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AUSTRALIAN CHESS FEDERATION |
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While
the rest of the country is winding down for summer this is a busy time in
chess. The World Juniors and World Youth Championship have just concluded, the
World Cup featuring David Smerdon has started, the
School Teams Final is approaching, four events remain to wrap up the 2009
Grand Prix, then in the New Year the Australian Championship and the Australian
Juniors will be on, followed by the new Grand Prix season. More on
both of these events in Overseas
Tournaments and News A
by-product of the local component of the rash of activity is that the Editor
will be in Some
people may have received two copies of the last newsletter. The second was
not for emphasis, I can only guess that it was a hiccup in the mailing list
provider. Incidentally
for those wondering why the circulation numbers (next column) have dropped
slightly, it’s due not to people unsubscribing through boredom or
disapproval but to automatic bounce-back handling. The list is set to
automatically delete invalid addresses after a sufficient number of bounces. |
Overseas Tournaments and News In fact
only a handful of people have signed out since we resumed in August and about
70 new subscribers have joined up. This makes the ACF Newsletter easily the
most effective way to promote coming events or spread other news. Ian
Rout Editor Note:
Links in light blue are to sections within the newsletter, those in grey are
external and orange links are to the archive of previous issues. Medium watch This
ACF Newsletter is being sent to 1510 addresses. |
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Nominations for ACF Medals (This notice first
posted in 09/10A) All ACF affiliates
are reminded of the opportunity to nominate potential winners of the
following ACF medals, to be awarded in January 2010 in accordance with the
ACF Medals Procedures by www.auschess.org.au/constitution/ACF_Medals_Procedures.txt
Medals – Steiner
Medal – Australian ‘Player of the Year’ 2009 To be awarded to the
player who has made the greatest impact – not necessarily
the highest – Koshnitsky Medal – Chess Administration This is a lifetime
achievement award, not limited to accomplishments or services during a particular
period, and cannot be awarded more than once to the same person. It is
awarded for an outstanding contribution to Australian chess administration at
national or state level. A link [Chess Medals]
to lists of previous ACF medal winners is at www.auschess.org.au/acfrec.htm Nominations Separate
documents containing the following should be provided in respect of each
nominee: ·
name (correctly spelt); ·
contact details (phone, email, postal address); ·
a citation describing relevant achievements, suitable for reading
and/or publication when the medal is presented; ·
anything else relevant to the nomination. A person submitting a nomination must retain at least
one complete copy of each document submitted in connection with the
nomination and must phone (03) 9787 7974 or 0409 525 963 to confirm that it
has been received if delivery has not been acknowledged 24 hours after
expected delivery time. Nominations for the Koshnitsky medal must be sent to one of the following addresses so as to be
received on or before Friday 18
December 2009:
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Nominations for the Steiner
medal must be sent to one of the above addresses as follows:
Presentations The announcement of winners and presentation of medals
will take place at 5pm Wednesday 13 January 2010 in the Norths
Celebrity Room, Distribution of This Notice Recipients of this notice are asked to ensure that it is
distributed as extensively as possible to maximize nominations in respect of
the most suitable nominees. Gary Wastell ACF Medals Selections Coordinator Previous Notices The following notices from prior issues remain in
force 2010 Olympiad:
Activity Requirement and Application Deadline - previously reported 09/09A 11th - previously reported 09/10A Position Vacant – ACF Advertising
Manager The
ACF invites expressions of interest from any reader who might be willing to
