ACF Bulletin No. 49 - December 26, 1999
CHRISTMAS THANKS
I'd like to thank everyone who has helped to administer Australian chess
during 1999.
Thanks to the Executive. Gary Bekker, Norm Greenwood and Andrew Allen are
excellent administrators and have done a fine job. Thanks also to Robert
Jamieson who has come on board as International Secretary late in the year.
Thanks to the State Presidents who have been very accessible and helpful.
Thanks to the Ratings Administrators led by Bill Gletsos and Graham Saint
who have carried out their work in an exemplary fashion.
Thanks to all the chess tournament organisers around the country who have
created the activity which is our life blood. This includes everyone from
the organiser of the Australian Open or Australian Championship to the
smallest club night organiser. Also to all the chess coaches who have
taught in the schools and clubs. You are the engine room of Australian
chess.
Thank you to all the chess journalists for getting the message out to the
general public and in particular to Phil Viner who kindly attended the FIDE
Congress in Qatar to represent the ACF at his own expense.
Thanks to our national junior coach, Manuel Weeks, who has given so much of
himself to help our elite juniors.
Thanks to Shaun Press and Paul Dunn for operating and editing Australian
Chess Forum.
Thanks to Jason Lyons who is an excellent organiser and who has put new
life into the Grand Prix. Also, to Ingrid Thompson for keeping the Grand
Prix scores.
Thanks to Robert Rozycki for making the Swiss Perfect pairings programme
available free of charge to all schools in Australia.
Thanks to Gary Wastell who has always given me excellent advice on
constitutional and historical matters.
Thanks to the many tireless workers who roll up their sleeves such as Ian
Murray and Margaret Cuckson (I'm sure that every state has someone
similar).
Thanks to people who have sponsored Australian chess such as Jenni Oliver
and Eddy Levi. We need more like you.
And thanks to my wife Wendy who has tidied up these bulletins, helped in
many administrative ways and kept me honest.
PROGRESS REPORT
For me the highlights of the last year have been the improved communication
in Australian chess, the development of the national schools teams
competition, the restructure debate and the performance of some of our
elite juniors.
It is doubtful whether the proposed restructure will get up at the national
conference in its present format, but I'm hopeful that there is a
sufficient groundswell of support for change, for a revised motion
recommending important changes to be passed. Even if these changes take two
or three years to implement, if they have the support of the states they
can succeed in improving Australian chess. The important point is that we
somehow have to try and get some sort of consensus between states otherwise
changes won't work.
In the meantime we are continuing lobbying the Federal Government for
funding and recognition of chess as a sport. Also, we will continue to
energetically pursue a large corporate sponsor. The general chess community
can help here by introductions to key corporate decision makers at the
highest level. Getting in the door is often the hardest part.
May I again encourage as many of you as possible to get involved in chess
organisation, coaching or administration. Creating as much chess activity
as possible is one of our biggest challenges. Adding more and more schools
to the schools teams competitions in each state has to be one of our key
aims.
The more I talk to people and the more I see of chess, the more I'm
convinced that teams chess at all levels should have a very high level of
priority. From primary schools to secondary schools to universities to
clubs to states to the corporate sector to the armed services, to the
national Olympiad team etc we need to promote teams chess. I think this is
particularly so in the late secondary and early university years when we
get the big drop out rate.
I look forward to meeting many of you at either the Australian
Championships at Tumbi Umbi (Mingara Club) or Australian Junior
Championships at Churchill, Gippsland.
**********
OCEANIC ZONAL, 2000
Michael Freeman advises that this important event which is a qualifier for
the World Championship is likely to be held in either Auckland or New
Plymouth, New Zealand in May as a ten player round robin. More about this
soon.
**********
NATIONAL SCHOOLS' TEAMS' CHESS FINALS WEEKEND
These were the matters from the Sunday morning meeting (12 December 1999)
which need ratifying at the next council meeting to be held at Tumbi Umbi
on 6 January 2000.
Present were: John Gourlay (NSW), Michael Walsh (NSW), Manuel Weeks (NSW),
Charles Zworestine (NSW), Evelyn Fitzpatrick (ACT), Debbie Poulton (ACT),
Jenny Moylan (ACT), Tony Fitzpatrick (ACT), Gary Wastell (VIC), Peter Carey
(VIC), Michael Gluzman (VIC), David Cordover (VIC), Trish Then (SA),
Lindsay Adlam (TAS), Ken Barker (QLD), Andrew Allen (QLD) and Graeme
Gardiner (QLD).
Next year Adelaide (probably St Peters) - unanimous.
Preferred dates 16/17 Dec over 9/10 Dec (by 6-4).
