ACF Bulletin No. 64 - 6 May, 2000
'LOVE' AND 'JOKE' VIRUSES
My apologies to anyone who received the ‘joke' virus inadvertently from me.
I received it from my Headmaster's Secretary (unknowing to her, of course)
who has previously sent me some pretty good, genuine jokes. Unfortunately I
hadn't heard about these new virus ‘worms' in the news, but when I opened
the attachment and saw my address book shooting off emails like a machine
gun I shut down my computer and spoke to our computer manager.
He has now taken action to try and ensure it won't happen again including
putting up a firewall to all .exe .vbs and .bat attachments, as well as
other measures which remain confidential. We do have the VET anti virus
programme on our computers which is updated weekly but this was useless
against JOKE.
I realise that in my position, having such a large database of chess people
(which, you'll be pleased to know, is in the hands of my wife Wendy who
doesn't keep it in the highly vulnerable MS Outlook Express Address Book),
I have a responsibility to do all within my means to ensure your computers
don't get infected via me. I only hope you'll reciprocate and spare me the
agonies of more hard disk reformatting!
**********
WAYS YOU CAN HELP CHESS IN AUSTRALIA
1. Please make a donation however small or large to the ACF Olympiad
Appeal. This is the most practical way that we can show our support for our
senior players. Please advise me <ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au> and mail
your cheque to NORM GREENWOOD, Unit 15, Horizon Towers, 208 Pacific
Highway, Hornsby NSW 2077. Thank you.
2. If you know anyone at university who plays a bit of chess please let me
have their email address and I'll include them on the university database.
3. If you know of a club or tournament organiser who is not using the
Swiss Perfect pairings programme please let me have their email details so
that I can offer it to them direct.
4. If you know of any amateur or professional chess coaches, please let me
know their email address so that I can pass it on to BRETT TINDALL for his
coaches' database.
5. If you know of anyone involved in chess who has an email address who
may not be receiving this bulletin, please pass it on to me so that I can
offer it to them.
**********
PARKROYAL SURFERS PARADISE INTERNATIONAL 7 to 17 JUNE
Confirmed entries to date: NIKOLIC 2659, FTACNIK 2582, ROGERS 2562,
JOHANSEN 2494, WOHL 2438, TEICHMANN 2365, HUNT 2359, ALLEN 2264, DUXBURY
2247, LEVI 2246, ZHAO 2242, TINDALL 2194, HANKS 2166, CORKER 2002, KASSA
U/R. I have numerous other genuine enquiries pending, several of which are
from overseas. I'm advised that there will be very good chances for IM and
GM norms.
**********
UNIVERSITY CHESS
I have received more additions/changes to the university email database.
With competitions already planned in NSW and Victoria I strongly believe
that there is the opportunity for someone involved in university chess to
run a national teams event to coincide with the Inter Varsity Sports
Carnival at Ballarat in the first week of October. I received the following
correspondence from BAS VAN RIEL of Ballarat Chess Club who runs one of the
nation's premier weekend events, the Ballarat Begonia Open:
"If the groundwork can be done by other people, the Ballarat Chess Club in
general, and myself in particular could certainly assist locally with
running things here at Ballarat, eg checking out venues, setting up,
providing chess sets, and even DOP-ing, etc. Perhaps KEVIN PERRIN could be
asked to be the DOP/arbiter as he has this long-standing experience and
involvement through the Ballarat Begonia Tournaments and other major events
in the past.
My (loose) connection with the Ballarat Uni as a casual lecturer may come
in handy?
Please let me know about progress, new developments and what we could (and
should) do at this end."
With best regards, Bas van Riel
It is open to an enthusiastic organiser involved in the university scene to
pick up the ball and run with this concept which I believe would be of
immense benefit to Australian chess.
**********
SWISS PERFECT LICENCES
Sixty licences have been issued to the following states/clubs (and many
schools all of which are entitled to free copies of the various state
licences):
Australia: ACF.
Tasmania: TCA, Sandy Bay, Burnie, Launceston, Hobart International.
NSW: NSWCA, Rooty Hill, Central Coast, Ettalong Beach, Hakoah Club, Ford
Memorial, Woolongong Collegians, Mingara, Newcastle, Canterbury Bankstown,
St George.
Victoria: VCA, Elwood, Chess Kids, Hobsons Bay, Geelong, Bendigo, Box Hill,
Ballarat, Dandenong, Chess Ideas, Albury.
Queensland: CAQ, Qld Juniors, The Gap, Redcliffe, Toowoomba Grammar,
Coomera Juniors, Gold Coast, Townsville, Hervey Bay, Northside Juniors, Kin
Kora (Gladstone), Suncoast.
Northern Territory: Darwin.
South Australia: SACA, Modbury, Norwood, Adelaide.
