattle Festival, the Bendigo ChessClub has taken over the organisation of the event succesfully, with a very generous sponsorship by Mercantile Mutual Insurance. Current Australian Correspondance Champion Stewart Booth is a regular participant and he has won the event a record times.

Apart from a healthy personal rivalry amongst the Country players, there also exists a traditional animosity between the country towns, especially between Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong.

Participation of these teams in the VCA Winter Club competition was not feasible this year mainly because of the expected commitment on a weekly basis.

They, therefore have organised their own Intercity Country Victoria competition between the main clubs of Albury, Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong. All the matches have to be played fortnightly by telephone.

Report on the Intercity Chess Tournament in 1998-Ballarat-in the 'Bendigo Advertiser' by Nigel Barrow.