In favour of same format "Open" and "All Girls", Secondary and
Primary,
9-2.
A junior can be nominated for both the "Open" and "All Girls" comps.
(if 7
rounds, can only play in max of 7 rounds) - unanimous.
Six players max nomination per team (four plus two reserves).
Secondary 60 mins plus 10 secs a move from the start.
Primary 40 mins plus 10 secs a move from the start.
No kids allowed to play up from Primary to Secondary.
Scoring compulsory in Secondary (unanimous) and Primary (8-3).
Board order of all teams must be circularised a week before the event.
The one thing we forgot to discuss was whether titles should be shared or
whether they should be decided by countback or play off.
We also need to decide whether the ACF or local organising committee is
responsible for purchasing the trophies for the kids to keep. This year the
cost was shared 50/50 between the ACF and the ACT Junior Chess League.
**********
SANGLI INTERNATIONAL OPEN INCORPORATING COMMONWEALTH CHAMPIONSHIP
ROBERT JAMIESON, ACF International Secretary:
I have received an entry form for the Sangli International Open
(incorporating Commonwealth Championship) in India 20 Feb to 3 March.
$10000 prize fund.
**********
2000 PRELIMINARY CALENDAR
Jan 10-21 Asian Men's and Women's, Udaipur, India
Feb 8-19 Karpov v Xie Jun, Beijing
Feb 19-27 Singapore Open
Mar 2-16 Shanghai GM Invitational
Mar 18-26 Asian Cities Teams Championships, Beirut
Mar 21-29 Hawaii International
Mar 25-April 2 Asian Youth Under 10,12,14 Championships
April 21-24 Doeberl Cup, Canberra
June 7-17 Parkroyal, Surfers Paradise International
June 10-17 ASEAN Youth Under 10 to 18 Championships Vung Tai, Vietnam
July 4-15 QVB Chess Festival, Sydney
July 16-23 ANU Chess Festival
July 24-August 4 Australian Masters, Melbourne
August 3-27 World Women's Championship, Kishinev, Moldova
August 6-12 World Under 20 Team Championship, Rio de Janeiro
August 11-24 ASEAN Championship, Jakarta
September 17-2 October World Seniors Championship, Rowy, Poland
September 17-2 October World Under 20 Championship, Yerevan, Armenia
October 27-13 November FIDE Olympiad, Istanbul
**********
CZECH OPEN 13-30 JULY 2000, PARDUBICE
Various sections nine rounds swiss + teams events
In 1999 there were over 1500 participants including 23 GMs and 62 IMs
You may obtain more detailed information at the following address:
AVE-KONTAKT, Sukova 1556, 530 02 Pardubice, Czech Republic, tel/fax +
420-40-65 35 200
e-mail: j.mazuch@avekont.cz, http://www.proclient.cz/czechopen
**********
CAIRNHILL OPEN
IA GARY BEKKER, ACF International Ratings Officer, <gbekker@mira.net
Leading results from the Cairnhill Open, Singapore, December 1999 (7
rounds, 37 players):
6.5 GM Wu Shaobin (2496,CHN)
5.5 Tu Hoang Thai (2269,VIE)
5.0 IM Tu Hoang Thong (2515,VIE)
Lim Chuin Hoong (2226,MAS)
Wong Meng Leong (2219,SIN)
Tirto (2100,INA)
4.5 Mark Chan (2294,SIN)
Foo Hsiang Ming (2204,SIN)
Tay Junior (2180,SIN)
Full results are available by clicking on the "Results and games" link at
the Singapore Chess Federation website located at
http://home3.pacific.net.sg/~singchess/
**********
ASIAN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S, UDAIPUR, INDIA 10-21 JANUARY
Our sole representative will now be Narelle Szuveges. Vladimir and Irina
Feldman have been forced to pull out for family reasons.
**********
FINAL 1999 GRAND PRIX SCORES
My apologies for the delay - the scores should be available on Sunday 9
January.
ANDREW GREENWOOD <aag@wwdg.com:
Tuggeranong Vikings Weekender
11-12 December 1999
Leading final scores:
1. Ian Rogers 7/7 =2. Ben Martin, Johnny Bolens 5.5, =4. (=1st U/1800)
Shervin Rafizadeh, Victor Bragin, John Marsden 5.
U/1400: =1. Michael Wei, Justin Toohey, Joe Marks 4/7.
Leading Juniors: 1. Shervin Rafizadeh 5/7, 2. Michael Wei 4/7, 3. Gareth
Oliver 3.5/7.
