AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS

My sincerest apologies to Catherine Lip for omitting reference to her last week when highlighting the standout performers at the Australian Juniors. Catherine scored 10/11 to become Australian Girls Champion and showed that she was perhaps Australia's biggest improver in 1999. She also showed a great deal of determination because she was virtually losing in three consecutive games. Well done Catherine!

OLYMPIAD APPEAL

In October/November this year our leading men and women will be representing Australia at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. It is traditional in Australian chess to hold an appeal for funds to assist our players with their travel costs. I'm pleased to launch the 2000 Olympiad Appeal with the following donations:

Gold Coast Chess Club 400

Chess Association of Queensland 300

Suncoast Chess Club 300

Graeme and Wendy Gardiner 300

Redcliffe Chess Club 100

Chess Stuff (Ian Murray) 100

Total $1,500

The ACF will be delighted to receive donations which will be added to this list and published in this bulletin from time to time during the year.

**********

SELECTIONS FOR OCEANIA ZONAL AND OLYMPIAD

ENTRIES ARE INVITED FOR:

1. Oceania 3.2b Zonal Championship Auckland (NZL) 20.5.00 - 28.5.00

Australia has two representatives (seeds) who will receive free entry and billet accommodation. Other players rated 2100+ may enter but must pay NZ$400 entry fee.

Persons wishing to be selected as one of Australia's two free representatives are asked to contact Robert Jamieson by 28.2.00.

2. Chess Olympiad, Istanbul, Turkey October/November 2000.

Persons wishing to be selected for either the Australian Olympiad Team or the Australian Women's Olympiad Team are invited to contact Robert Jamieson by 28.2.00.

It is intended to selected a squad of 10 players for the Olympiad and 8 players for the Womens Olympiad. The Olympiad teams will then be selected from these squads at the end of the Koshnitsky Chess Festival based on players' current form at that time.

Applicants should supply name, address, phone, fax & email contact details together with any brief results or comments that they wish the selectors to consider. Application by email is preferred.

ENTRIES TO:

ACF International Secretary, ROBERT JAMIESON, PO Box 716, Mt Waverley 3149. Fax: 03 9700-4917; email: auschess@iaccess.com.au

**********

AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR SELECTION INFORMATION

This year there are numerous tournaments that are available for Australian juniors. In the interests of speeding up the process the ACF has decided that it will not ask for applications to be filled out. The selectors will be given a complete result file starting from the (1999) Australian Open held in Queensland in January 1999 until and including the Australian Juniors 2000 in Churchill, Victoria.

A junior's age is based on his/her age on the 1st of January, 2000. FIDE considers anyone under 20 a junior.

For players who have represented Australia in 1999 your results will be included. If any junior has results from another tournament not mentioned please contact Manuel Weeks on 0411 161747 or fax-phone (02) 9547 1776 or email manuelw@ozemail.com.au

The ACF will publish a list of juniors on the web page as well as in the ACF bulletin (below) and every State Senior and Junior Association will receive a copy. If you believe that your name should be added to this list please contact myself (Manuel Weeks) or Graeme Gardiner.

A list of tournaments is as follows:

World Junior (under 20) Championships 2000 Yerevan, Armenia, 17 Sept to 2 Oct.

Asian Junior (under 20) Championships 2000 India, dates to be announced.

World Youth Festival, (under 18, under 16, under 14, under 12, under 10), Oropesa del Mar, Spain, October-November.

Asian Under 16 Championship, U.A.E., dates to be announced.

Asian Youth Festival. Under 14, Under 12, Under 10, Tehran, Iran, 25 March to 2 April.

World Youth Under 20 Team Championship, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 6-12 August.

Children's Chess Olympiad, 24 Sept to 4 Oct, Artek, Ukraine.

