ACF Bulletin No. 12 - 11 April 1999

Please Reply-To: "Graeme Gardiner" <ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au>

DOEBERL CUP
 
What a great time I had in Canberra at my first Doeberl Cup, and that goes
for the kids who came along with me. My sincere thanks for the hospitality
shown by all the ACT chess people especially the Fitzpatrick and Poulten
families. Congratulations to Roger McCart and team for a very smoothly run
tournament. Fenner Hall was a very good venue. It was particularly useful
to be able to speak to so many chess people from all over the nation who
had a variety of different ideas to put forward for the betterment of
Australian chess. The tournament finished in a tie for first between Darryl
Johansen and Aleks Wohl with Darryl winning the trophy on countback. Full
results available at the ACF webpage http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess/
 
Look out for a serious article on chess in Inside Sport magazine (around
May/June issue). The reporter flew up from Tasmania and spent all 4 days
over Easter trying to capture the essence of serious chess.
 
It was good to see a number of women doing very well in the Doeberl Cup
including new arrival, Saria Slavica, a strong new arrival from Yugoslavia.
The Aust Womens Champs are due to be held in Sydney in June. Gary Bekker
suggests an Australian Womens Forum to coincide with this event which could
be used to stimulate plans for grass roots action in order to create more
activity and opportunities for women.
 
AUSTRALIAN OPEN DEC 2000 / JAN 2001
 
Neither the Aust Open nor Aust Champs have ever been hosted by the ACTCA.
Discussions amongst the ACT chess community are going on regarding the
possibility of hosting the Aust Open 2000/2001. Personally I think it would
be great for the very active ACT chess community to host this event. They
have first refusal and the bid is due in by 30 June 1999. The more
adventurous that I spoke to were even thinking of also bidding for the Jan
2001 Aust Juniors.
 
NATIONAL JUNIOR OPEN
 
Congratulations to Geoff Butler for having the foresight to put on this
competitive three day event and to open it up to 19 and 20 year olds. The
Burns Club was an excellent venue. Geoff has put forward the excellent idea
for next year of running a national coaches conference to coincide with the
event. Timing details need to be sorted out but at this stage chess
activity at Easter 2000  in the Sydney/Canberra region could consist of:
 
        21-24 April Doeberl Cup
        25-26 April National Junior Open and National Coaches Conference
        27 April - 7 May Jason Lyons' QVB Event
 
In this eventuality either Geoff would have to reduce his event from 3 to 2
days or Jason would have to start his event a day later. Either way we
could be in for another chess bonanza at this time next year.
 
NATIONAL CHESS ACADEMY
 
Whilst in Canberra I had a 50 minute meeting with Jacky Kelly, Tim Fischer
and their advisers. I was accompanied by my Federal MP, Margaret May who
has given tremendous support to this whole exercise. The outcome was that,
no, they are not going to recognise chess as a sport right now although
they have left the door well and truly open. Jacky Kelly did however offer
to try and fund the academy in this year's budget under community
recreation. In fact, whilst no definite undertakings were given to provide
funding, the hints were so strong that I will be extremely upset if we are
unsuccessful in next month's budget. Of course, if we are not successful,
then we battle on until we are. I also had a meeting with Senator Ian
Macdonald who also is fully supporting the submission. That makes three
ministers right behind us!
 
Even if funding is provided under community recreation I believe we need to
pursue chess as a sport with great vigour, not least because of the dignity
and self esteem of the chess community. We believe that we are a serious
sport and we need to be treated with the same respect as other sports. Also
we need to be treated with the same respect as chess is treated in many
other countries.
 
DARLING DOWNS OPEN
 
51 players participated in this excellent event which is held each year at
Toowoomba Grammar. Stephen Solomon won with 7/7. Final standings in the
results section of the ACF webpage.
 
AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS FINALS WEEKEND
 
Whilst I was in Canberra, Evelyn Fitzpatrick showed me the venue for this
important event to be held on 11/12 December 1999. Canberra Grammar School
is a most appropriate choice. This year we will also be running a parallel
event for all girls' teams. If your state doesn't already have a
competition for all girls' school teams may I suggest running a one day
event this year to find a winner. We need to do everything possible to
encourage more girls into chess.
 
ZONAL
 
The Zonal commences at the Surfers Paradise Parkroyal 5 star hotel on
Tuesday. There have been a number of changes to the list of entrants,
particularly the Women's event. There will be 26 entrants in the Men's
event, which will be run as a Swiss and includes one female, Irina Feldman.
There will be 6 entrants in the Women's which will be run as a double round
robin. The following is a list of entrants:
 
Men:
 
Johansen 2490, Wohl 2440, Dive 2440, Solomon 2435, Kulashko 2396, Wallace
2360, V Feldman 2330, Depasquale 2302, Laird 2300, Allen 2261, Reilly 2258,
Tindall 2250, Reeves 2245, Levi 2245, Weeks 2245, I Feldman 2230, Saw 2205,
Dwyer 2186, Smerdon 2173, Ilic 2115, Stawski 2045, Parmeshwar 2000, Corker
2000, Zhao 2000, Franks 2000,G  Szuveges 2000.
 
Women:
 
Klimenko 2100, N Szuveges 2000, Moylan 2000, Johns-Putra 2000, A
Constantinou 2000, Lip 2000.
 
Chief Arbiter: Gary Bekker  Assistant Arbiter: Ian Murray
 
We wish all a top class event.
 
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
 
Both Zonal winners qualify for the respective World Championships being
held later this year.
 
According to FIDE The Men's World Championships will be held at Caesars
Palace, Las Vegas from 26 July to 29 August 1999 and it looks like the
Women's World Championships will be held in Kishinev, Moldova in September
1999.
 
ITEM FOR DISCUSSION
 
Each year the ACF selects representatives for each age group at the World
Junior Championships. Under fairly new rules, countries can also endorse
additional entrants who are not eligible to receive conditions. Should the
ACF endorse any juniors who wish to attend irrespective of ability (within
reason)? 
 
ASIAN JUNIOR UNDER 16s
 
Allinta Rose and Rhys Rakauskas will represent Australia at these
championships in Uzbekistan. They leave on 22 April and return on 11 May.
They have both attended the Australian Juniors for several years and fully
deserve their opportunity. Best of luck to both of them.
 
COMMONWEALTH CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR MEN AND WOMEN
 
These are being held in Bikaner, India from 15-26 April. Is there any
enterprising individual who would like to make a last minute entry? The
Chess Federation of India is pretty disappointed that we have not submitted
an entry.
 
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/