David Smerdon's Second GM Norm

David Smerdon has won the 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open outright on 7.5/9. At the same time he took his second GM norm. David got his first norm at the Australian Championship 2006 in Brisbane. He now needs one more norm and a 2500 FIDE rating to secure the title. His rating on the latest Fide list – April 2007 – is 2456 so the rating target is well within range. The upcoming Sydney International Tournament also gives him a good chance of taking his third norm.

 GM Ian Rogers, FM Tim Reilly and Oleg Korenevski also played in Group A of the Tournament. Ian finished equal 3 – 8 (3rd on tie-break) on 6.5 behind three-time winner GM Rogelio Antonio while Tim scored 5/9 and was in a large bunch in places 25 – 41 (30th on tie-break) while Oleg scored 3.5. There were 85 players. WFM Cathy Rogers played in Group B where she scored 4/7 and finished  equal 6 – 9 (7th on tie-break). There were 24 players.

Junior Selections for Overseas Events 2007

Applications are invited for selection to participate in certain overseas events including the World Youth Championships in Turkey from 17 to 29 November, the World Youth u16 Olympiad in Singapore from 4 to 12 August in Singapore and the World Junior (u20) Championships in Armenia from 2 to 17 October 2007.

Applications should be made to the ACF Junior Events Selection Co-ordinator, Brett Tindall.

The full list of the events covered and an on-line entry form are available on Brett's website at http://www.sydneyacademyofchess.com.au/wjapplication.htm .

Please note the proviso about event details on the form.

Players will be selected in accordance with the ACF selection procedures. These can be seen at http://www.auschess.org.au/constitution/Selection_Procedures_By-law.txt .

Entries close on 29 April 2007.

Myer Tan Australian Chess Grand Prix 2007

Coming Events

For full Grand Prix details see the website at www.chessaustralia.com.au/grandprix/index.cfm

Some greater details of to of those events.

Darling Downs Open 2007

Dates: Saturday 16 June - Sunday 17 June 2007

Venue:Toowoomba Grammar Junior School,
Herries Street, Toowoomba.

Prizes:
$500 1st place
$300 2nd place
$200 3rd place
-----------------------------------
Rating Prizes:- under 1500 1st $150, 2nd $100.
Under 1000 – 1st $150, 2nd $100
Junior (Under 18) – trophies and medallions;
Best Toowoomba player $100.

Session times:
Registration: 9-30am to 10-30am Saturday.
Round 1 - 11am, Round 2 – 1-30pm, round 3 – 4pm.
Sunday Round 4 – 9am, Round 5 – 11-30pm, Round 6 – 2pm.

Time controls: 60 minutes plus 10 seconds per move (Fischer)

Arbiter - Kevin Duncan

Entry fee and conditions:
Adult’s $50. Pensioners/Full Time Students $40. Juniors $30.
Late entry fee (After 15 June) an additional $10. All non-CAQ members, an additional $10 CAQ joining fee.

Entries/enquiries:
Post entries to: Ross Mills,
16 Prosser St., Rockville, Toowoomba 4350.
Phone: (07) 4634.2548 or 0419 753 626.

Lidums Checkmate Open Chess Tournament 2007

From George Howard
President - South Australian Chess Association

SACA is very proud to announce that Justin Freytag trading as Australian Field Services P/l has given us a large sponsorship with which we are upgrading this tournament to be held on July 7th and 8th to a Grand Prix category 5.

The venue is the University of Adelaide.

Total prize money of $8,000.

Free entry for GM's and IM's plus a free dinner on Saturday evening with normal bar facilities open from 8.00 pm. We have also allocated extra monetary and transport offsets for GM's and financial offsets for IM's of a lower amount than that for GM's.

IA's Roland Eime and Charles Zworestine will be the Arbiters.

The tournament will be a 7 round swiss with a time limit of 60 mins + 10 seconds per move from the start of the game

An entry form and more details are available at the SACA website page http://www.sachess.org/events/2007/LidumsCheckmate.html

Completed Grand prix events

Sydney International Open 2007
This was probably the strongest tournament ever held in Australia. It began on 10 April immediately after the O2C 45th Doeberl Cup which was probably the strongest weekender ever held in Australia. In each case the telling factor was the presence of a number of overseas Grandmasters. In the Doeberl Cup, the Australians got the better of them. But in the Sydney International, they visitors got their revenge as GM Ian Rogers had predicted in his speech at the Doeberl Cup prize presentation. The event finished on Saturday 14 April.

