ACF BULLETIN #3 

This is being sent to 339 Australian chess email
addresses and from my wife Wendy's computer until I can figure out how to
import all these addresses into Outlook Express.

AUST JUNIORS
I've just returned from Hervey Bay where David and Marlies Jaksic put on an
excellent Aust Junior Champs with 117 entrants. The coaches agreed that
once again there was an improvement in the overall standard of play. In
Melbourne at the Jan 93 Champs the leaders in the Boys Under 12s were rated
in the 900s. This year around 1600+ was required to win! David Smerdon was
in outstanding form and scored an Australian record 10.5/11 after finishing
in second place in the preceeding two years. The only player to hold on for
the first 8 or 9 rounds was Laura Moylan who finished in a splendid second
place. Geoff Butler coached both players in this event. Zong Zhao had his
first ordinary tournament with 7/11 but had the immense consolation of
winning the Steiner Medal for 1998 player of the year in Australian chess.
Other stand out performers were Peter Jovanovic who won the Under 12s, Jade
Lauer-Smith who won the Girls Under 12s & Catherine Lip/Jasmine
Lauer-Smith/Shiloh Norris who shared the Open Girls Title. Many coaches
attended the Champs incl Michael Gluzman, David Cordover, Geoff Butler,
Tristan Reeves, Alex Davidovic, Nick Speck, Manuel Weeks, Malcolm
Tredenick, Andrew Allen and Kerry Corker. They were joined by Gary Lane
from the UK who coached both the Boys U18 and Girls U18 World Junior
Champions at the recent World Juniors in Spain. These coaches add greatly
to the culture of these junior championships and indeed to the whole
development of chess in Australia. Next year the Aust Juniors will be held
in Melbourne and we hope to see a bigger and better turnout than ever.

AUST CHAMPS DEC/JAN 99/00
We still only have one submission (from Gosford) so if you want to host
this event you'll have to get your submission in quickly.

QVB GM/IM/Open Events, Sydney
I'm informed by several people that this series of events being organised
by Jason Lyons, sponsored by Dato Tan Chin Nam and held in the magnificent
ballroom of the QVB Building is one of the finest ever held in Australia.
Jason has put in a monumental effort to bring this to fruition and has
organised it in such a way that it is sustainable. I understand that Dato
Tan has asked Jason to organise the event again in early 2000. This is a
tremendous testament to Jason's efforts. I would like to think that this
might inspire all those chess organisers around Australia to try and create
more activity. The chess community needs as much activity as possible. In
my opinion the organisers are every bit as important to the future of
Australian chess as the players. At the time of writing Joel Benjamin takes
a half point lead into the final round ahead of Ian Rogers who recovered
well from a slow start. Vladimir Feldman was pursuing an IM norm, Irina
Berezina a WGM norm and Igor Belin an IM norm. 12 year old Arianne Caoili
scored 2.5/6, her best result in this sort of company to date.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN SUNCOAST UNI
Once again we have to thank the organisers for their enormous efforts in
bringing this event to the Australian chess community. The committee which
included David Waterhouse, Robert Hochstadt, Derek Jeffries and other
stalwarts put in over two years of hard yakka and were rewarded with a very
competitive tournament (won by Vadim Milov) and over 150 entrants. Once
again the standout performers were juniors with David Smerdon, Zong Zhao
and Kuan Kuan Tian appearing on the top 5 boards in the final round and
Arianne Caoili winning the womens prize.

ZONAL
As previously announced the Zone 3.2b Zonal will be held at the 5 star
Surfers Paradise Parkroyal from 13-21 April. Apart from the seeded players
anyone may enter although there is quite a hefty entry fee based on a
sliding scale according to FIDE rating. I'm trying to mail out entry forms
to all 2000+ FIDE rated players who have not yet received one but if you
would like a copy please email me with your snail mail address. I
understand from Gary Bekker and Manuel Weeks that there is strong interest
in the event. The winner of the mens and womens events automatically
qualifies for the next World Championship cycle. Also 6/9 earns an IM Title
and 4.5/9 earns a FM Title. Seeded players are being chosen purely on Jan
99 FIDE Ratings without any account of "activity" or "inactivity".

1999 GRAND PRIX LIST OF EVENTS
Here is the latest list of events for 1999. It is still not too late to
enter - remember our players need activity and it is our job as
administrators to provide it.