**********
2000 GRAND PRIX
JASON LYONS:
Feedback from the changes made to the Grand Prix has been very encouraging
- thank you. I'm tentatively confident of achieving the target of at least
40 Grand Prix tournaments in 2000.
Entries notified to date:
Tournament
Newcastle Open: Class 2, February 5-6, Newcastle Workers Club, Contact:
GEORGE LITHGOW (02) 4943 3862.
Doeberl Cup: Class 3, April 21-23, Same as 1999 (?), Contact: ANDREW
GREENWOOD.
35th Peninsula Open: Class 1, April 29-May 1, Clontarf High School (?),
Contact: Norman Braybrook (0418) 716 374.
Hobson's Bay Open: Class 1, May 6-7, ADASS Centre, Altona North, Contact:
PETER CAISSA (0411) 710 900.
Tasmanian Championship: Class 1, June 10-12, Creative Living Centre,
Burnie, Contact: NEVILLE LEDGER (03) 6431 1280.
Gold Coast Open: Class 3, June 24-25, Somerset College Sports Pavillion,
Contact: GRAEME GARDINER (07) 5530 3777.
Noosa Open: Class 3, July 1-2, Noosa Bicentennial Centre, Contact: ROBERT
HOCHSTADT (07) 5447 5056.
ANU Open: Class 3, July 22-23, Australian National University, Canberra,
Contact: ANDREW GREENWOOD.
Mackay Open: Class 1, August 5-6, Mercy College, Penn St, Mackay, Contact:
STAN LONG HONG (07) 4953 4573.
Townsville Open: Class 1, August 12-13 (?) To be confirmed. Contact:
KEITH MACLEOD.
Gold Coast Classic: Class 3, September 9-10, Somerset College Sports
Pavillion, Contact: GRAEME GARDINER (07) 5530 3777.
Redcliffe Challenge: Class 1, October 7-8, Clontarf High School (?),
Contact: NORMAN BRAYBROOK (0418) 716 374.
Tweed Heads Open: Class 3, October 28-29, To be confirmed, Contact: Audie
Pennefather (07) 5536 9185.
Tasmanian Open: Class 1, November 4-6, Hobart (To be confirmed), Contact:
KEVIN BONHAM (03) 6224 8487.
Vikings Weekender: Class 1, December 9-10, Same as 1999 (?), Contact:
ANDREW GREENWOOD.
The following tournaments/clubs have indicated they are likely to join the
Grand Prix circuit in 2000, but are yet to enter:
Begonia Open, Ballarat
Albury Invitational
Resort Motel Open, Hervey Bay
Whale Open, Hervey Bay
Ipoh Ltd QVB Open
Labour Day Open, Hobart
Coal City Open, Cardiff
Atherton Open
Melbourne Chess Club; 3-6 tournaments
Lidums Cup, Adelaide
SACA; a further 1-2 tournaments
NSCWA; 4 weekenders
Additionally there are 1999 Grand Prix tournaments in Bunbury, Toowoomba,
Wollongong and Taree that have yet to respond. Posters and programs will be
sent to a printer in mid-January, and sent to clubs by the end of that
month.
To get your tournament in, please email details to
jason.lyons@student.unsw.edu.au as
soon as possible. Please make Jason's
life easier and support Australian chess.
**********
CLUB CORNER
JOHN MAZZIERI, Wollongong Collegians Chess Club
Wollongong Collegians Chess Club Championship - Nov/Dec 1999 - 7 Round
Swiss
WOLFGANG BRODESSER was declared the 1999 Chess Club Champion after
finishing equal first with last year's champion Mirko Kreznovic. Mirko, who
led the tournament into the final round was held to a draw by Paul Baaner.
This allowed Wolfgang to catch Mirko on 6/7 points to be =1st on point
score. Wolfgang was declared Wollongong Collegians 1999 Club Champion on
countback.
KOSTA BERETOV was 3rd on 4.5/7. Kosta also won the 1999 Lightning
Tournament.
**********
CORRESPONDENCE
KEVIN BONHAM
(a) BYES ON REQUEST
I am interested in hearing from other tournament organisers regarding how
they deal with the issue of byes-on-request. In Tasmania we have been
quite conservative in awarding these, while trying to keep in mind that
sometimes in weekenders players simply cannot make the last round due to
work commitments. This became controversial recently when we had to deal
with a pre-tournament bye request by a high seed, who was leading the event
going into the second-last round, for which he wanted a half-point bye.
Another interesting case was where a low seed requested (after the event
started) that a bye they were due for be deferred until a later round, but
where it turned out that deferring it would have involved giving a bye to a
player from the top quarter of the field who happened to be on 0/2.