oversee the appearance of suitable advertising material in ACF publications,
principally this Newsletter, and on the ACF website. For
additional information please email gwastell@netspace.net.au
with cc to secretary@nswca.org.au |
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2010 Australian Chess
Championship Venue: norths, 2nd
to 13th January 2010 plus various supporting events: a Major Tournament,
a Minor tournament, a shorter seven-round event and the Australian Lightning
Championship. More
information at the official site Entries for the Championship have been received from, among others, GM Zong Yuan Zhao, GM Gawain Jones (Eng), GM Darryl
Johansen, IM Alex Wohl (the current Australian Open
Champion), IM Stephen Solomon, IM Gary Lane, IM George Xie,
IM James Morris, FM Tomek Rej,
FM Vladimir Smirnov, FM Brian Jones CM Max Illingworth, Junta Ikeda, Moulthun Ly and Eugene Schon. GM Ian Rogers will be giving commentaries
throughout the tournament and will judge the best game prize. The
organisers have announced that three copies of the latest Chessbase Magazine have been provided as additional lucky door prizes (4,
5 and 6), to be drawn at the tournament, for entries submitted on-line through the above web site. The first
three prizes are listed as: 1st a top of the range DGT-XL clock donated by
tournament sponsor Chess Discount Sales; 2nd $100 cash courtesy of PayPal;
3rd Fritz 12, rrp ~$95, courtesy of ChessBase. 2010 Australian Junior
Chess Championships The
Tasmanian Chess Association will be hosting the Australian Junior 2010 in In
addition to the age group events there will be national rapid and lightning
championships and a problem solving competition. Details
were previously reported in newsletter 09/09A. More information at the official site |
Australian
Primary and Secondary Schools The Australian
Primary and Secondary Schools Chess Team Finals 2009 will be held at The
following teams have to date been identified on the official website as
qualifying (these lists are not yet complete). Note that the home state may
have an additional representative where this eliminates a bye. Secondary Open: Secondary Girls: Radford College (ACT); St
Peter’s Collegiate Girls’ School (SA); Presbyterian Ladies’
College (Vic); Lauriston (Vic). Primary Open: Kaleen Primary (ACT);
Kings’ Christian College (Qld); Magill Primary (SA); Mount View Primary
School (Vic); Spensely Street Public School (Vic). Primary Girls: Curtin Primary (ACT); More information at the official site http://chess.geniusprophecy.com/astc/ |
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David Smerdon
at the World Cup The World Cup commenced on 20 November in The tournament is run as a series of two-game knockout matches
(slightly longer in the final stages). If a match is tied at 1-1, which
naturally happens often, a sequence of progressively faster tie-break games are
played culminating in an “Armageddon” blitz game where White has
more time but Black progresses on a draw. David, seeded 114 in the 128-player field, met GM Leinier Dominguez of The return game with David as White was also a Sicilian,
featuring David’s invariable Alapin (2.c3)
variation. It was also drawn though after a somewhat longer contest (99
moves). Both games are in the games section below. The match therefore goes
into the rapid playoffs on the third day, or night Australian time, 23
November. This may have been decided (see link below to find out) by the time
you open this newsletter. David has a blog of his adventures here. Taking the first round playoff into a third day is already the
best result by an Australian at a World Cup, except for IM Gary Lane winning
the first round on forfeit in 2005 (though he was then eliminated in the
regulation games in the next round). The winner of the playoff takes on Italian prodigy GM Fabiano Caruana who has already
won his first-round encounter with another Cuban. At this stage the only surprise casualty has been GM Movsesian (Cze) though this
list could grow when all the rapid playoffs are completed. The official site is here. World Teams Championships FIDE has announced that the 2009 World Team Chess Championship will be held in Participants
