ACF Bulletin No. 69 - 12 June 2000

WORLD SCHOOLS INTERNET TEAMS CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

Anglican Church Grammar School from Brisbane have defeated a school from
Toronto 6-0 to advance to the Grand Final of the World Schools Internet
Chess Championship. This follows on from a 6-0 victory over the George
Washington School. Churchie (IM DAVID SMERDON, MICHAEL DAVIDOVICI, KIERAN
OLM-MILLIGAN, BEN MCPHEE, SEAN KARITA and AKI CHIANG) now travel to New
York in a few weeks to play a Norwegian school "Norges Toppidrettsgymnas"
coached by GM SIMEN AGDESTEIN in the final. Churchie's victims in earlier
rounds included Sydney Grammar and Somerset College. This is a fantastic
achievement for an Australian school. Congratulations go entirely to David
Smerdon and his team who organised everything themselves for this wonderful
result. Six hundred teams competed in three divisions (High, Junior High
and Elementary) in this competition; next year 6000 are expected to compete.

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PARKROYAL SURFERS PARADISE INTERNATIONAL

Full details are available on the ACF webpage www.auschess.org.au You can
follow the games virtually live from 2pm daily (10am final day) either from
the ACF webpages or from the Internet Chess Club (ICC). Congratulations to
International Arbiter GARY BEKKER on his great efforts in making another
big leap forward for Australian chess. I hope the expertise gained from
this experience will lead to many other Australian events further
developing the idea of live internet coverage.

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GRAND PRIX

Upcoming events:

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

Both the Gold Coast Open and Noosa Open will feature the four GMs and many
of Australia's leading junior players who will be at Somerset College for a
week of intensive GM coaching.

Just a reminder to tournament organisers that it is imperative to get full
results with juniors and females clearly marked into INGRID THOMPSON
<snoozdoc@ozemail.com.au> immediately after each event.

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ADVERTISING YOUR TOURNAMENT

A simple way for you to advertise your event to chess players in your own
state is simply to cut from the ACF email database on the ACF webpage and
paste into your outbox. This is another good reason for you to supply me
with the email address of any chess players you can think of who may wish
to receive this weekly bulletin.

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ACTCA WEBSITE

The ACTCA is now hanging its page off the ACF site
http://www.auschess.org.au/actca This is being maintained by PETER SIMPSON
<psimpson@lmc.com.au>.

PAUL BROEKHUYSE is preparing pages for the NSWJCL to hang off the ACF
webpage. He also maintains a very good site with international information
NetChessNews www.users.bigpond.com/rebpab.

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ASIAN JUNIOR BOYS AND GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP (UNDER 20)

These will be held at the Royal Palms Golf and Country Club, Aarey Milk
Colony, Mumbai, India from 29 August to 10 September. Please advise MANUEL
WEEKS <manuelw@ozemail.com.au> or myself if you are interested in being
considered for selection.

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NIGERIAN TOURNAMENT

The Federal Government of Nigeria states that it will be running a big
tournament, the First Vice President's International Chess Open
Championship, from 12 to 19 August 2000. It doesn't state in which city it
will be held. I'm a bit puzzled because it states that it has set up a One
Million Pounds Appeal Fund for staging the tournament and even gives a bank
account to which payments can be made. Sound familiar?

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JOHN VAN MANEN - OBITUARY

I reproduce, with his permission, IAN ROGERS' obituary from the Sun Herald.

JOHN VAN MANEN was born in the Netherlands and learnt to play chess in
1935, the year that MAX EUWE became Holland's first and only world champion.

Van Manen emigrated to Australia in 1961, taking with him an extensive
chess book collection which he donated to the NSW State Library in 1970. By
now van Manen was building up an unrivalled library of Australian chess
literature, culminating in his publication of an Australian chess
bibliography in 1978.

Already van Manen was, according to one reviewer, "the greatest expert on
Australiana that ever lived" and he reinforced that reputation with an
authoritative column on Australiana in the national chess magazine.

Van Manen moved to Adelaide in 1979 and during the next decade and a half
produced six volumes of Australian chess history and three volumes of the
"Records of Australian Chess". His books were painstakingly compiled from
multiple sources and his published data was almost invariably accurate.

Although van Manen's books were ridiculed by one Australian chess retailer
as being "impossible to sell", without these works, later opuses such as
Chua's "Australian Chess at the Top" would have been impossible to write.

Van Manen was noted for his encouragement of aspiring Australian chess
historians and provided a forum for the research of others in his
"Australian Chess Lore".

Van Manen also collected and transcribed more than 10,000 Australian games
from the past century, later depositing them with the State Library of
Victoria. (The MV Anderson collection at the SLV is one of the world's
great chess libraries). These scoresheets, which provide an action replay
of Australian games through the years, may within a few years be accessible
to players around the world.

They are slowly being converted into computer format and will be added to
the game archive on the Australian Chess Federation website.

In 1996 van Manen moved with his wife Inge to Port Macquarie, giving up
most of his chess books and concentrating on other pursuits, including
mathematical problems and ordering the genealogical tables of the ruling
families of Europe.

Van Manen died on May 20, at age 78. His only public recognition was in
1988 when he was awarded the Purdy Medal for chess journalism.

The Australian chess community remains deeply in his debt.

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CHESS AUCTION

If you are interested in chess auctions try visiting ALEXANDER BABURIN's
webpage http://ababurin.tripod.com.

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CORRESPONDENCE

DAVID FLUDE

The ICC is a money-making operation. They charge people to belong. Possibly
in future live games should be shown on FICS, the free Internet place.

MATT SWEENEY

As the principle person who eventually dragged the two Doeberl Cup
Gladiators apart, I think that the real disgrace is not that they had
resorted to fisticuffs to sort matters, but that a dozen able bodied young
men stood back and watched them as they smashed each other to bits.

The apparent belief of the spectators, that they have a dignified mind for
chess and ought shun physical confrontation, should not and does not
absolve those spectators, from their ethical and civil responsibilities -
in this case the necessity to stop the fight the moment that it started.
Had they done this there would have been no "good story" for the press.

To observe or know that a serious crime or injustice is in progress, and do
nothing, is not only reprehensible, in fact, in some cases inaction is a
criminal act.

NORM GREENWOOD

A vote of thanks go to two of our new members (North Sydney Leagues Club
Chess Club) RAUL VERA and PETER NOSWORTHY who have established a database
of chess games on a new Web-site with a mechanism established for selected
games of members to be added to the database on a continuing basis. Full
details on the basis of operation of the Web-site can be found by visiting
the Web-site www.orbit3.com/cgi-bin/database.cgi.

Please note that this new Web-site is complementary to the Chess Club's
existing Web-site maintained by STEVE CARRATT which can be visited at
http://www.matra.com.au/~scarratt/chatinf.htm.

NSLCCC is arranging for the printing of carbonised score sheets with the
duplicate copies being sent to Raul and Peter for entering selected games
on the Web-site.

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Very best wishes to all.

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.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.