First place was shared by GM Georgy Timoshenko (Ukraine) and GM Dejan Antic (Serbia) with 7.5/9. However the overseas players did not have it all their own way. There were three Australians in a four-way tie for places 3 - 6. The tied players were (in tie-break order) GM Victor Mikhalevski (Israel), IM Zong-Yuan Zhao, GM Darryl Johansen and IM Gary Lane on 7/9.

Local pundits had been predicting some FIDE Title norms from this event. In the upshot there was only one, as far as I am aware. Moreover he was someone who slipped under the predictors' radar with a top performance, namely the ACT's Gareth Oliver with an IM norm. Congratulations!

I plan to have more on this tournament in a future issue.

A complete cross table can be seen at Chessaustralia.com.au. Individual games can be viewed by clicking on the game result in the table. Many thanks to Brian Jones for this resource.

Doeberl Cup

	Click for larger image

The O2C 45th Doeberl Cup, a Class 5 event and Australia's leading weekender, was played over 7 rounds at the Easter weekend. The winner of the Premier Division was GM Ian Rogers, undefeated on 6/7, after a close tussle. Several players had a chance to win and during the final round a big tie seemed possible. Yet Ian Rogers displayed the fighting qualities for which he is well-known and defeated his opponent, GM Victor Mikhalevski (Israel 2590) thus securing the title outright. This was Ian's 12th victory in the Doeberl Cup, having first won it in 1980. The visiting Grandmasters were routed by their Australian opposition who also secured placings 2 - 4 in a tie. The players were IMs David Smerdon, Stephen Solomon and Gary Lane on 5.5.

ACT players dominated the Major Division (under 2000), securing 4 of the top 5 places. Outright winner was Adrian de Noskowski on 6.5/7. Sherab Guo-Yuthok was second on 5.5. Richard Voon (Vic.), Allen Setiabudi and Yi Yuan tied for third on 5.

In the Minor Division (under 1600) Jonathan Shen (NSW) was the winner on 6.5/7 with Trent Parker (NSW) second on 6. There was a four-way tie for the next placings involving Shirley Wu (OS), Nikola Ivanov (Vic.), Miona Ikeda (ACT) and Laurence Matheson (Vic.) with 5.5.

The Seniors Event was won by visiting New Zealander, Robert Gibbons with 6.5/7. Phil Viner (6) was second and Bill Egan (4.5), third.

Dubbo Open
This tournament was held on the weekend of 24 – 25 March 2007. As is its tradition, it was a pleasant and social event that attracted a good field of 21 players from the region and as far afield as Canberra. Indeed, one joint winner on 5/6 was Bill Egan from Canberra who is now in the veteran class and is a former ACTCA President and Doeberl Cup organiser. The other joint winner deservedly was Alexander Aich who has organised this event for some years. It's good to see the chess organisers getting some over-the-board success!

Full results were -

No Name                     Loc  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6 
1  Egan, Bill               1530 5     14:W 10:W  4:D  6:W  3:W  2:D
2  Aich, Alexander          1489 5     12:W  7:W  6:W  3:D 10:W  1:D
3  Bourke, Phil             1526 4.5   19:W 11:W 13:W  2:D  1:L  5:W
4  Van Der Wal, Fritz       1789 4.5   16:W  9:W  1:D  5:L  8:W 11:W
5  Bemrose, Trevor          1784 4     13:D  8:D 14:W  4:W  7:W  3:L
6  Hellman, Oscar           1716 4     15:W 21:W  2:L  1:L 13:W  9:W
7  Mann, Garry                   4     18:W  2:L 16:W  9:W  5:L 10:W
8  Losh, Gary               1438 3.5   11:L  5:D 19:W 16:W  4:L 18:W
9  Wilkie, Mary             1307 3     20:W  4:L 11:W  7:L 15:W  6:L
10 Parsons, Col             1310 3     17:W  1:L 21:W 15:W  2:L  7:L
11 Teisseyre, Marcin             3      8:W  3:L  9:L 20:W 18:W  4:L
12 Aich, Ramon              797  3      2:L 15:L 18:L  0:W 14:W 19:W
13 Wilson, Greg             1191 2.5    5:D 18:W  3:L 14:D  6:L 15:D
14 Aylwin, Helen            1015 2.5    1:L 17:W  5:L 13:D 12:L  0:W
15 Pandich, Donald          1174 2.5    6:L 12:W 20:W 10:L  9:L 13:D
16 Yeong, Jonathan          1300 2.5    4:L 19:W  7:L  8:L 17:D 21:W
17 Rogerson, David               2.5   10:L 14:L  0:W 18:L 16:D 20:W
18 Emblen, Pat              1319 2      7:L 13:L 12:W 17:W 11:L  8:L
19 Momot, Alex              848  2      3:L 16:L  8:L 21:W  0:W 12:L
20 Dowton, Norman                2      9:L  0:W 15:L 11:L 21:W 17:L
21 Tran, Jordan                  1      0:W  6:L 10:L 19:L 20:L 16:L