are the top three from the last Olympiad, Armenia, Israel and USA; the Continental
Champions, Russia, Brazil, China and Egypt; the host country, Turkey; and two
“invited Federations by FIDE President's approval”, Azerbaijan
and Greece. Tournament
conditions include zero default time (more precisely the “zero
tolerance rule” though presumably this means the default time), no draw
offers in the first thirty moves, and all players to attend the opening and
closing ceremonies. Tal Memorial The Tal Memorial, a ten-player round-robin commemorating
Latvia’s Mikhail Tal who was World Champion for about a year 1959-60
and died in 1992, was played in Moscow from 5 to 14 November. The tournament was one of the strongest ever at category 21, the
players’ ratings averaging 2763; the entry level was Ponomariov’s 2739. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus)
won with an undefeated 6/9 from Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) and Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 5.5. World Champion Viswanathan
Anand ( The official site is here (in Russian);
YouTube has some videos including this film of Ivanchuk arriving in a mask to ward off swine flu. Tal Memorial World Blitz Following the Tal Memorial the ten participants were joined by
twelve invited players for what some reports claim as the “World Blitz
Championship” (Nov 16-18). This doesn’t appear to have any such
standing with FIDE, and other sources merely call it the Tal or Tal Memorial
World Blitz. The 22 players played a double round robin – that’s
42 games – over the three days with a time limit of three minutes plus
two seconds per move. Anand led after Day 1 but was
overtaken by Carlsen on Day 2. Carlsen
pulled away on Day 3 to finish with 31 points, followed by Anand 28, Karjakin (Ukr) 25 and Kramnik 24.5. |
World Youth Championships – Bobby Cheng wins world title A number of Australian players, along with a squad of parents
and coaches, participated in this tournament in The big result for Bobby may be only the second Australian to win a world chess championship, after CJS Purdy who was the
first correspondence chess world champion. Raymond Song was equal first in
the U/10s in 2004 but missed out on tie-break. There is a photograph of Bobby on the dais here, along with a shot
of Anton Smirnov. Alana Chibnall has some
photographs here. Anton (U/8) and Yi Yuan (U/14) both led their sections at the
rest day. Yi played a very tough field and fell back a little but Anton held
on to finished equal second (fourth on tie-break). With one title won, two other players in contention and sound
performances across the range this is regarded by many as Australia’s
best ever overall showing at this event. Results for all players - U18: Eugene Schon 4.5, =71th U18G: Tamzin
Oliver 4.5, =46th; Alana Chibnall 4, = 53rd U16: Justin Tan 5.5,
=52nd U16G: Miranda Webb-Liddle 3.5, =90th U14: Yi Yuan 7, =18th U14G: Emma Guo 6, =32nd; Leteisha Simmonds 3.5, =96th U12: Bobby Cheng 9, 1st;
Cedric Koh 4, =116th U12G: Clarise
Koh, Jana Pretorius both 4.5, =76th U10: Callum
Gray 5.5, =68th U8: Anton Smirnov 8.5,
=2nd IM Maxim Matlakov (Rus)
took out the main event. See link
for
the official site. World Seniors’ Championships The Seniors’ Championships (60+ for men and 50+ for women,
as at 1 January this year) were held in GM Miso Cebalo (Cro)
won the Men’s title from GM Janis Klovans (Lat)
on tie-break; both scored 8.5/11. Ilija Ilic with 5.5 finished =77th and Oleg Korenevski
4.5 was =122nd. Former Women’s World Champion GM Nona Gaprindashvili (Geo)
won her section outright with 7.5/9. See link for the official site. Asian Indoor Games Chess
featured in the 3rd Asian Indoor Games (30 Oct – 8 Nov) in Each
event was structured as a nine-round single preliminary section followed by
semi-finals and a final. In the
individual Rapid events Bu Xiangzhi of See link for the official site. |
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For chess tourists The ACF receives information about a wide variety
of chess happenings in other parts of the world, and it is sometimes
difficult to rank the likely levels of interest among Australian players.
