ACF NEWS

OLYMPIAD SELECTIONS: 38th FIDE Chess Olympiad, Dresden, Germany

from Kevin Bonham, ACF Selections Director

Applications are now open for the Australian Open and Womens Olympiad Teams for the 38^th Chess Olympiad to be held in Dresden, Germany from 12 - 25 November 2008. (Event website: www.dresden2008.org)

An Open team and a Womens team, each consisting of five players and a non-playing captain, will be selected to represent Australia at this event. Players and captains are entitled to full board from the host organisation (two double and two single rooms per team) and travel subsidies from the ACF's Olympiad Appeal fundraising efforts (see www.caq.org.au/olympiad/index.htm for current progress.)

APPLYING FOR SELECTION

Those wishing to be considered for selection as players must apply, by email or in writing (email strongly preferred) by 20 June 2008. Please refer to item 5 of the ACF Selection By-Laws before applying, and for details of material required in an application (item 5.4). The full Selection By-Laws are available online in PDF form at www.auschess.org.au/constitution/Selection%20Procedures%20after%2012%20Feb%202008.pdf. A text copy will be emailed on request.

Please send all applications by email, and any queries about the selections process, to Kevin Bonham (k_bonham@tassie.net.au). If an emailed application has not been acknowledged as received within seven days, please phone (03) 6224 8487 or 0421 428 775. Written applications signed by the applicant may be posted to 410 Macquarie St, South Hobart, Tas 7004.

The names of known applicants will be released progressively on the Olympiad Appeal website as applications are received. Applicants' supporting statements and results summaries, and ratings and results information to be made available to the selectors, will be published online at an address to be announced, and available for public scrutiny, after applications close. Any corrections or additions to this material must then be made by 1 July 2008. Provisional selection results will be advised to all applicants and made public shortly after selections are finalised, on or about 15 July 2008.

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR APPLICANTS

1. Please, if possible, provide an email address that you will check regularly (preferably at least weekly) from the time of your application until the end of July. If at all possible, please send your application from this address.

2. All applicants should keep a copy of their application. Any claims for late application on the grounds of email transmission problems will not be accepted unless accompanied by a copy of the application and a letter from the sender's ISP confirming that the application was sent.

3. Activity Rule: All applicants must have completed 20 games that have been, or will be, rated by the ACF, FIDE or another approved organisation, in the time period 20 June 2007 - 20 June 2008 and at a normal (non-rapid) time limit. However, it is not required that all 20 games have been rated or even submitted for rating by 20 June, so long as they will be rated at some stage. If you have not yet reached your 20 games when you submit your application, please say so, and advise which events you intend to play in to reach 20 games by the deadline.

CAPTAINCIES

Applications for captaincies will be called for in June with a closing date a few days after selections are made public. Unsuccessful applicants for the teams are entitled to apply for a captaincy. Team captains will then be selected by the ACF Council, taking into account (but not necessarily bound by) the preferences and comments of team members. Exact dates and processes for captaincy applications will be announced closer to this stage.

SUMMARY OF DATES

14 April Applications Open
20 June Applications Close
1 July Deadline for Corrections / Material to Selectors
15 July Deadline for Selectors' Votes - provisional selection results advised ASAP to all applicants and published.

This notice also appears online at chesschat.org/showthread.php?p=170639 and has also been sent to the ACF Selections Email List. Please feel free to pass this information on to anyone who may be interested.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP 2008-2009

from Gary Wastell, ACF President

ACF by-laws and resolutions governing the conduct of Australian Championship tournaments, including the Australian Open Championship, may be seen on the ACF web site at www.auschess.org.au by following the link to Constitution and By-laws.

As most readers will be aware, the ACF has not yet received a satisfactory bid for the 2008-2009 Australian Open Championship to be held at the normal time, which is a starting date in late December or very early January and a finishing date towards the middle of January. There is no date or organiser yet appointed for the event. Some negotiations have taken place with interested parties. but they have to date not been fruitful. However, there has been an expression of interest in having the title decided by results in a tournament that is currently scheduled to be held in NSW in a later month.

The ACF wishes to ensure that the Championship, which under current by-laws will incorporate the 2008-2009 Australian Women's Championship, is held.

Consequently the ACF Council, on 14 April, resolved to call for bids for the 2008-2009 Australian Open on the following basis:
- Deadline for bids is 15 May 2008;
- Organiser must endeavour to conduct the tournament in compliance with all ACF Council resolutions and by-laws not suspended for the purpose;
- ACF will provide the organiser with a guarantee against loss of an amount not exceeding $2000, receipt of which would be conditional upon presentation of a financial statement acceptable to the Council;
- Bids should contain the information required by the By-laws for ACF Tournaments, which are at www.auschess.org.au/constitution/index.html;
- Bids should be submitted to the ACF Secretary Jey Hoole at jeydh4@hotmail.com with a copy to ACF President Gary Wastell at gwastell@netspace.net.au.