Queensland Open
This class 2 event was played over 7 rounds at the Easter weekend in Brisbane. The winner was  Phachara Wongwitchit on 6.5/7. Second was John Alkin on 5.5. Toshi Kimura (5) was third. The final cross-table was  -

No Name                   Loc  Total  1    2    3    4    5    6    7 
1  WONGWICHIT, Phachara   1923 6.5   27:W  6:W  2:W  3:W  4:D 15:W 11:W
2  ALKIN, John            1726 5.5   28:W 17:W  1:L  8:D  7:W  5:W  6:W
3  KIMURA, Toshi          1966 5     18:W  7:W  9:W  1:L  8:W  6:L  4:W
4  MANONGAS, Jesse        1681 4.5    0:D 16:W 15:D 18:W  1:D  9:W  3:L
5  STOKES, Mark C         1615 4.5   14:W 23:D  8:L 16:W 11:W  2:L 15:W
6  MULLER, Jonas          1576 4.5   25:W  1:L 24:W 19:W  9:D  3:W  2:L
7  STEWART, Craig A       1518 4.5   26:W  3:L 27:W 15:D  2:L 17:W 16:W
8  WALKER, Tyson          1473 4.5   29:W 15:D  5:W  2:D  3:L 10:W  9:D
9  LESTER, George E       1798 4     20:W 11:W  3:L 12:W  6:D  4:L  8:D
10 AMBATALI, Ric - Senior 1691 4     21:W 12:W 23:L 11:L 20:W  8:L 18:W
11 BUCIU, Aurel-John      1485 4     30:W  9:L 28:W 10:W  5:L 19:W  1:L
12 LIU, Yi                1347 4     22:W 10:L 31:W  9:L 18:D 13:D 19:W
13 KANAGARAJAH, Abbie     1071 4     16:D 19:L 14:L 29:W 24:W 12:D 21:W
14 TORISE, Daniel         1059 4      5:L 18:L 13:W 24:W 19:L 31:W 22:W
15 THOMAS, Brian          1869 3.5   24:W  8:D  4:D  7:D 17:W  1:L  5:L
16 MURRAY, Victor-David   1650 3.5   13:D  4:L 21:W  5:L 26:W 22:W  7:L
17 BOOY, Peter            1342 3.5   31:W  2:L  0:D 27:W 15:L  7:L 26:W
18 ERIKSSON, Caleb        1296 3.5    3:L 14:W 20:W  4:L 12:D 28:W 10:L
19 CRISTUTA, Roy          1311 3     23:L 13:W 22:+  6:L 14:W 11:L 12:L
20 O'FLYNN, Alexander     1219 3      9:L 30:W 18:L 31:W 10:L 26:L 27:W
21 GOH, Beng              1110 3     10:L 22:L 16:L  0:W 31:W 25:W 13:L
22 AISA, Mario                 3     12:L 21:W 19:- 28:W 25:W 16:L 14:L
23 SARFATI, Jonathan      2265 2.5   19:W  5:D 10:W  0:   0:   0:   0:
24 CIGELJ, David          1230 2.5   15:L 26:W  6:L 14:L 13:L 29:D 30:W
25 MILES, Alex            1028 2.5    6:L 27:L 29:D 30:W 22:L 21:L 28:W
26 BASSETT, Benjamin      925  2.5    7:L 24:L 30:W  0:D 16:L 20:W 17:L
27 SURRIDGE, John         1286 2      1:L 25:W  7:L 17:L 28:L 30:W 20:L
28 GOH, Jily              1128 2      2:L 29:W 11:L 22:L 27:W 18:L 25:L
29 BUCIU, Alex            872  2      8:L 28:L 25:D 13:L 30:L 24:D 31:W
30 GOH, Tetias            789  1     11:L 20:L 26:L 25:L 29:W 27:L 24:L
31 FOSTER, Allan               1     17:L  0:W 12:L 20:L 21:L 14:L 29:L