Western Australia: CAWA, WA Juniors, Metro, Perth, Fremantle, Midland,
Bunbury.
ACT: ACTCA, ACT High Schools, ACTJCL, Tuggeranong, ANU, Canberra,
Belconnen, Southside
**********
GRAND PRIX
INGRID THOMPSON will e-mail results files to anyone who wants them each
time she updates them. Just send Ingrid <snoozdoc@ozemail.com.au> an email
and she will add you to her list.
Upcoming events:
May 13-14 Adelaide Cup, SACA, 10 Ranelagh St., Adelaide, Cat 1, CHESS
CENTRE 08 8211 7189
May 13-15 Basta Shield, Melbourne Chess Club, Fitzroy, Cat 3, MELBOURNE
CHESS CLUB 03 9416 3149
May 27-28 NSWCA Open, Ashfield Catholic Club, Cat 1, MICHAEL WALSH 0407 068550
REDCLIFFE LABOUR DAY OPEN
1 SMERDON, David JNR 2294 OPEN 7
2 EDWARDS, Jacob 1870 OPEN 5.5
3-6 BYROM, Patrick 1884 OPEN 5
SUMMERS, Paul 1803 OPEN 5
CROCKER, Michael C 1604 A 5
DAVIDOVICI, Michael JNR 1574 A 5
7-10 WELLER, Tony 1813 OPEN 4.5
STOKES, Mark 1665 A 4.5
GOODWIN, Robert(Bob 1471 B 4.5
MURRAY, Luke JNR 1271 C 4.5
11-18 BAILEY, Cameron R 1676 A 4
STEWART, Craig 1569 A 4
DAVISON, Wayne 1556 A 4
FLYNN, Chris 1533 A 4
BURKE, Mark 1512 A 4
THOMAS, Brian 1503 A 4
DAVIDSON, Nathan 1497 B 4
VAN DER MEER, Andrew 1426 B 4
19-21 DYER, Mike 1528 A 3.5
PATISSIER, Dominic 1468 B 3.5
FARBER, Brian C 3.5
22-32 PAZA, Eduardo A 3
WILLIAMS, David 1493 B 3
LAKY, Jim 1486 B 3
BUCIU, Aurel-John 1465 B 3
PATERSON, Peter 1411 B 3
KOSPARTOV, Nick 1398 C 3
ROSE, Allinta JNRF 1357 C 3
KIRBY, Darryl 1325 C 3
RUNCIMAN, Alan 1304 C 3
EVANS, Laurence JNR 1168 C 3
TEKI ELWYN, JNR C-U18 3
33-34 VINK, Andre JNR 1149 C-U18 2.5
SULLIVAN, Ryan JNR 1129 C-U18 2.5
35-37 BURRAGE, Matthew JNR 1267 C 2
LONG HONG, Stan 1233 C 2
YOUNG, Gail FEM 1200 C 2
38-39 FERNANDEZ, Troy JNR 1010 C-U18 1
FARBER, Jess CDT C-U18 1
40 SMITH, Geoff 1123 C 0
NORM BRAYBROOKE:
The traditional Queensland Labor Day weekend Peninsula Open (the 35th) was
held last weekend, unfortunately numbers were down, due to various reasons
some domestic, some car/transportation. Wet weather before the weekend did
it's best to help, cancelling some local sports (one hockey player was able
to play the tournament). DAVID SMERDON won 7/7 from JACOB EDWARDS 5.5/7
PATRICK BYROM, PAUL SUMMERS, MICHAEL CROCKER and MICHAEL DAVIDOVICI 5/7.
Rd1: Games went pretty much to rating indications but junior RYAN SULLIVAN
did well to beat MARK BURKE and cadet JESS FARBER drew with JIM LAKY.
Rd2: Saw two wins by players 300 rating points below their opponents: BRIAN
THOMAS def PAUL SUMMERS and CHRIS FLYNN def TONY WELLER, and a 250 point
difference win by ANDRE VINK against PETER PATERSON.
Rd3: Results were as expected in this round although MARK STOKES thought
it was his lucky day when DAVID SMERDON (exchange and pawn up) blundered a
rook but with only 11 seconds against 24 minutes Mark suffered a loss.
Rd4: ALLINTA ROSE grabbed the lead in the race for Female Grand Prix
points by defeating GAIL YOUNG, RYAN SULLIVAN scored his second upset
defeating DARRY KIRBY.
Rd5: Novice tournament player ELWYN TEKI scored his second win of the
tournament (against GAIL YOUNG, ALLINTA ROSE and LUKE MURRAY also scored
upset wins (NATHAN DAVIDSON and JIM LAKY).
Rd7: DAVID SMERDON finished on 7/7 (as expected) to take 1st place.