The following is a summary of events about which information has been
received in recent times. In some cases, additional information may be
obtained by contacting the Editor or ACF Councillor
for your State Association. The date listed is the start date, see the link for the full schedule. Benidorm Chess
Festival: 27 Nov 2009, Asian Schools
Festival: 16 Dec 2009, Asian Teams
Championship: 20 Dec 2009, Schachfestival: 1 Jan 2010, Bela Perenyi Memorial: 8 Jan 2010, Marienbad Open: 16 Jan 2010, 2nd
Chennai International Open: 25 Jan 2010, Gibtelecom
International Chess Festival: 26 Jan 2010, Bermuda
International Open: 5 Feb 2010, Southampton, Cappelle-la-Grande: 13 Feb 2010, 26th
Budapest Spring Festival Open: 19 Mar 2010, |
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Unauthorised withdrawals Chess
Association of Queensland President Garvin Gray, writing about the 2009
Queensland Championship on the ChessChat bulletin
board and later in the CAQ Newsletter notes that: Unfortunately for the second
year running, the tournament victor received a forfeit win in the final
round. It is fair to say that the rest of the entrants at the venue today
were less than impressed. Garvin
further comments in the Newsletter I
think it is fair to say that one of the biggest banes of organisers and
arbiters alike is when players decide to not show for their final round games
without at least informing the arbiter that they will not be present for the
final round so the arbiter can at least take that player out of the
draw. Not
only is this type of behaviour selfish and in poor form, but it is also
against the unauthorised withdrawal policy of the CAQ. Players
who do not show for a tournament round without prior
explanation can expect a please explain letter in the mail from the CAQ
Council asking why they failed to show for their tournament game and why one
of the above listed actions [see below] should not be taken. For the record CAQ policy on withdrawals from its
events states d) Withdrawals. Any player who has completed the first
round of any tournament shall not withdraw from that tournament
without approval from the organiser or DOP. A player whose withdrawal has not
been approved by the organiser or DOP will be regarded as an unapproved
withdrawer. In such cases one or more of the following penalties may be
applied:- |
- listing as an unapproved withdrawer in CAQ newsletters and/or web
site - and/or suspension from the CAQ The secretary may request a verbal or written explanation in
determining the appropriate course of action To subscribe to the CAQ Newsletter go to the CAQ page IM Igor Goldenberg FIDE
recently approved the award of the IM title to Igor Goldenberg conditional on
some technicalities. These have evidently been cleared up and Igor now
appears as an IM on the FIDE database. Beauty and the Geek Jeremy
Reading emerged unscathed from the sudden death elimination chamber for the
second consecutive week, in spite of his partner dropping a point for her
unlucky guess that the first commercial Boeing 747 flight was in 1803. The last
three pairs compete for the grand prize in the final episode at 8:30pm this
Thursday on Channel Seven; promos appear to show this as being some sort of
rally race around Jeremy’s
opponents are a synthetic organic chemist, who some sites suggest is
synthetic in regards other than just the chemistry, and a mushroom scientist. |
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Victorian Blitz Championship This event
is on at Box Hill CC, This
event in launceston has been moved to November 28
(previously 21) |
The forfeit
time is 60 minutes not 30 as announced previously (60 is common to all 2009
GP events; 30 will apply for all in 2010). Organisers
have announced that the prize fund has been increased to $1500 with first of
$500, and the event will be Class 2. (links to these tournaments
below) |
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2010 Grand Prix The
first iteration of the 2010 Yulgilbar-Think Big Australian
Chess Grand Prix has been loaded by GP Co-ordinator Brian Jones. link
Players
should check back on the calendar from time to time as it will expand with
the registration of more events. Organisers are required to register
tournaments by 31 December (link in next section). 2009 Grand Prix With
four tournaments to go there are big leads to GM David Smerdon
(ACT) in the Open, Emma Guo in both the Women and Girls and Eugene Schon (Vic) in the U2000. The other two sections are
closer with Max Illingworth (NSW) 4.58 points ahead in the Junior while
Andrew Pan (NSW) leads the U1600 by 6.23. See link
for full scores. Recent GP weekend results No Grand
