ACF Bulletin No. 8, 7 March 1999

CONTENTS

ACF Webpage; Zonal; Upcoming Grand Prix Events; Australian Women's
Championships; Australian Open; Australian Schools Teams Chess Finals
Weekend; ACF Council Meeting; National Universities Competition; National
Club Competition; Invitation to Russia; Correspondence
 
ACF WEBPAGE

This page is improving all the time - many thanks to Andrew Allen for all
the hard work that he has put into it to date. Please remember that he is
reliant on you, the chess community, for news, tournament results and help
with updating the records. The address is:
http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess/.
 
You will notice that he has now listed many email addresses of chess people
from all around Australia. If you don't want your address listed please let
us know and we will delete it. If you know of any other chess email
addresses please let us know so that we can further improve communication
in Australian chess.
 
ZONAL
 
Entries for the Zonal are coming in quite well. The following is a list of
those that look like they will be playing. In some cases I have received
entry forms and payment, in others just the entry form and in others just a
verbal indication. All players will have to confirm with payment in full by
the deadline.
 
MEN: Johansen 2490 (Aust seed), Wohl 2440 (Aust seed), Solomon 2435 (Aust
seed), Dive 2440 (NZ seed), Kulashko 2396 (NZ seed), Wallace 2360, Sandler
2351, Feldman 2330, Depasquale 2302, Allen 2261, Reilly 2258, Tindall 2250,
Reeves 2245, Levi 2245, Saw 2205, Dwyer 2186, Smerdon 2173, Ilic 2115, Zhao
2000, Corker 2000.
 
WOMEN: Feldman 2230 (Aust seed), Koshnitsky 2155 (Aust seed), Klimenko
2100, Smith 2000 (NZ seed).
 
UPCOMING GRAND PRIX EVENTS
 
13/14 March Hervey Bay Open (Qld Class 5)
Easter Weekend Doeberl Cup, Canberra (ACT Class 5)
Easter Weekend Toowoomba Open (Qld Class 5)
 
AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS
 
Charles Zworestine advises me that he has joined Georgina Tarrant and Carol
Holmes on the organising committee for the Australian Women's Championships
due to be held in July (possibly at Dato Tan's Queen Victoria Building in
Sydney).
 
AUSTRALIAN OPEN
 
David Waterhouse advises that due to demand he has put the results of the
Aust Open back up on the Suncoast webpage. He also commented that he heard
from Ian Rogers that the Aust Open had attracted a deal of attention in
Europe with a photo of GM Vadim Milov kissing a kangaroo appearing in a
German chess magazine!
 
AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS TEAMS CHESS FINALS WEEKEND
 
ACT Junior Chess Assn have confirmed that this will be held on 11/12
December 1999 in Canberra.
 
ACF COUNCIL MEETING
 
A reminder that this will be held on Friday 26/3/99 by phone hook up. Phone
numbers and papers for agenda items due in by next Friday 12/3/99.
 
NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES COMPETITION
 
This suggestion drew quite a positive response. Perhaps we might be able to
get interested parties together in order to develop this idea further. See
the correspondence below.
 
NATIONAL CLUB COMPETITION
 
This idea has also been put forward this week by one correspondent. I
believe that a well run and well planned national club competition aimed at
the average player (without excluding the elite players) could be an
important ingredient in a rejuvenation of Australian chess. Any
correspondence on this matter would be welcomed.

INVITATION TO RUSSIA

The Russian Chess Federation has extended an invitation to School Chess
Teams and School Chess Champions to take part in the First European
Children's Festival - "Chess at School", under the patronage of the
European Chess Union, which will be held in Moscow Region, April 30 – May
10, 1999. Full details from Andrei Selivanov, President, Russian Chess
Federation: 7-095-291 97 55; E-mail: ruschfed@totalchess.ru; School Chess
Clubs Association: 7-095-425 61 96 E-mail: scca@online.ru
 
CORRESPONDENCE

DENIS JESSOP: Hello All - This may be of interest to those of you who are
tertiary students, presumably with spare money. Regards, Denis Jessop,
ACTCA Secretary

Global Youth - Tertiary Institutes Chess Challenge

1. The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Chess Club will be organizing
the Global Youth - Tertiary Institutes Chess Challenge (GYTICC 99) from 16
- 22 May 1999 at Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore.