2140 q Smerdon, David

2037 v Saw, Geoffrey

1988 q Pizzato, Charles

1986 v Chow, Michael

1955 n Zhao, Zong-Yuan

1898 n Lopis, Rick

1894 n Tian, Kuan-Kuan

1873 n Lip, Michael

1820 w Boyd, Tristan

1813 t Oriol, Pablo

1789 n Charles, Gareth

1784 n Tan, Justin

1776 v Soloveychik, Sasha

1747 n Switzer, Timothy

1743 n Raposio, Robert

1719 w Galvin, Robert

1692 a Jovanovic, Peter

1683 v Bourmistrov, Denis

1676 n Rej, Tomek

1656 v Nemeth, Janos

1630 v Chow, Samuel

1626 w Taylor, Leon

1565 a Rafizadeh, Shervin

1536 q Humphrey, Jonathan

1630 v Chow, Samuel

1388 v Doidge, Matthew

1341 w Lim, Brendan

1319 v Lugo, Ruperto

1318 n Liang, Mark

1318 w Wang, Zhengbo

1297 a Oliver, Gareth

1291 q Page, Christopher

1261 q Barnard, Casey

1242 n Xie, Ken

1226 w Chan, Kah-Lok

1210 v Cram, Darren

1194 n Davyskib, Sasha

1175 n Suttor, Vincent

1169 n Yap, Edward

1163 n Chia, Nicholas

1162 a Gowor, Roman

1668 a Moylan, Laura

1642 n Chong, Elaine

1611 s Lauer-Smith, Jasmine

1594 n Shields, Sylvia

1491 w Taylor, Natalie

1318 v Lee, Michelle

1469 n Chong,Yvonne

1442 n Lip,Catherine

1362 v Zivanovic,Andjelija

1301 v Basnayake, Thilini

1294 a Jovanovic,Marija

1010 n Chu, Winnie

1357 q Norris, Shiloh

1157 q Constantinou, Andrea

1176 n Kong, Holly

Manuel Weeks is aware that this list is probably not comprehensive and it is likely to be updated.

**********

ASIAN CITIES

Deadline for entries is 18 February!

**********

1999 GRAND PRIX - FINAL SCORES AND PRIZE LIST

Open: Stephen Solomon 160.0 $1,200, Aleks Wohl 85.0 $800, Mark Chapman 68.55 $400, Darryl Johansen 68.5 $200, Ian Rogers 68.4 $100.

Under 2000: John Myers 106.57 $500, Alain Pardoen 68.36 $250, Paul Summers 59.27 $150, Nik Stawski 58.87 $75.

Under 1600: Mark Stokes 70.5 $500, Tomek Rej 61.25 $250, Cameron Bailey 47.66 $150, Wayne Davison 46.03 $75.

Junior: David Smerdon 95.0 $500, Michael Davidovici 75.38 $250, Kieran Olm-Milligan 61.0 $150, Matthew Sonter 59.53 $75.

Cadet: Peter Jovanovic 108.0 $500, Chris Page 75.0 $250, Gareth Oliver 70.0 $150, Casey Barnard 67.92 $75.

Women: Marija Jovanovic 87.0 $500, Cathy Rogers 80.5 $250, Connie Constantinou 58.5 $150, Allinta Rose 55.0 $75.

State Consolation Prizes:

Victoria: Grant Szuveges $60, Dimitri Partisi $40.

South Australia: Jasmine Lauer-Smith $60, Kevin Sheldrick $40.

Western Australia: Julian Painter $100, Danny Dwyer $60, Adam Haase $40.

Tasmania: Janice Martin $100, Simon Browne $60, Nigel Frame $40.

This is your last chance to query results before cheques are written out at the end of the week. No changes will be made after the cheques are written out.

**********

GOLD COAST TIN CUP

Over the weekend it was encouraging to see 109 players participate in the Gold Coast Tin Cup for Under 1600 players. Bruce Harris inaugurated the event three years ago and it has regularly attracted good numbers. This year there was $1,850 guaranteed prize money which Bruce increased by $400 because of the fine turnout. We hope this is a good sign for the rest of 2000! During the tournament Ian Murray was presented with the Koshnitsky Medal for chess administration and a very popular award it was too.

**********

CORRESPONDENCE

HAMISH SELNES <HamishS@bds.net.au>:

As a player who has played for too many years, I have a probably not very useful suggestion as to improve numbers to the Australian Championships/Open tournaments at Christmas time. As far as I can remember (since the early 1980s) I recall that the tournaments were run at a pace of one game a day. To me and many of my friends, we just don't understand why we can't play two games a day and get the tournament over in half the time.

People like myself (those who get two weeks holiday at Christmas) find the two week format just too long as we have other things to do apart from playing chess. The costs would be much less and I doubt if it would harm my game to any great extent.

Is there any reason why we have to have a one game a day format? It all seems that these tournaments are designed for juniors or pensioners and not people who have to work.

On another subject, I have always wondered why we spend so much time promoting junior chess and yet seem to ignore the adults who have played for years. For example, a junior can have heaps of coaching and yet gets to 18 and never plays again. (I know of talented kids like this). Yet adults who have played for at least 10 years (like myself) will still keep on playing until we die. But always feeling somewhat disappointed that all this effort is being spent on kids and nothing for players like myself. Why is there never any coaching clinics for adults? For one, adults who work have a capacity to pay for lessons (juniors have to rely on mum & dad or are funded by the adult players) and the better we get, then the more we will play. I know of many senior players who feel similar thoughts to myself.

I liked the idea of a chess school, but then it was all designed for juniors again and nothing for adults. If there were weekends designed for adult coaching then I feel that there would be a number of players prepared to pay for the experience etc.

**********

STEWART REUBEN:

What digital clock is being used in the Easter event? If it uses cumulative mode, I did not know one existed capable of the one chosen. i.e. No add-on in the first two time controls and then adding on in the third.

If the time rate is 20 seconds per move in the third section, not accumulating, then I strongly recommend it not be used. It was very unpopular in the European Team Championship and has not been used since. It means a player can never have time to go to the toilet in the third session. It means a player was in time trouble and then immediately has to make his next move in 20 seconds with no relaxation time.

**********

Very best wishes to all

Graeme