ACF Bulletin No. 50 - 9 January, 2000
2000 RESOLUTIONS
Here are four suggestions you may like to consider to help with chess activity during
2000.
1. Make your club a friendly, social club; actively encourage more female players to join;
and be very welcoming to all potential members.
2. Try and get some sort of chess programme running at your local schools and encourage
them to enter the statewide schools' competition.
3. If you are an elite player, attend your local club regularly so that your skills will
rub off on other, lesser players.
4. Use the Swiss Perfect pairings programme to run some extra tournaments, especially one
day junior comps during school holidays in shopping centres.
**********
AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS, MINGARA 28 DEC - 9 JAN
These championships finished today. Congratulations to Mal Murrell and his team for
continuing the excellent work of the late Kevin Jones by successfully putting on a very
well-organised and well-promoted event. The organisers were disappointed in the turnout
but this was not for want of trying - they were clearly not to blame for the low numbers.
Other factors such as the 2000 celebrations and people put on standby for Y2K bug problems
may have been involved.
We sincerely hope that the Jan 2001 Australian Open, due to be held at Rydges Hotel,
Canberra, will be supported really well.
Final results:
Championships
Johansen 9.0, Depasquale, Zhao 8.5, Chapman, Rujevic, Smerdon, Tindall, Solomon, Tian 6.0,
Canfell 5.5, Dwyer, Booth 4.5, Ilic 4.0, Jovanovic 3.5, Paez 3.0.
Major
Myers 8.5, N Wright 8.0, Bolens, Dilla 7.5.
Minor
Rafizadeh 8.5, Cheung, Norman 8.0, Barisic 7.5.
Seniors
Viner 8.5, Fell, Lilly 7.0
Johansen offered Tian a quick draw in the final round to ensure his title. It is believed
that Zong-Yuan Zhao scored an IM Norm although this is yet to be confirmed.
**********
GRAND PRIX SCORES
The final 1999 results are given below. Many thanks to Ingrid Thompson for recording
these. Please check the results and advise if you disagree with any of the scores. We will
issue cheques at the end of January after which there will be no more opportunity to amend
the scores. The results are also up on the ACF webpage.
Open Scores as of 31/12/99. 150 players with points.
Rank Name Score
1 Stephen Solomon 163.5
2 Aleks Wohl 85
3 Mark Chapman 68.55
4 Darryl Johansen 68.5
5 Ian Rogers 68.4
U/2000 Scores as of 31/12/99. 178 players with points.
Rank Name Score
1 John Meyers 117.68
2 Alain Pardoen 68.36
3 Paul Summers 59.27
4 Nik Stawski 58.87
U/1600 Scores as of 31/12/99. 173 players with points.
Rank Name Score
1 Mark Stokes 70.5
2 Tomek Rej 61.25
3 Cameron Bailey 47.66
4 Wayne Davison 46.03
Junior Scores as of 31/12/99. 83 players with points.
Rank Name Score
1 David Smerdon 95
2 Michael Davidovici 75.38
3 Kieran Olm-Milligan 61
4 Matthew Sonter 59.53
Cadet scores as of 31/12/99. 51 players with points.
Rank Name Score
1 Peter Jovanovic 108
2 Christopher Page 75
3 Gareth Oliver 70
4 Casey Barnard 67.92
Women's scores as of 31/12/99. 48 players with points.
Rank Name Score
1 Marija Jovanovic 87
2 Cathy Rogers 63
3 Connie Constantinou 58.5
4 Allinta Rose 55
State Consolation Prizes:
Victoria
2nd Grant Szuveges
3rd Dimitri Partisi
South Australia
2nd Jasmine Lauer-Smith
3rd Kevin Sheldrick
Western Australia
Equal 1st
Julian Painter
Danny Dwyer
Adam Haase
Tasmania
1st Janice Martin
2nd Simon Browne
3rd Nigel Frame
**********
NATIONAL CONFERENCE, MINGARA 6 JAN
The proposed restructure of Australian chess was an agenda item at the conference. The
motion to adopt the proposed restructure as circularised and debated was withdrawn on the
grounds that there are still far too many differing opinions on what is required and that
more work needs to be done. The following motion was passed as a recommendation to the ACF
Council:
"This meeting sees the need for significant change in the organisation of Australian
chess and accordingly a review committee be set up with representation from each state and
territory and terms of reference as follows:
1. Development of income streams
2. Structure of chess in Australia
3. Constitutional changes required, if any
4. Relationships with junior organisations, the AWCL and the CCLA"
At the subsequent council meeting held immediately afterwards it was agreed that the
sub-committee would be set up with two representatives from the ACF Executive and one
representative from each of the eight states and territories (including the Northern
Territory who are not yet affiliated). States and territories need to nominate their
representatives by 15 February. An interim report will be due at the March ACF Council
meeting and final recommendations by 20 June.
The council also accepted with regret the resignation of GARY BEKKER as Vice President and
unanimously appointed ROBERT JAMIESON in his place.
**********
STEINER, KOSHNITSKY AND PURDY MEDALS
At the closing ceremony of the Australian Championships PHIL VINER presented the 1999/2000
Steiner and Koshnitsky medals.
The Steiner Medal for Player of the Year went to DAVID SMERDON and the Koshnitsky Medal
for chess administration went to IAN MURRAY. Congratulations on their outstanding
contributions. The Purdy Medal for chess journalism is awarded every two years.
Many thanks to GARY WASTELL and his sub-committee comprising JOHN KABLE, PHIL VINER, BOB
PILGRIM, DARYL JOHANSEN and ALAN GOLDSMITH for diligently selecting the winners.