30-31 January - NSW: Newcastle Open, Newcastle Workers' Club - class 1
6-7 March - WA: Southwest Open, Bridge Centre, Bunbury - class 1
6-8 March - Ballarat Begonia  - class 5
2-5 April - ACT: Doeberl Cup, Fenner Hall, Canberra - class 5
24-25 April - NSW: Anzac Day Weekender, Western Suburbs Leagues Club - class 1
1-3 May - Qld: Redcliffe Peninsula Open, Clontarf High School - class 5
19-20 June - Qld: Gold Coast Open, Somerset College - class 5
5-7 June - NSW: Queens Birthday Weekender, Woollongong - class 5
26-27 June - NSW: Taree RSL, Taree Sports Recreational Club- class 1
26-27 June - Qld: Suncoast Noosa Open, Bicentennial Hall - class 5
17-18 July - NSW: NSWCA Weekender - class 1
24-25 July - ACT: ANU Open, Fenner Hall, Canberra - class 5
14-15 August - Atherton Open - class 1
21-22 August - NSW: NSWCA Weekender - class 1
8-19 September - Qld: Gold Coast Classic, Somerset College - class 5
2-3 October - Qld: Redcliffe Challenge, Clontarf High School - class 5
3-4 October - NSW: Greater Sydney Open, Rooty Hill RSL Club - class 5
31Oct-1Nov - Tasmanian Open - class 1
6-7 November - Qld: Suncoast Maroochy Open - class 5
27-28 November - NSW: NSWCA Weekender - class 1
11-12 December - ACT: Tuggeranong Vikings, Tuggeranong Rugby Club - class 3

My apologies for the delay but the 1998 Grand Prix winners' cheques will go
out shortly.

AWARDS
In addition to the Steiner Medal won by Zong Zhao, as mentioned earlier in
this news bulletin, the Purdy and Koshnitsky Medals have also been
announced. The Purdy Medal goes jointly to Shaun Press and Paul Dunn for
their work with Australian Chess Forum and their Canberra Radio programme.
The Koshnitsky Medal goes to Edwin Malitis who has been treasurer or senior
office bearer of the Melbourne Chess Club for 43 years. During this time
the club purchased their own freehold premises and he was one of
Australia's first International Arbiters.

Four new honorary life members of the ACF have been announced: Peter Parr,
Robert Jamieson, Gary Wastell and John Hanks. They join existing life
members Garry and Evelyn Koshnitsky, Gerrit Hartland and Phil Viner
together with the late Karlis Lidums. I understand that Gerrit Hartland is
chairing the organising committee for the next Australian juniors in
Melbourne.

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Zong Zhao, David Smerdon, Laura Moylan and Arianne Caoili - these young
players have demonstrated more clearly than ever why we need an Australian
Chess Academy. Without an Academy Australia will almost certainly continue
to flounder around mid table at Olympiads, World Championships, World
Juniors and other international events. With one we would have a good
chance of moving Australia into the top 10 nations in the world, produce
world class players and national chess heroes. The Academy should form a
key part of the Development Plan. In my opinion the plan needs to be
initially modest and sustainable and include a series of measurable
targets. Some important areas would be the national schools comp, the
national coaching accreditation scheme and the Grand Prix. Another topic
recently discussed is chess in universities to try and address the alarming
drop out rate for school leavers. Whatever happens I believe the Aust
Sports Commission and the Aust Govt will require a believable development
plan before recognition and funding. This also applies to commercial
sponsorship. If anyone would like input or involvement to this plan please
let me know.

NEWS INFO
Andrew Allen returns tomorrow from a month away at the Aust Open, Aust
Juniors and QVB event. He is looking forward to bringing the ACF webpage up
to date. There will be continual development of the page and it will be
updated regularly. The address is:
http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess

Please email Andrew or myself with your latest news etc. Andrew would also
like to receive your latest list of junior ratings which he will publish or
link from the ACF page. Additionally he would like the final standings from
your tournaments (especially Grand Prix events and he prefers Swiss Sys).
We are also keen to receive additions, deletions and corrections to any
info appearing on the ACF webpage.

Finally my thanks to Deputy President Gary Bekker for his advice and
enormous amount of hard work in all matters relating to international and
elite level chess. During the QVB event I understand Gary has been doing a
full 8 hour day at work and then hurrying dowm to QVB to do another 8 hours
or so helping Jason Lyons. Well done Gary!

Very best wishes to all.

Graeme
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Graeme Gardiner
President, Australian Chess Federation
C/- Somerset College, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba Q 4213
Phone 07 5530 3777 (w) 07 5530 5794 (h) Fax 07 5525 2676 (w)
Email: ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au    http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess/