ACF BULLETIN No 5

CONTENTS

Grand Prix Tournament List; Australian Championship Bid; Zonal; Australian
Masters Championship; World Championships; Contact Details Wanted; ACF
Council Meeting; ACF Website; Good Luck to a Traveller; Correspondence

GRAND PRIX TOURNAMENT LIST

There has been a minor amendment  to the Grand Prix list - the full list is
reprinted here.

1999 Grand Prix Tournaments


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

13-14 March - Qld: Hervey Bay Resort Motel, Hervey Bay  - class 5

2-4 April - Qld: Toowoomba Grammar School, Toowoomba - 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

3-4 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 to the 1998 prizewinners for the delay - cheques will be
forwarded as soon as we can confirm the final points.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIP BID

There is still the opportunity to put in a bid for the Jan 2000 Aust Champs
- these need to be in by 28 February latest please.
 
ZONAL

Gary Bekker and I have had many enquiries for the Zonal and it looks as
though this will be a very successful event. Gary will be Chief Arbiter and
Ian Murray Assistant. There are many FIDE-rated players in Australia for
whom I do not have an address  and who therefore are unlikely to have an
entry form. Please email me if you, or others you know, require an entry
form. We will be endeavouring to have an event where the average ratings in
the mens is as close to 2300 as possible.

AUSTRALIAN MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP

The 1999 Australian Masters Championship will be held in Melbourne from
Monday 28 June to Friday 10 July. It is expected to be a twelve-player
round-robin, FIDE category IV or V, with IM norms available. One game per
day with rest day Sunday 4 July. Entry fees range from $Free to $150,
depending on FIDE title and rating. Prize-money (minimum guaranteed) $1,000
1st, $500 2nd, $300 3rd. Anybody who may wish to play, and wants to receive
additional information, please contact Chris Depasquale: phone: (03) 9387
6979; fax (03) 9380 1399; email agechess@ozemail.com.au.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
 
We had a note from FIDE that reaffirmed the next World Champs will be held
in Las Vegas this year and that they will announce details in the next week
or so.

CONTACT DETAILS WANTED

Does anyone have a contact for PNG chess or any other South Pacific nation
(excl NZ and Fiji)?
 
ACF COUNCIL MEETING

Notices for the first ACF Council meeting should go out in the next day or
two and this will almost certainly be a phone hook up commencing at 7pm
Queensland time on Friday 26 March 1999.

ACF WEBSITE
 
Our secretary and webmaster, Andrew Allen has just moved into a new
apartment and expects Telstra to provide him with a phone on Wednesday.
This will enable him to start working on the webpage which he has been
trying to do in quick snatches at my place. We reiterate that we are
looking to the Australian chess community to provide as much input as
possible including news, tournament results, additions, deletions and
corrections. In this way we hope to upgrade the overall communication which
should help everyone.

GOOD LUCK TO A TRAVELLER . . .
 
Max Leskiewicz headed off to Europe for a year playing chess and trying to
maximise his potential. We wish him the best of luck.
 
CORRESPONDENCE

Finally, there follows some correspondence that I have received on the
subject of David and Marlies Jaksic's comments on girls' chess and also the
format of the Australian Junior Champs. I should make a couple of
observations here:
 
In the context that the ACF will be developing a national development plan
over the next three months or so, I think it is fairly healthy for
controversial ideas to be aired in this bulletin so long as it is
remembered that they are in no way official ACF views. Also, I think it is
important that we all stick to the issues.
 
JENNI OLIVER - I was very saddened at your diatribe against the Girls
tournament.  To me it smacked of the senseless feminist claptrap that has
pervaded the women's movement over the last two decades.  I must admit I
started off as a fairly militant young person in the late sixties and early
seventies. I was perhaps fortunate, although growing up in a very
patriarchial country (South Africa), to have been brought up by a father
who thought girls could do anything. I trained as a computer programmer and
was horrified, when starting to work for the Public Transport Commission in
Sydney, to find that while women were just acceptable as applications
programmers, there was no way they would be allowed into the software
areas.  I quickly changed that! 

When my oldest daughter was born, her first toy was a car and my son's
first was a doll.  However, after many years of being with my children, I
am now much more humble and prepared to admit that women and men are
different and that not all is due to environment.  I have my own business,
which I started to amuse me when I stayed at home with my first child.  It
is now a multi-million dollar business employing over 100 people, but I
have never and would never, put my children into childcare - Tony and I
have always shared the duties between us. I have thus been perhaps in an
ususual position of straddling the fence between those women who stay at
home and those who have high flying careers. 

What has all this to do with chess?  Well it seems to me more and more the
women's movement has developed a male cringe.  They are only happy when
defining themselves in male terms.  A woman is only succesful in career or
in business if she copies the way men perform in these arenas.  I feel that
a woman has a much more important role in life - how can the importance of
raising a child, ever take second place to pushing some paper around some
crummy office?

What is being taken away from women is the right to make a choice.  I don't
think women should have to feel second rate because they choose to stay at
home, nor do I think a woman should feel guilty if she chooses a career.
Surely there is room for both styles and both should be supported.  The
same applies to the Girls tournament.  If we had a boys and a girls
tournament and the girls were not allowed to play in the stronger one, I
would support your arguement.  However there is an OPEN and a girls.  It is
the choice of the girls as to which they play in.  Connie Constantinou is
an example.  She was not a terribly strong player, but she elected to play
in the Open, in Perth, because she loved her chess and preferred to play in
the stronger competition.  Others girls have the same opportunity.  I would
never discourage either of my girls from playing in the open, nor would I
scorn them for being happier to play in the weaker one. 

After reading your comments I told Shannon that the ACF was thinking of
abandoning the girls tournament (a slight exaggeration), and what did she
think.  Her immediate comment was she wouldn't play.  She is not scared of
competing face to face with boys - she plays them all the time in the ACT
Junior comps and in Adult comps - she just enjoys once a year being able to
play in an all girls comp, where she can show her ability against her
peers.  

By all means encourage the strong players like Laura Moylan and Elaine
Chong to play in the Open, but don't take away choice from the others.
Girls Chess in Australia is very weak and I have not seen much improvement
in the 4 years my children have been playing.  My husband and I have run a
Girls only Chess club for 3 years - it has been very successful in terms of
numbers.  The girls love playing, and we constantly try to get the stronger
girls to move on, to an open Junior club and to play in open competitions.
After years of working with girls in chess, I think we probably have a
fairly good idea of their emotional makeup and the one thing that I am
convinced of is that having only an open tournament will set back the
development of girls chess in Australia by years.  We are still in a
nurturing period for Girls Chess in Australia.
 
GUY WEST - I tend to agree with your comments re segregation in chess. I
suspect that at some time in the future people will look back and marvel
that a mind sport like chess was once segregated by sex. It can be seen as
an implied insult to women's intelligence. It may one day be shown however,
that testosterone and the psycho-biological urge to 'fight', give men a
permanent built in advantage over women in all activities where aggression
and will to win are factors. I hope this is not the case.

NICK SPECK - I was pleased to see the ACF's views on the Australian Girl's
Championships and am wondering if it has similar views concerning the free
entry of WIMs and WGMs into ACF events. In my opinion giving WIMs and WGMs
free entry into such events is sexist. Males don't have the chance to
obtain these titles and there are many male players of corresponding
strength who must still pay entry fees. I understand that this may be done
to encourage female participants but then surely players of both sexes
should be encouraged. In any case I am interested to hear your/the ACF's
thoughts on the matter.
 
JENNI OLIVER - I have just been given a copy of the tentative schedule for
the Australian juniors.  I was a bit concerned to see the schedule proposed
for the U12s.  While I can understand the need to save money and have a
shorter time period, I am amazed that our most prestigious competition
should be downgraded in this
way. 

You seem to be trying to set a standard for the Australian Schools
Competition - i.e. even though the ACT will be running the comp this year,
we have been given a fairly rigid framework to work within. Particularly as
to time controls, number of rounds etc.  Is it not time that the same
standards were applied to the Australian Juniors - surely an even more
important competition? 

Having accompanied Gareth overseas, I have learnt how desperately Australia
needs Junior competitions with long time controls, for Australian Junior
chess to become stronger.  I cannot help but feel that doubling rounds to
two a day can only lead to shorter games, particularly as the younger
children become exhausted. You might in theory be maintaining the long
controls, but the children will not be able to play the full time control
as they become tired.  What we want is for them to be able to play their
hearts out each day, because they know they have only 1 game a day.  This
is of course what is done in the World Youth Festival.  The proposed format
I have seen suggest 7 rounds back to back - that is ludicrous.  We are
talking about 7 year olds and 8 year olds here.  Even an 11 year is going
to have trouble playing at their best!  Only someone with no understanding
of young children could possibly have suggested such a format!!!!!!!!  I
would much rather see 9 rounds rather than that many doubled up rounds.  

While we all want to see more and more children participating in chess,
surely the  Nationals should not be about mass participation, but a forum
where our strongest players can meet and compete.  Given that, I do not
think that expecting them to take two weeks out of their lives and play one
long, strong game a day is too much to ask.  If we want mass participation,
perhaps we should be running a separate competition alongside which could
run for a week and allow the weaker children to experience National
competition at an easier pace. This could possibly allow us to reduce the
number of rounds in the comp, without affecting the results, because their
would be fewer children in each competition. 

We have set up a similar system in Canberra, where all our Junior
Competitions now have an Open competition and a reserve.  The Reserve will
normally have different parameters, that reflect the strength of the
players.  The stronger players cannot enter the reserves, but there is no
restriction on the Open.  Since starting this format, we have doubled the
number of children playing. 

The current format of the Australian Juniors has been around for years. You
have stated to me, that the Junior environment in Australia needs work.
Surely we need to start with the format of the Australian Juniors. A bit of
innovative thinking and lateral thinking would result in a competition that
could satisfy both the need for a cheaper competition and one that remains
strong and does not stress the children.  In February 1998, at an ACF
meeting in Sydney, the committee voted to set up a sub committee to draw up
a standard for the format of Australian Junior Championships.  The
sub-committee had to have representatives from the State Junior Chess
Leagues, where such an organization existed.  It was to be chaired by the
ACF Junior Organizer.  This sub-committee never eventuated, but I would
suggest it is urgently needed.  Can you tell me whether the format I have
seen is going ahead and if so what you consider will be the result of
cramming in 7 rounds back to back?

KERRY CORKER - to suggest that the experienced u/12s and u/10s cannot play
two long games of chess per day for a week or so is indicative of the
thinking that has held Australian chess in the 1800s for so long.

 
Best wishes to all
 
Graeme Gardiner 
-------------------------------------------

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/