**********
JAN 2000 FIDE RATINGS
You can access this list at the FIDE website via GARY BEKKER'S Oceania site. Gary's site
also has a very useful calendar of events for our region.
<http://www.eagles.bbs.net.au/~gbekker/index.htm>http://www.eagles.bbs.net.au/~gbekker/index.htm
IA GARY BEKKER is the ACF International Ratings Officer
<<mailto:gbekker@mira.net>gbekker@mira.net>
ANDREW ALLEN has placed a list of the FIDE ratings of Australian players on the ACF site
<http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess/>http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess/
**********
1999 ZONAL TITLES
The ACF have just received invoices for all the titles earned at the 1999 Zonal. This
explains why the titles were not shown on the new FIDE ratings list. This is being
followed up with FIDE.
**********
2000 ZONAL
Michael Freeman from New Zealand is well advanced in finalising arrangements for this
year's Oceania Zone 3.2b Zonal. Full details will be available very shortly and we will be
selecting our seeds immediately thereafter. Michael's email address
<mailto:nzchess@compuserve.com>nzchess@compuserve.com
**********
AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS, CHURCHILL, GIPPSLAND, 11-23 JAN
The Victorian Chess Association should be congratulated on their arrangements for this
important event. I understand that they have 140+ entrants.
**********
NEWS FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA
This is a summary of information received from Bill Anderson-Smith.
1999 Australian Allegro Championships
1st Mark Chapman, 2nd= Robert Cowley, Don Keast and Joe Tanti
Under 1700 Aivars Lidums, Under 1500 Aaron Guthrie, Under 1300 Raeph Moran
69 players participated
Upcoming events:
22/29 Feb SACA Rapid event, 6 rounds, 30 mins a side - venue SA Chess Centre
16/21/23/28/30 Mar and 4/6 Apr SA Chess Championship, 7 rounds, Fischer system 50 mins a
side + 40 secs a move - venue SA Chess Centre
13/14 May Adelaide Cup weekender, Grand Prix event
10/11 June Queen's Birthday weekender, Grand Prix event
1/8/15/22/29 Aug and 5/12/19/26 Sep City of Adelaide Open
30 Sep and 1 Oct Lidums Cup, Grand Prix event
26 Nov SA Blitz Championships
26 Dec Australian Allegro Chess Championships - Glenelg
**********
CORRESPONDENCE
Bill Jordan <<mailto:bjordan@vicnet.net.au>bjordan@vicnet.net.au>
Here's a radical idea for Grand Prixs. Gp points are simply the score you get in all the
tournaments (not just placegetters), multiplied by category.
Some advantages might be:
(1) People might play in more tourneys.
(2) More people have a chance of gp prizemoney.
(3) More incentive not to withdraw.
(4) Make it much more interesting. A person who consistently just falls short of a place,
might get a gp prize if they play in the maximum tourneys.
(5) Fairer.
**********
STEWART REUBEN <<mailto:SReuben@compuserve.com>SReuben@compuserve.com>
BYES
Remember we are organising tournaments for everybody to enjoy themselves and to provide
fair opportunities for the prizes. Then you can't go far wrong.
1. Nobody should ever receive a full point bye unless he was expecting a game and did not
get one. Personally I try to avoid even this by having available fillers. Two weeks ago
Jovanka Houska was propelled to 3.5/4 because her GM opponent failed to make it. This is
unfair on the rest of the tournament and she should have been found some sort of opponent.
This should be a general rule - but I emphasise that is an opinion.
2. A player should have the minimum number of byes. Thus, if he has received or is due to
receive a half point bye, he should not also receive a full point bye because of an odd
number in the tournament.
3. If you fear a player taking advantage of a half point bye, because he thinks he will
receive an easier passage, then don't allow the highest rated players in a section to
receive such a bye.
4. Don't allow half point byes in the last round as a matter of course. Only if there is a
very good reason.
5. If the event is FIDE Rated or title norm, then you might well decide not to allow rated
or titled players a bye.
6. Once a player has asked for a bye, he should not be allowed to change his mind unless
her cannot affect the prizes directly or has a very good reason.
7. Only allow a player a half point bye which he has not requested well before the round
(i.e. a number of rounds) if there is an exceptional reason. Usually this should never
happen after the draw for the round has been announced.
This year I believe we are allowing anybody a bye 1 January in Hastings provided it is
claimed before the pairings are announced. But it is an exceptional year!
I have allowed somebody who was ill to telephone in and receive a half point bye, after
the draw was announced. I am not sure I would allow that today.
**********
PETER HANNA <<mailto:rational@mpx.com.au>rational@mpx.com.au>
From Ukranian Club Chess Club 1999 Lightning Championship
Set Up of Controversial Lightning Game -- Arbitration Needed
Black Pawn on e3
Black Queen on a2
White Rook on d3
White King on e1
White to move
1. White moves Rook to d1 keeping finger on piece.
... Black moves Queen to f2, takes finger off piece and declares checkmate
White notifies Black that White's move is not finished yet as finger still on piece and
clock not pushed.
Black responds "put it wherever you like I will win."
White puts Rook on d2 and declares that Black loses due to illegality of move 1. Queen to
f2 i.e. jumping over the Rook in it's completed position.
Game breaks up in controversy with Black leaving the premises - arbitrator declines to
arbitrate in absence of Black.
The Ukranian Social-Cultural Club Chess Club (47 years old) still meets on Wednesday
nights at 6pm, located in Church Street Lidcombe only one minute's walk from station on
Northern side of line.
This club does not enter a team in competitions but willing to support new members.
**********
I'll be away at the Australian Juniors for the next fortnight or so. The next bulletin
will be on 30 January.
Best wishes for 2000 to all!
Graeme Gardiner