OLYMPIAD SQUADS

The Olympiad Squads were ratified at the ACF Council Meeting last Monday night. The eligibility of SLAVICA SARAI will be determined at the time final selections are made at the end of the Garry Koshnitsky Memorial Australian Chess Festival.

ALEX WOHL, DARRYL JOHANSEN, DAVID SMERDON, GUY WEST, IAN ROGERS, JOHN PAUL WALLACE, LEONID SANDLER, MICHAEL GLUZMAN, STEPHEN SOLOMON, VLADIMIR FELDMAN.

BILJANA DEKIC, EDYTA ROZYCKI, IRINA BEREZINA FELDMAN, LAURA MOYLAN, NGAN KOSHNITSKY, NATALIE MILLS, SLAVICA SARAI, VERONICA KLIMENKO.

A reminder to all state associations, clubs and individuals that the Olympiad Appeal is now open and we would appreciate very generous donations in support of our Australian team. I realise that the term 'very generous' is a relative phrase and emphasise that all donations, however small or large, are very much valued and appreciated.

Donations can be advised to myself and sent to our hard working treasurer, Norm Greenwood at Unit 15, Horizon Towers, 208 Pacific Highway, Hornsby, NSW 2077. (Cheques payable to Australian Chess Federation) Thank you.

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WORLD JUNIOR SELECTIONS

We are advised that the dates for Spain have now changed slightly to 10-24 October (not 7-21 October).

All juniors selected plus those who choose to participate in the World Juniors are invited to attend a week of intensive coaching with GMs NIKOLIC, FTACNIK, ROGERS and JOHANSEN at Somerset College, Gold Coast from Monday 26 June to Friday 30 June. This has been made possible by a very generous donation by JENNI OLIVER (ACT).

It is recommended that those who attend also take part in the Gold Coast Open 24/25 June and the Noosa Open 1/2 July - the four GMs will be participating in both these events.

Manuel Weeks and the selectors have almost finalised the selections and I hope to be in a position to issue an additional bulletin in the next day or so advising the results.

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ACF COUNCIL MEETING BY PHONE HOOK UP

Last Monday night was the fourth occasion on which the ACF Council have met by phone hook up but the first in which every state and territory have been present. Kevin Bonham (Tasmania) and Terry O'Neill (Northern Territory) attended for the first time. Whilst the Northern Territory attended as an observer, I'm hopeful that it won't be too long before they join up as a full member.

If anyone with an ACF rating is planning to visit Darwin in the coming months, Terry O'Neill [colon@topend.com.au] would love to hear from you. The members of the Darwin Chess Club need outside, rated players to validate their rating system.

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JANUARY 2002 AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS AND AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS

Bids for these national events are now well and truly open. Please contact me if you are interested in hosting either (or both) of these events.

The website for the Australian Open and Australian Juniors due to be held in Canberra this coming January is now up. The webmaster is ANDREW GREENWOOD. http://www.auschess.org.au/centenary

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FIDE REGULAR NEWSLETTER

FIDE have instituted a regular email newsletter which they say has become necessary as a result of the call by National Federations for greater communication between FIDE and its members.

One item on drugs in sport has relevance for Australian players.

"Continental President for the Americas and Chairman of the FIDE Medical Commission, Dr Pedro Barrera and Executive Director Emmanuel Omuku met at the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with IOC Medical Director, Dr Patrick Schamasch to discuss the modalities for the implementation of the IOC Medical Code as they relate to chess players in sports.

It was agreed during the meeting that the FIDE Medical Commission would liaise with its IOC counterpart in order to finalise the list of prohibited substances and the acceptable limits in respect of these substances as they relate to chess players in chess events. Under the proposed arrangement, which final outcome will be sent to all national federations, on the approval of the IOC, the program is expected to target National Championships, World Championships (including the Olympiads) and international events. Both sides discussed the issue of financial support for the implementation of the anti-doping program in relation to the monitoring of national events".

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GRAND PRIX

Upcoming events:

April 21-23 Darling Downs Open, Toowoomba Grammar School, Cat 2, LES LORD 07 4735 7755

April 21-24 Doeberl Cup, Fenner Hall, Canberra, Cat 3, ROGER McCART 02 6251 6190

April 29-May 1 35th Peninsula Open, Clontarf High School, Cat 1, NORM BRAYBROOKE 0418 716374

Just a reminder to tournament organisers that if you send me a report I'll endeavour to include it in this bulletin. Also, the Grand Prix administrator, INGRID THOMPSON snoozdoc@ozemail.com.au, relies on tournament organisers to send her results with the full details immediately after each event.

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SOUTH AUSTRALIAN STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS

GEORGE HOWARD reports that the South Australian State Championships was won by 14-year-old SONG YANG. He has been coached for the last 18 months by ALEX SYKES. It was a six player round robin with two ex State Champions playing and the current State Junior Champion, as well as past City of Adelaide winner and well credentialed players.

Name; Current Rating; Final Score

Song Yang (J); 1659; 4

Aaron Guthrie (J); 1489; 3.5

Kevin Sheldrick; 1985; 2

Alex Sykes; 2033; 3.5

Joseph Tanti; 1921; 1

Brett Stokes; 1

This is an amazing result but not unexpected as Song's performance rating over the last six months has been over 1900 (old rating) i.e. over 2050 new ratings.

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The Melbourne FIDE Rating Tournament is now under way. STIRLING, WOODHAMS, DIZDAREVICH, BARON and PARTSI are the early front runners in the event. Stirling and Partsi look set to earn themselves FIDE ratings as a result.

Full results and annotated games are being updated daily at the tournament website: http://www.eagles.bbs.net.au/~gbekker/rating.htm .

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CORRESPONDENCE

GAIL YOUNG (Queensland)

I think the idea of all Australian chess clubs 'hanging' from the ACF webpage is a top idea. It means that for any Australian chess news/information, we would only have to visit the one site and then choose the state / club for which we want information. I would like to see a list of state/club office bearers and contact information, phone and/or e-mail address, included. This would also make any information required by overseas chess clubs/inquirers easily accessible to them.

It is a suggestion which should be taken up by every state and all chess clubs.

I think it should only be available to state affiliated chess clubs.

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Very best wishes to all.

Graeme Gardiner

Somerset College, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba 4213 07 5530 5794 (H) 07 5530 3777 (W) 07 5525 2676 (F) Email ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au