ACF Bulletin No. 56 - 5 March, 2000
MEN'S ZONAL AND MEN'S AND WOMEN'S OLYMPIAD
We are delighted with the list of nominations for the Zonal seeds and
Olympiad teams. We have 10 nominations for seeds, 16 for the Men's Olympiad
team and 10 for the Women's Olympiad team.
I expect that the seeds will be advised in next week's bulletin. Olympiad
squads will be announced a couple of weeks after that. Applications for
Olympiad Captains will not close until later this year (probably around
August).
The ACF International Secretary, ROBERT JAMIESON is coordinating selections.
A reminder that the Olympiad Appeal is open. We would appreciate donations
being sent to the ACF Treasurer, NORM GREENWOOD at Unit 15, Horizon Towers,
208 Pacific Highway, Hornsby 2077 (Cheques payable to Australian Chess
Federation).
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MEMORANDUM ON THE COMMERCIALISATION OF FIDE
The ACF Secretary/Webmaster, ANDREW ALLEN, will be putting up more
correspondence on the webpage regarding this matter including a communique
from FIDE after the meeting of the Presidential Board in Morocco.
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SMERDON V KASPAROV LIVE ON THE INTERNET
DAVID SMERDON will be playing GARY KASPAROV as part of a worldwide simul at
7am Queensland time on Wednesday 15 March. You should be able to watch the
game live at www.kasparovchess.com.
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GARRY KOSHNITSKY MEMORIAL FESTIVAL
This festival is growing all the time and looks very much as if it will be
a worthy tribute to the great man. EVELYN KOSHNITSKY and her family and
colleagues are busy organising a splendid finale to the festival.
The Garry Koshnitsky Memorial Australian Chess Festival is being held this
year from 7 June to 13 August in memory of arguably the most important
figure in Australian chess history who died last year at the age of 91.
The festival commences with the Surfers Paradise Parkroyal International
which is being held at a five star venue on Queensland's Gold Coast in
order to give Australian players the opportunity to play top class overseas
opposition. The nine round Swiss event features GMs NIKOLIC, FTACNIK,
ROGERS and JOHANSEN and runs from 7-17 June. Whilst the Prize Fund is a
modest $5,000, the playing conditions are superb and the hotel is situated
in one of the world's great holiday destinations. Entry fees are IMs and
GMs FOC, players rated 2300+ $150, 2200+ $250, 2100+ $350, 2000+ $450.
Overseas players are half price and there are discounts for payment by
15/3/00 ($50) and 15/4/00 ($25). There are very special room rates at the
Parkroyal only available to competitors ($75 single, $37.50 twin share).
The Garry Koshnitsky Festival features the following events:
7 to 17 June Parkroyal Surfers Paradise International
18 June Parkroyal Surfers Paradise Corporate challenge
19 to 23 June GM coaching in local schools
24 to 25 June Gold Coast Open
26 to 30 June GM coaching of elite Australian juniors
1 to 2 July Noosa Open
8 to 9 July Queen Victoria Building event, Sydney (This may involve a
FIDE rated tournament from 7-9 July)
15 to 16 July Australian National University Open, Canberra (possibly
22/23 July)
24 Jul to 4 Aug Australian Masters, Reserve Bank Building, Melbourne
7 to 13 Aug THE ADELAIDE CHECKMATE TOURNAMENT will be a 7 round Swiss,
starting on Monday, August 7 and finishing on Sunday, August 13. Rounds
during the week start at 5 pm and on Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm. (5 hour
sessions.) In addition to the weekender (Aug. 12/13) there will be a second
tournament for players rated 1800 and above (maybe a few exceptions for
special cases). CARIN CRAIG in particular thought that it should be
included and is going to put some of her energies towards raising the money.
The ADELAIDE CHECKMATE WEEKENDER will be A Class 3 Grand prix event, with 4
rounds on Saturday, Aug. 12, and 3 rounds on Sun. Aug. 13. Presentation of
prizes and a party on Sunday evening. Venue for events: The Chess Centre,
10 Ranelagh St. City.
CHECKMATE was the last word spoken by Garry.
GIANT CHESS SET FOR VICTORIA SQUARE, ADELAIDE
The Koshnitsky family donated a giant outdoor chess set to the chess
players of Adelaide in memory of GARRY KOSHNITSKY MBE who, among other
chess achievements, was one of the founders and first President of the SA
Junior Chess League.
The Lord Mayor, Dr JANE LOMAX-SMITH, who is the League Patron, launched the
chess set on Sunday, March 5 (today).
Three generations of Koshnitskys (Evelyn, Nicholas and Natasha) replayed
one of Garry's most famous games.
WORLD SCHOOLS' CHESS COMPETITION
Kasparov Chess are running a world schools knockout competition over the
internet. Teams from Glen Waverley Secondary College, Somerset College,
Sydney Grammar School and University High School have entered this
inaugural event. In round one (next two weeks) the Australian schools will
be playing schools from California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in three
sections: High, Junior High and Elementary.
I have a feeling that this competition will take off. The logistics appear
to have been very well organised. I estimate that Kasparov must have sunk
quite a lot of money into his schools' project which he has stated will be
his life's work. It would appear that he is 'putting his money where his
mouth is' in developing junior chess and he can only be commended for this.
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GRAND PRIX
Upcoming events:
11-12 March Hervey Bay Open, Hervey Bay Hotel/Resort
DEREK ELKINGTON, 07 4126 0201
11-12 March Ballarat Begonia Open, Ballarat School of Mines
PATRICK COOK 03 5331 6658
I hope to put up a progress report in next week's bulletin.