A prepared form covering the matters in those by-laws may be obtained by contacting either of the above.

2008 ERGAS CHESS SQUAD

from Kerry Lyall, 2008 Ergas Coordinator

The following players have been selected for the 2008 Ergas Chess Squad: Andrew Brown, Michael Chan, Emma Guo, Vincent Horton, Abbie Kanagarajah, Joshua Lau, Lawrence Matheson, Mirakla Mithran, Luthien Russell, Annurag Sannidhanam, Eugene Schon, Caroline Shan, Leteisha Simmonds, Justin Tan, Sally Yu, Fedja Zulfic, Cedric Antolis, Yita Choong, Sam Dalton, Samuel Grigg, Charmain Zhang, Alannah Byrne, Ben Harris, Katrina Knapp, Ben Lazarus, Alana Chibnall, Alistair Dyer, Anton Smirnov, Christopher Wallis & Derek Yu.

The Ergas Training Camp will be in Melbourne from 7 July to 13 July 2008 in the Emulation Hall, Rochester Road, Canterbury.

CHESS AS SPORT PETITION

SACA President George Howard will be organising a signature campaign to petition that chess be recognised as a sport in Australia.

These petitions will be used by George in his meeting with the Federal Government Minister of Sport, as evidence of the support for the ACF campaign to have chess recognised as a sport.

BRISBANE CHESS CLUB HISTORY

from Howard Duggan, VP Brisbane Chess Club

The Brisbane Chess Club continues to document as much of its history as possible on its web site at http://www.scenemagazine.com.au/bcc/.

It is looking for the names of club champions of yesteryear, office bearers and any club history pertinent to its numerous changes of locale.

Please visit their site, have a look at the holes in their records and if you feel you can assist with even the smallest morsel of information, contact Howard Duggan (details on the site).

JUNIOR EMAIL LIST

from Jenni Oliver

An e-mail list is planned for 2008. It is for juniors, coaches, parents and interested people. It is envisaged that it will be used for distributing information on events such as overseas selections, Ergas selections, etc. Initially it will also be used as a discussion mechanism for concepts such as the need for a national body to deal with junior affairs (AusJCL). Can interested people please send their e-mail address to jenni@stratagemcc.com.au

MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS GRAND PRIX

http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm?site=grandprix

Coming Grand Prix Events

EVENTS CALENDAR

1^st Mumbai International Open

Venue Goregaon Sports Club, New Link Road, Malad, Mumbai.
Format 11 Round FIDE Swiss.
Entry fee Free to GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. Entry fees depending of rating.
Prizes for 1^st to 30^th, Rs. 2,75,000/-, Rs. 1,70,000, Rs. 100,000, etc. and rating prizes. Total cash prizes 11,00,000/-.
Registration by 25/3/08. Late fee of Rs. 500/- by 2/5/08 or Rs. 1000/- by 20:00 8/5/08.
Enquiries venuschessacademy@gmail.com or venuschess@gmail.com
Flyer PDF

Gardiner Chess Gold Coast Open

Venue Carrara Community Centre, Nielsens Road, Carrara.
Format Three 7 Round Swisses.
Entry fee Open $90 ($60 J/P/S); U/1600 $60; U/1000 $50. $10 discount for entries paid by 26/6/08.
Prizes Open: $1500, $1000, $750, $300, $250, $200 (U/2000 $100). U/1600: $400, $200, $100 (Rating groups $100, $60). U/1000: Trophies & Medals.
Registration 8.30 to 9.00 a.m., Saturday, 28 June.
Enquiries outreachchess@bigpond.com or Peter Bender 07 5556 0434
Flyer here.

OVERSEAS NEWS

IX EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

The 9^th European Individual Chess Championship, an 11-round Swiss, took place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from April 21st to May 3rd 2008. The event boasted 96 grandmasters, 70 in the "Super-GM" category of 2600 rating points or higher, and 105 IMs!

The winner was GM Sergey Tiviakov of the Netherlands, who scored 8½/11, half a point ahead of his nearest rivals. He was always amongst the leaders, having started with 3½ out of 4 and playing on the top boards after that. After a series of tiebreaks, the Silver medal went to GM Sergie Movsesian (SVK) and the Bronze medal to GM Sergey Volkov (RUS). The Women's event was won by GM Kateryna Lahno (UKR).

Leading final scores:

TAILPIECE