Prix events have been held since the previous newsletter. 2009 Vikings Weekender (ACT) 28-29 November, Vikings Erindale (Auditorium),
2009 The
Queensland Veterans Championship is for players who are born before 1/1/1959. DATES: Saturday and Sunday November 28/29 VENUE: Blue Fin Fishing Club. FORMAT:
Six round individual swiss PLAY
STARTS: 9:30am Saturday, 9:30am Sunday For
further information or to register, please contact either Gail
Young on 0411 704 815 or qwcl@hotmail.com Garvin
Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further
information available here. 2009 The
Queensland Disabled Championship is for players who have a disability pension
card. DATES: Saturday and Sunday November 28/29 VENUE: Blue Fin Fishing Club. FORMAT:
Six round individual swiss PLAY
STARTS: 9:30am Saturday, 9:30am Sunday For
further information or to register, please contact either Gail
Young on 0411 704 815 or qwcl@hotmail.com Garvin
Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further
information available here. 2009 The
Queensland Women's Championship is open to all female players. DATES: Saturday and Sunday November 28/29 VENUE: Blue Fin Fishing Club. FORMAT:
Seven round individual swiss PLAY
STARTS: 9:30am Saturday, 9:30am Sunday For
further information or to register, please contact either Gail
Young on 0411 704 815 or qwcl@hotmail.com Garvin
Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further
information available here. |
. 2009 The
Queensland Team Championship is open to all players who can organise and
enter an eight player adult team (which can include juniors rated over 1600
ACF) in the Premier Division or a four player team in the JUNIOR division. DATES: Sunday December 13 TEAM
NOMINATIONS CLOSE: Sunday December 6 INDIVIDUAL
PLAYER NOMINATIONS CLOSE:
Saturday December 12 VENUE:
Gardiner Chess Centre. FORMAT:
Five round team swiss or round robin depending on
number of teams nominated PLAY
STARTS: 10am Sunday December 13 For
further information or to register, please contact: Garvin
Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further
information available here. 2009 The
Queensland Lightning Championship is CAQ title event and is open to all
players who are interested in blitz chess. DATES: Sunday December 13 VENUE:
Gardiner Chess Centre. FORMAT:
Five round team swiss or round robin depending on
number of teams nominated TIME
CONTROL: 3 minutes plus 2 seconds (Fischer) PLAY
STARTS: 5pm Sunday December 13 For
further information or to register, please contact: Garvin
Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further
information available here. 2010 The
2010 Australia Day Weekender is the first ACF rated GP Class 2 weekender in
Qld for 2010. This
event is also FIDE RATED. DATES: Saturday January 23 till Tuesday January
26 VENUE: FORMAT:
Seven round individual swiss TIME
CONTROL: 90 minutes per player plus 30 seconds per move (Fischer) PLAY
STARTS: 11am Saturday January 23 For
further information or to register, please contact: Garvin
Gray on 0422 993 062 or graygarvin@gmail.com Further
information available here. This is
the final Grand Prix event of 2009, to be held at Box Hill Chess Club 3
Rochester Road Canterbury from December 27
to 29. It will be ACF and FIDE rated. link
contact |
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Grand Prix events Nov 28-29 Vikings Weekender, Tuggeranong, ACT link Dec 5-6 Christmas Open, Dec 19-20 MCC Christmas Weekender, Melbourne, Vic link Dec 27-29 Canterbury Christmas Swiss, Melbourne, Vic link Jan 23-26 2010 Australia Day Weekender,
Brisbane, Qld link
Feb 6-7 2010 Ranges Summer Sizzler Upwey, Vic
link Full 2009 GP
calendar: link Register for 2010: link Victorian Blitz Ch Box Hill CC; 29 Nov 2009 link
contact December
Fischer Allegro
SACC; 1 Dec link December
Rapid SACC; 8
and 15 Dec link Lidums Australian Allegro Chess Championship Glenelg; 26 Dec link |
Please
notify forthcoming tournaments to auschessnews@gmail.com |
STATE NEWS
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(by Garvin Gray, quoted from the CAQ Newsletter) 2009 Congratulations to Ben Lazarus who is the new Queensland
Champion. Ben thoroughly deserved his victory, performing a class above the
field. Unfortunately for the second year running, the tournament
victor received a forfeit win in the final round. It is fair to say that the
rest of the entrants at the venue today were less than impressed. David did
ring me a couple of hours later to explain his no show and was deeply
apologetic. CAQ Council is now reviewing all aspects from the Championship in
preparation for next year’s event. All Games from the Championship can be viewed here. 2009 Congratulations to Louay Al Zaher for winning the 2009 Queensland Minor Championship.