2. On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to invite the
undergraduates / students from the universities / institutes in your states
to participate in this event. The number of teams that can be sent from one
University/Institute is unlimited.

3. We truly hope that you can help disseminate the information to the
various chess clubs in the Universities in your states. (OR is it possible
to provide us the email addresses of the clubs in your states?)

4. Do feel free to email me for any queries. Thanks and regards. :) "Keave"
<poh12238@singnet.com.sg>

DAVID BLACKMAN: Is chess a sport? On the whole I tend to agree that getting
chess recognised as a sport (and possibly getting a share of government
funding) is a good idea. However there is one issue to be very careful
about : drugs in sport.

There is great pressure now for all sports to adopt uniform rules about
drugs in sport. These rules are very tough in some ways. Many of the banned
drugs have legitimate medical uses, but an athlete can be banned for taking
them even when prescribed by a doctor for a specific complaint. For
instance, most of the drugs used to treat asthma are either stimulants or
steroids and will get athletes banned if they use them. There used to be
quite a few asthmatics who played serious sport, but not any more.

These tough measures may be justified in more physical sports where abuse
of drugs can amount to cheating. However they have no place in chess.
Getting chess recognised as a sport must not come at the price of forcing
people with treatable medical problems out of the game.

JEFF SUPTUT: Over a year ago now, as President of the ACT Junior Chess
League, I had discussions with the ACT Minister of Sport's office, re the
classification of chess as a sport. I talked them through the International
nature of chess, with an Olympic setup already in place, the training,
coaching, player ranking etc etc. I told them that in all public forums I
would be talking about chess as a sport.

The ACT were reluctant to "go it alone" and call chess a sport, without
National agreement. Nevertheless, the Minister's Office acknowledged - and
it was included in a speech he made - that there is a "cogent argument" for
chess to be acknowledged as a sport.

I understand that the Australian Sports Commission have registered frisbee
throwing as a sport.  Surely chess has more claims to being a sport than
frisbee throwing!

JACOB EDWARDS: I think that a national inter-university teams competition
is an excellent idea. For many years Queensland (and the rest of Australia,
I presume) has encouraged junior chess with little or no thought for the
development of these players after their junior years. A nation-wide
competition, possibly as the culmination of a series of state-wide events,
would certainly go some way towards rectifying the current problem.

But what happens to people after they leave university? Surely there is a
similar (if less obvious) transitional difficulty to be faced? Personally I
find teams chess more enjoyable than individual
competition, and I believe that a more extensive teams event could be used
to maintain people's interest in the game.

What I would like to see is a RETROSPECTIVE UNIVERSITY TEAMS COMPETITION,
which would enable any person to play for the university which he or she
attended. Teams could be grouped by year (for example the University of
Queensland team of 1984), and any person who attended that university in
that year (regardless of whether they were 1st year students, 2nd year, 3rd
year, whatever) would be eligible to play for that team. This would enable
old teams to reform and compete against the 'young guns' of the game. Also,
we could see new teams of older players, many of whom didn't know each
other when they were at Uni. (They might not even have known how to play at
the time!)

JOHN MAZZIERI:  A comment about University (Intervarsity) Chess Comp - why
not encourage the Unis to leave it open to all so that local chess players
get a chance to play. I am from Wollongong and one of our problems is the
requirement to travel to Sydney, Canberra or Newcastle to play in serious
competitions other than our Wollongong Open and the local Club Championship.

Best wishes to all

Graeme


----------------------------------------

Wendy Gardiner
ATHN Conference Coordinator
Australian Centre for International & Tropical Health & Nutrition
The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Phone +61 7 5530 5794; +61 73365 5377; Fax +61 7 5530 5794; Email
W.gardiner@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Http://www.acithn.uq.edu.au