I noted with interest that the Lidums Cup recently allowed two half-point
byes per player and I sense much variation in how these things are dealt
with.
The sorts of issues I'm interested in are:
* Do you ever give a full point for a bye requested in advance? If so,
when?
* Do you ever refuse a bye requested before the tournament starts? If so,
when?
* What do you do if a player who requests a half-point bye becomes due to
receive a full-point bye in an earlier round? in that round?
* Should receiving a bye on request affect a player's prize entitlement?
* Do you ever allow a player to withdraw a bye request, or allow a bye
request after the event has started?
* Do you allow bye requests if this results in another player getting the
bye that round as well, who wouldn't otherwise have done so?
And so on. Any discussion or views would be helpful and feel free to email
it to me privately <k_bonham@postoffice.utas.edu.au.
I'd like to at least
formalise my own approach to dealing with bye requests, and possibly try to
get it accepted throughout the state.
(b) SWISS PAIRING RULES
I find the FIDE rule preventing two consecutive floats in a row in the same
direction (B5) to be a useful one. I think using this rule and floating
bottom-to-top is preferable to floating median-to-median, as it (in theory)
allows for a more equal game between the floated players without affecting
the closeness of the other games. I also think it is necessary to stop the
same player from being downfloated repeatedly. To give a very artificial
example, in an 18-player Swiss with floating bottom-to-top, player 9 could
beat player 18, get downfloated to play player 10, win, and get downfloated
again to play player 5. Since player 5 has just come off an exhausting
loss to player 1, player 9 might win this game as well, go to 3/3 and get
downfloated again. As if players in the bottom of the top half don't have
it easy enough already ... However, I have sometimes found the rule B6
(prohibiting the same float as two rounds before) to be quite a nuisance
(especially when pairing by hand or checking pairings by hand). In
particular, sometimes a player has been downfloated then upfloated, but
still cannot be downfloated again (not even in preference to a player who
had two forced downfloats more than two rounds ago). Maintaining the
player's overall balance of float directions should be a higher goal than
minimising the number of floats (if the latter should be a goal at all).
The present FIDE rules do not allow for this.
As regards colour equalisation, I think the D.O.P. should at least have the
discretion to choose the floater (and other pairings) on colour
equalisation principles and ignore ratings, so I would not support a
mandatory rating restriction on floater selections. My reasons for this
are (a) although it generally does no harm to disrupt a colour
equalisation, in cases where there are many players with two of the same
colour in a row there starts to be a risk of producing pairings which are
even more unequal in rating to avoid a colour three-in-a-row in the next
round, or even some risk that a three-in-a-row can't be avoided. (b) how
accurate the ratings are as a guide to a player's likely performance on a
given weekend varies. In areas where less chess is played you would expect
the ratings to be a less accurate guide to players' actual strength
(especially if you have players recently out of retirement or rapidly
rising juniors) and therefore a rating difference of 100 points may mean
less as a guide to expected performance than score and colour.
(c) RULE 10.2
I've followed the recent discussion about this rule between Chris
Depasquale and various others in Aus Chess Forum with interest. This is
the draw claim rule used for guillotine finishes when one side cannot win
by "normal means" or isn't trying to. My experience is completely in
accord with Depasquale's (and Geurt Gijssen's) claims that controversies
under this rule are rare (and result chiefly from errors and
misunderstandings of the rule).
I've arbited over 1000 guillotine finish games since 1996 (mostly at G/60
or G/90, the time limits most conducive to such claims) and in that time,
the rule has only been used about ten times, and not one of those cases was
controversial enough to be appealed or to cause lasting debate.
In closing, I agree with Robert Rozycki that a general electronic forum to
discuss Swiss Pairings (and other arbiting issues) is a good idea. It
should be a web-based one, or an email mailing list with a digest form, as
not everyone has reliable access to Usenet groups.
**********
NIKOLA ZBILJIC:
I just would like to thank you and your team for posting the emails with
the news in Australian and international chess. I think ACF needs more
people like yourself.
On the subject of ACF "power grab" I believe in centralization and
uniformity therefore I think states should and need to relinquish their
"powers" so Australian chess can prosper as a whole.
Another important point I would like to make is that competent marketing
people need to be utilised to attract substantial sponsors for the
tournaments which would attract strong players and which in turn would
attract others to participate, ultimately creating a financially successful
tournament for both players, ACF and sponsers. WIN WIN WIN situation. Keep
up the good work !!!
**********
May I wish everyone a stress free, perhaps chess free, Christmas and New
Year break, and plenty of very enjoyable chess experiences in 2000.
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/
Chess - the clever sport!