ACF Bulletin No. 66 - 21 May, 2000

PARKROYAL SURFERS PARADISE INTERNATIONAL 7 TO 17 JUNE

Latest list of confirmed entries:

NIKOLIC (Bosnia) 2659, FTACNIK (Slovakia) 2582, ROGERS 2562, JOHANSEN 2494,WOHL 2438, TEICHMANN (England) 2365, HUNT (England) 2359, RUJEVIC 2348, ALLEN 2264, SAW 2264, DUXBURY 2247, LEVI 2246, ZHAO 2242, TINDALL 2194, HANKS 2166, CORKER 2002, YADAO (Philippines) U/R, KASSA U/R.

I have had correspondence with several other Australian and overseas FIDE rated players in recent days who are likely to enter.

I am happy to accept entries from two or three players who are keen to obtain FIDE ratings but who are presently unrated; as a guide ACF 1800+.

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GARRY KOSHNITSKY MEMORIAL CHESS FESTIVAL 7 JUNE TO 13 AUGUST

7 to 17 June Parkroyal Surfers Paradise International (Prize Fund $5,000, at least 4 GMs participating)

24 to 25 June Gold Coast Open (Prize Fund $2,500)

26 to 30 June GM coaching of elite Australian juniors

1 to 2 July Noosa Open (Prize Fund $2,500)

8 to 9 July Queen Victoria Building event, Sydney (Details to be advised)

22 to 23 July Australian National University Open, Canberra (Prize Fund $3,000)

24 July to 4 August Australian Masters, Reserve Bank Building, Melbourne (Prize Fund $3,000)

5/6 August Australian Rapid Play, Melbourne (Prize Fund $8,000)

7 August to 13 August The Adelaide Checkmate Tournament (1st Prize $2,000)

12 to 13 August The Adelaide Checkmate Weekender (1st Prize $1,000)

I understand that the total prize fund for the two Adelaide events will be $6,000. This brings the total prize money for the 8 events to $30,000.

"CHECKMATE" was the last word spoken by Garry.

The form of leading Australian players during this festival will be taken into account by the selectors when finalising the Australian teams for the Olympiad in Istanbul.

More info from GRAEME GARDINER <ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au> Phone: +61 7 5530 3777 (work), +61 7 5530 5794 (home), +61 7 5525 2676 (fax).

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GRAND PRIX - TOUGH TOURNAMENT OUT WEST (of Melbourne) - PETER CAISSA

The return of the Hobsons Bay CC to the ACF Grand Prix circuit almost became a "last man standing" affair.

Of the original entrants, illness forced two to withdraw prior to the first round, two fell away after round 2, another after round 4 and the organiser and a couple of other players made hard work of the weekend.

The chess was just as tough. Reputations (& rating points) went west as DIMITRY PARTSI (1920) lost to ANDREW LEROY (1494) and PATRICK COOK (1768), MICHAEL HORNUNG (1984) lost to GORDON LINDBERG (1658) and BAS VAN RIEL (1917) lost to unrated GORAN VELJANOVSKI.

The only certainties were top seed MICHAEL BARON (2292) and SAM CHOW (1747), who set up a round 4 meeting as the only undefeated players with Michael converting strong central control into a win and the lead. In Round 5 Baron defeated Cook while Chow played a good sacrificial game against Enano.

With Baron apparently unstoppable, Chow blew Babic away in a maze of attacking moves to take clear second, followed by Enano and Gatti, both returning to competitive chess. The final round saw Baron complete a perfect tournament by grinding Enano into the board while Chow employed the same tactics against Gatti as with Babic to finish second. Amazingly with only 19 finishers, the next 12 players were separated by just one point. Country players Patrick Cook (draw) and MAXWELL MOLLARD (win) finished with just one loss each.

Winners of Category prizes received additional prizes of free entry to the Hobsons Bay Open 2001. Hopefully numbers next year will reach the usual 50-60 as in previous years.

The club would like to thank the last-minute sponsorship by Elite Customer Solutions Pty Ltd which made the tournament possible.