After two days of competitive chess, Louay Al Zaher emerged victorious by just half a point from John Alkin, Alex Ruddy and Gerard Akers. The Minor
Championship was decided in the last few minutes of the final round with a
win by Alex Ruddy over John Alkin, which allowed Louay Al Zaher to pass John Alkin to win the Minr
Championship. With his win, Louay now gains a
seeded spot in the 2010 Queensland Championship. ACTCA has decided that it will hold the ACT Lightning
Championship at the start of each year and the ACT Rapid at the end. The 2009
Rapid will be on Saturday 19th December at Street Chess ( |
GM Darryl Johansen won the Lexus of Blackburn Victorian
Championship (Oct 10 – Nov 15) with 9/11 from IM James Morris 8 and FM
Eddy Levi and Wang-Sheng Lee 7. Darryl has also been named as the Victorian chess player of
the month for November. The Reserves was won by David Beaumont 8.5/9 from Mehmedelija Dizdarevic
8. The
Chess Victoria AGM will be held later this month. The 2010 calendar for SACA has been announced and can be
viewed here. The web page also announces that the 2010 SA Championship will be
named the Romanas Arlauskas
Memorial State Championship and will have a first prize of $1000. State pages (links) State associations are invited
to submit regular round-ups for inclusion, as are clubs and other bodies. |
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From: Brian Jones Dear Ian The $10,000 sponsorship from Cepacol was agreed between John Baker and
myself at a private meeting in 1989 on the 10th
Floor of the AMP Centre in I subsequently booked the venue at UTS, as I was also then the acting
General Manager of the UTS subsidiary company, Insearch
Limited. The main NSWCA organiser was Telstra marketing specialist Larry Ermacora and I personally provided Financial Control of
the Championships. |
The
record numbers at UTS were generated by the efforts of all the NSWCA Council
members at the time. These
council members included John Maddix, Roy Laurence,
John Mynott, Jonathan Mendel, Ross Kingsley, Carol
Holmes, Abraham Stzern and others. Many of these councillors subsequently resigned from NSWCA and left
chess administration after a disputed EGM proxy vote over Peter Parr's
national chess magazine. Peter Parr may have been involved with the 1996 Australian Championships
held at UTS and did later become NSWCA President. However, the 1996 Australian Championships were nowhere near as
successful as the 1990 Australian Championships.
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Maryborough One-Day Fun Tournament This
event was held on Saturday 14 November. The following report by Allan Menham is quoted from the ChessChat
bulletin board. Twenty eight players competed,
16 in the Senior Section and 12 in the Junior Section. |
Some players were playing in
their first tournament and some were using clocks for the first time. With
the interest shown by the Maryborough players, John Surridge
is going to try to form a Chess Club in the near future. It was noted that
some players play at the Maryborough Library on a Thursday afternoon. |
Dominguez,L (2719) - Smerdon,D
(2525) [B76]
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Eiti,Bashir (
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Cheng,Bobby (2202) –
Mousavi,Seyed Khalil
(Iran) (2099) [A70]
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Next issues Tuesday
8 December (deadline Friday 4 December) Tuesday
22 December (deadline Friday 18 December) Tuesday
26 January 2010 (deadline Friday 22 January) To subscribe
to the newsletter go to http://www.auschess.org.au/ To
unsubscribe click the link which should appear at the bottom of the
newsletter. To change your address do both. |
Useful addresses Newsletter
contact: auschessnews@gmail.com ACF web
site: http://www.auschess.org.au/ Newsletter
Archive: http://www.auschess.org.au/bulletins/acfbt.htm Thanks
to our contributors to this issue including Allen Menham,
Garvin Gray, Brian Jones, anyone else I overlooked and those whose
information I purloined from other sources. |