Other Events Coming Up Soon

Oceania Zonal
A reminder that entries are still open for the Oceania Zonal Championship in Fij, 5 – 12 May 2007.  But entries not in by 30 April will incur a 20% surcharge. Full details of the event, confirmed entries and accommodation are at the website http://www.oceaniachess.com

FIDE News

FIDE Ratings
The Fide Rating List for April 2007 is now out and apparently settled after a few hiccups. There are 296 Australians on the list. The top 10 are

George Xie confirmed as IM
George Xie, has reached 2400. He was approved for the IM title at the FIDE General Assembly in Turin last year conditional upon attaining the necessary 2400 rating. ACF FIDE Ratings Officer, Greg Canfell drew to FIDE's attention that George should now be shown as a fully-fledged IM. Greg reports that FIDE has now acknowledged that George is in fact an IM and will “soon” amend the published records. Congratulations George on at last being recognised!

Full details of the FIDE-rated Australians are at http://users.tpg.com.au/canfell/April07_active.txt .

The complete list of FIDE Ratings can be seen at the Ratings menu on the FIDE website http://www.fide.com/ .

New FIDE Commercial Arrangement
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumkhinov and his former rival in the Presidential election last year, Bessel Kok, have announced the launch of a joint commercial venture to promote major tournaments. In a joint press release on 4 April they said:

“The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Mr Bessel Kok have met in Dresden to announce formally the commencement of operations of Global Chess BV. The main office will be in Amsterdam where negotiations on space in the Max Euwe Centrum are in a final stage. A branch office in Lausanne is also envisaged.

The first part of the working capital has been transferred to Global Chess BV and this will permit the Company to finalize negotiations with FIDE on a commercial licence agreement.

Upon conclusion of the license agreement, Global Chess will (in cooperation with FIDE) start working on World Class Chess tournaments (including the WCC cycle as from 2008). Global Chess will equally examine investment opportunities in Chess related projects and ventures.

The Chairman of Global Chess BV will be Mr Bessel Kok and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company will be Mr Geoffrey Borg.

Kirsan Ilymzhinov
Bessel Kok

This spirit of co-operation is welcome after the apparent bitterness of the election.

Other News

Tasmanian Schools Teams Championships - naming rights sponsorship

The Tasmanian Chess Association is seeking applications for naming rights sponsorship for the 2007 Tasmanian Schools Teams Championship.  An application may also include an application to conduct the event on behalf of the TCA.  Sponsorship would be used to fund event promotion, trophies, junior chess promotion within Tasmania and TCA costs associated with entry to the Australian Schools Teams Championship.  Benefits to the sponsor would include publicity via media releases and in promotional material sent to schools, and placement of the sponsor's name on trophies.  A higher level of sponsorship is also available which would assist in providing funding for successful teams to compete at the Australian Schools Teams Championships, and provide benefits to the sponsor including team clothing with company logos and distribution of advertising at junior events.

For application guidelines and further information please contact Russell Horton, TCA Junior Chess Officer, email hortons@bigpond.com, ph. (03) 6425 5940

Kevin Bonham
Secretary
Tasmanian Chess Association.

Tailpiece

We are always happy to receive news items and other material on national, international or State tournaments and happenings. Now that the Newsletter and the ACF website are separately organised please be sure to send your contributions to the editors and not the Webmaster. They should go to me at denis.jessop@netspeed.com.au with a cc to Stephen Cannings who produces this newsletter.

We apologise for the lateness of this issue which was caused by several problems experienced by each editor.

Denis Jessop
Editor
33 Cargelligo Street, Duffy, ACT 2611
Phone: 02 6288 1935
Mob. 0418 278 324