**********
DETAILS OF TWO BIG UPCOMING EVENTS
ANU Open: 22/23 July, Fenner Hall, Canberra, Organiser ANDREW GREENWOOD
<Andrew.A.Greenwood@student.anu.edu.au>. Total Prize Fund $3,000; First
Prize $1,000. All moves in one hour followed by 10 seconds per move; Start
10am both days; Entry Fees: Adult $50; Concession $40; Junior $30.
Australian Open Rapid Play: 5/6 August, Deakin University, Melbourne,
Organiser DAVID CORDOVER <cordover@chessworld.com.au>. Total Prize Fund
$8,000; 1st Prize $2,000; Fischer Rapid 20 minutes a side plus 10 seconds
per move; Entry Fees: Adult $60; Concession $50; Junior $40.
**********
ON LINE RATING SYSTEM
ROBERT ROZYCKI is so enthusiastic about an online rating system that he has
drafted the following for discussion:
The World Wide Web based Rating System system would allow on-line results
submissions, error correction, rating list generation etc. Submitted
results would be available for viewing on-line on a per tournament and per
player basis. The submission process would be as simple as navigating with
your browser to a particular site and then selecting a Swiss Perfect
generated file on your local disk for upload.
An official rating list would be generated automatically or manually and
published periodically on the site.
An UNOFFICIAL, current rating list would be updated daily with submitted
tournaments and recalculated automatically. This list would give a fair
reflection of the current players strength and how they have been
performing up-to-date. While unofficial, this list would probably be of
great interest to players.
To prevent a frivolous use of the facility, submitted tournaments would be
viewed by the site administrator before being published on the site and
included in rating calculations. However a password protected account
would be created for "trusted" users whose submissions would go on-line
immediately. Therefore submissions from the "trusted" users would not be
held up by the need of a review by the administrator. Still, the
administrator would be able to remove or edit those "trusted" submissions
as well..
It is important to stress that the official list would only be published
periodically by the administrator and no amount of user interaction with
the site would trigger its update.
The proposed system would simplify and speed up submissions of tournament
results. All results and updated (unofficial) rating lists would be
available on the Web with little or no delay. Arbiters and players would
be able to question submissions before they become official if they detect
any errors.
An on-line membership database could be developed in conjunction with the
on-line rating system.
Functionality by User Type
Public
1. On-Line access to the latest official rating list with search facility.
2. On-Line access to an unofficial rating list that reflects results of all
tournaments submitted up to date (with search facility as above).
3. Viewing results of any submitted tournament.
4. Viewing results of any player in the current period.
Tournament Directors
1. Submission of tournament results by uploading a file (directly from a
browser) generated by Swiss Perfect.
2. Ability to "identify" players in a submitted tournament against the
Rating List.
Site Administrator
1. Monitoring file uploads
1. Editing submitted results when required
2. Triggering the generation of official, periodical Rating Lists.
3. Publishing rating lists (and editing the generated lists if necessary).
I know that JACOB EDWARDS AND JOE TANTI are enthusiastic about this type of
concept also. Comments are welcomed and I'm sure that Robert would welcome
any programmers who would like to help him develop this system.
**********
CORRESPONDENCE
KEVIN BONHAM:
Following correspondence about "God in the chessroom", I just thought I'd
make a few rather light-hearted suggestions on how the Laws of Chess really
might apply to these issues.
If your opponent has been visibly or audibly praying and this is
distracting you from your game or annoying you, you are entitled to make a
complaint under Law 12.5 "It is forbidden to annoy or distract the opponent
in any way whatsoever". I'd hope any arbiter would uphold this and warn
the opponent. The tricky case is where the opponent has a religious reason
for having to pray at a particular time, and here I'd expect the opponent
would have to notify the arbiter before play, and also pray somewhere where
the player would not be disturbed.
If your opponent is merely trying to unobtrusively receive advice from some
deity they claim to believe in, there's absolutely nothing you can do about
it under the Laws. Nor should there be, because you are relying on a lot
of assumptions that cannot be proven to everyone's satisfaction, even if
your opponent "admits" they were trying to "get help". If arbiters even
took complaints about this sort of thing seriously, we would have to deal
with "God wound my opponent's clock backwards", "Satan made me put my queen
en prise" and so on. Ghastly.
You could always try privately convincing the next 2200-rated reverend you
meet that he has a moral obligation not to play any move he considers
divinely inspired. You could claim it was somewhat against the spirit of
Law 12.2 "during play the players are forbidden to make use of any notes,
sources of information, advice ..." Of course, it would be quite
unscrupulous for anyone who did not believe in the deity in question to try
this.
**********
I'll be away at a conference for a few days so I won't be answering emails
until Thursday.
Very best wishes to all
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.auschess.org.au
Chess - the clever sport!
PS: If you do not wish to receive the ACF Bulletins, please email
wgardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au.