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GRAND PRIX

Upcoming tournaments:

May 27-28 NSWCA Open, Ashfield Catholic Club, Cat 1, MICHAEL WALSH 0407 068550

June 10-12 Tas Championship, Creative Living Centre Burnie, Cat 1, NEVILLE LEDGER 03 6431 1280

June 10-12 Vic Open, Melbourne (Venue TBA), Cat 3, FRED VANDERLINDE 03 5998 7757

June 10-11 Queens Birthday Open, SACA 10 Ranelagh St. Adelaide, Cat 1, Chess Centre 08 8211 7189

June 10-11 NSWCA Koshnitsky Memorial event, Sydney (Venue TBA), Cat 3, MICHAEL WALSH 0407 068550

June 24-25 Taree RSL Open, Taree Sports and Rec Club, Cat 1, ENDEL LANE 02 6559 9060

June 24-25 Gold Coast Open, Somerset College, Cat 3, GRAEME GARDINER 07 5530 3777

July 1-2 Noosa Open, Noosa Bicentennial Hall, Cat 3, ROBERT HOCHSTADT 07 5447 5056

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FIDE OCEANIC ZONAL

This world championship qualifier has commenced in Auckland with 14 entrants. ACF Secretary/Webmaster, ANDREW ALLEN is reporting the results on the ACF webpage http://www.auschess.org.au.

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DOPING CONTROL FOR ISTANBUL OLYMPIAD (FIDE BULLETIN)

FIDE Medical Commission Chairman Dr. Pedro Barrera announced last weekend, at the Presidential Board meeting in London, that his Commission in collaboration with the IOC Medical Commission will be introducing doping control measures as they relate to chess players in sports, starting from the Istanbul Olympiad.

The details will be communicated to National Federations as soon as they are finalized.

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INDIA AND IRAN IN USD 3.5 MILLION WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS (FIDE BULLETIN)

With a joint bid of USD 2.7 million and assurances from the World Chess Foundation on the financial shortfall as well as other guarantees, the Presidential Board of FIDE at its meeting at Simpson's-in-the-Strand, London, 13-14 May 2000, unanimously resolved to grant the hosting of this year's World Chess Championship and Women's World Chess Championship to India and Iran. At the historic Board meeting, which was attended by all 15 members of the Presidential Board and representatives from 7 National Federations, the Board noted that India would host the preliminaries to semi-final rounds of the World Championship and the whole of the Women's World Championship, while the final match for the World Championship would be held in Tehran. The preliminary rounds will start in New Dehli on 25 November.

Speaking after the Board's decision, the FIDE President, H.E. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov pointed out that it is significant that the World Championship was finally returning to the birthplace of the world's foremost intellectual sport, where its origins began over 2000 years ago.

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COMMITTEE ON COMMERCIALIZATION TO MEET IN LAUSANNE (FIDE BULLETIN)

The Presidential Board of FIDE at its meeting last weekend in London, unanimously resolved to set up a special committee to examine various aspects of the memorandum on the commercialization of FIDE before its submission to the General Assembly in Istanbul for approval.

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BOARD RECONFIRMS ISTANBUL OLYMPIAD (FIDE BULLETIN)

After listening to a detailed brief from FIDE Vice President Emrehan Halici on the current state of preparations by his country to host the 34th Chess Olympiad, the Presidential Board at is meeting in London, 13-14 May 2000, expressed confidence in the ability of Turkey to host this year's event at the highest level.

The Board reconfirmed the schedule of the Olympiad incorporating the 71st FIDE Congress to hold from 27 October to 13 November 2000 in Istanbul.

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DEADLINE FOR RATING OF TOURNAMENTS (FIDE BULLETIN)

With the approach of the 31 May deadline for the July 2000 Rating List, National Federations are kindly requested to note that only rating reports received at the FIDE Secretariat on or before the 31st of May will be considered for the July rating list.

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ACF RAPID RATING LIST

Please could all tournament organisers get into the habit of submitting all tournaments 15 mins a side (or longer time controls) to the relevant state ratings officer so that we can build up the national rapid list as quickly as possible. This includes junior events. Thank you.

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ACF RATING OF 'MATCHES'

At the last ACF Council Meeting, a formal ACF policy for the rating of 'matches' was passed.

"The ACF will rate matches in the Australian rating system and where applicable submit matches to FIDE for rating approval provided:

a) the match is approved for rating by the respective state associations of the players concerned or the state organising the event and

b) the match is for a legitimate title play-off or that the ACF Council at their absolute discretion authorise the match to be rated".

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AUSTRALIAN IS US KINDY CHAMPION

PARKER ZHAO (born on 4th, July 1994 on the Gold Coast, an Australian citizen) scored 7 out of 7 in last week's US 2000 National Elementary Chess Championship (in Dallas Texas), and he now is Kindergarten Chess Champion of USA. His rating is 1071, the highest in his age group in USA. He learnt chess himself and plays regularly in Manhattan Chess Club, Marshall Chess Club.

Parker is no relation of ZONG YUAN ZHAO, one of Australia's leading juniors who lives in Coffs Harbour and who is currently playing in the zonal in Auckland.

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Best wishes to all

Graeme Gardiner