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AUSTRALIAN CENTENARY CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
New Contact Information for Australian Centenary Chess Championships:
ANDREW GREENWOOD, Phone: 0403-191-777 (anytime); Fax: 02 6291-0385; E-mail:
Andrew.A.Greenwood@student.anu.edu.au.
Post: PO Box 470, Erindale Centre
ACT 2903
Junior Championships:
DEBORAH POULTON, Phone: 02 6231-8577; E-mail: wpoulton@pcug.org.au.
Post:
PO Box 1403, Belconnen ACT 2617
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GLOBAL YOUTH TERTIARY INSTITUTES CHESS CHALLENGE
LEE FORACE:
A group of Sydney Uni Students are planning to send a side to this
tournament; I have been put in charge to do some follow up work. The Team
is as follows:
Board One: VERONIKA KLIMEMKO
(WFM) 2100 (FIDE) 1650 ACF
Board Two: KERRY STEAD
2038 (FIDE) 1836 ACF
Board Three: ANDREW BIRD U/R
(FIDE) 1600 ACF
Board Four: CHRIS KEVORK
1450 ACF
Board Five: DAVID CONNELLY
1350 ACF
Board Six: LEE FORACE 1207
ACF
Some of these ratings are just guesses. I didn't have the list whilst
typing this message. The Unis involved are Sydney Uni, NSW Uni and
Macquarie Uni.
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WORLD UNIVERSITIES TEAMS CHAMPIONSHIPS
4th World Universities Chess Championship is to be held at Varna, Bulgaria
from 1 to 11 September 2000.
Anyone interested in getting a team together for this event please contact
me at ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au.
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NOMINATIONS FOR ASIAN UNDER 10/12/14 BOYS' AND GIRLS' CHAMPIONSHIPS,
TEHRAN, IRAN 25 MARCH to 2 APRIL
Please advise urgently if you wish your child to represent Australia at
Tehran in three weeks time. ROBERT JAMIESON auschess@iaccess.com.au.
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ACT STREET CHESS MARK 2 - THE REBIRTH from the pen of SHAUN PRESS:
With PATRICK CONNELL taking a well earned retirement from running Street
Chess it was feared that this venerable Canberra institution would be no
more. Fortunately a group of altruistic chess players have stepped in to
fill the breach. Street Chess will be running, as it always has, from
10:30am to 2:30pm in Garema Place, every Saturday. Entry fees are just $5,
while Under 16s play for free. The tournament is a 7 round swiss played at
the time limit of 15 minutes per game. And once the ACF Quickplay Ratings
list is established it is planned to submit each week's tournament for rating.
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CORRESPONDENCE
IGNATIUS LEONG - IntChess Asia:
Last week, in the presence of more than a dozen reporters and television in
Ho Chi Minh City, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vung Tau
Intourco and the Chess Federation of Vietnam. The MOU marks the beginning
of another new era for further chess development in the East Asian region.
And with yesterday's co-operation and confirmation of the UAE Chess
Federation to offer the Asian U16 Championships to Vietnam, we are now able
to confirm a total of 7 events in Vietnam. All these events are sponsored
by Vung Tau Intourco, a local tour operator with diversifying interests in
import and export businesses especially agriculture products.
Of interest shall be three budget Grandmaster Tournaments to be held from 1
June to 15 July; immediately after the Zonal Championship. We welcome
application from players all over the world.
Also of special interest in the MOU is the building of a CHESS PLAZA which
IntChess Asia shall advise and manage by bringing monthly regional, Asian,
World and Super GM events. The CHESS PLAZA is similar to the project in
Shenyang, China, which we all know by now is a main bidder for this year's
World Championship.
IntChess Asia is also managing and assisting in the organisation of several
other international events in China and Indonesia. These include the
Shanghai Cat 13 Tournament in March; the Karpov vs Xie Jun Match and the
Bali Cat 16 Tournament in April as well as the Khalifman vs Ye Jiangchuan
Match in June.
For more information of these and the events in Vietnam, you may visit our
webpage at http://home1.pacific.net.sg/~intchess/.
Lastly, we like to mention that we wish to co-operate with any chess
organisation within or outside Asia. Examples of which are in the pipeline
this year are the China vs France Match in France and the China vs USA
Match in China. There is also the Junior Chess Tour to USA in 2001.
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STEWART REUBEN, not writing in any official capacity:
I am interested in a chess event using the 2000 hook somehow. e.g. 2000
games (obviously 2000 players would not be easy in Australia). How about
2000 games played on the Internet against England? Presumably ICC could
help with this and it would be fairly inexpensive. Players could play as
many games as they wished against many different opponents. Four game
matches of matched playing strength would be best. The Australia v England
(or UK) match could take place over a whole week. It would not matter how
many games were played provided the number exceeded 2000 so that it can be
called the Millennium Match. I would suggest all the moves in three
minutes, add on 5 seconds after each move. This eradicates most losses
caused by connection drag.
Another idea. I am interested in organising an Internationally Rated
Tournament or, more ambitiously, an international title tournament. I see
nothing wrong with this being played on the Internet, provided there is an
established arbiter at each playing site. Play would have of course to be a
possible 7 hours and the telephone costs would be relatively high. It is
not easy to do between England and Australia because of the time
difference. I am particularly interested in the dates 14-20 April. One of
the spurs to the event is seeking to get 9 year old David Howell a decent
FIDE Rating. He has qualified for the Smith & Williamson British
Championship another first-ever.
Anybody interested? Contact Stewart at Sreuben@compuserve.com
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Have a great week!
Graeme Gardiner
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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/
Chess - the clever sport!