ACF Bulletin No. 70 - 18 June 2000

PARKROYAL INTERNATIONAL

Final results in this event were: Lubomir Ftacnik 7.5, Predrag Nikolic and
Sergey Galdunts 6.5, Darryl Johansen, Ian Rogers and Alex Wohl 5.5, Adam
Hunt, John Paul Wallace and Mirko Rujevic 5.0. 22 players. Full results and
games etc via the ACF webpage www.auschess.org.au

Particular congratulations to the winner, Lubomir Ftacnik, who played
aggresive chess throughout and set a wonderful example to us all. He even
makes a good running partner in the mornings! The competitors were a fine
bunch of people and the chief arbiter, Gary Bekker, did not have one
dispute to resolve. Unrated Filipino Israel Yadao performed at nearly 2300
and was a thorn in the side of title norm aspirants Sergey Galdunts and
Adam Hunt. John Paul Wallace showed a welcome return to form. Kerry Stead
had his best ever performance; Manuel Weeks had his worst but still
maintained his sense of humour.

Particular congratulations go to Gary Bekker who performed well beyond the
call of duty as Chief Arbiter. Andrew Allen had arranged with ICC for games
to be transmitted live to the internet and Gary worked extremely hard to
achieve an Australian first with most games relayed live to both ICC and
the ACF webpage. This has set a new standard for Australian chess. I'm sure
that there are probably several Australians who have the expertise to
achieve this result. For those who don't, I'm sure that Gary would be more
than happy to assist with advice in achieving live internet coverage of
important tournaments. Chess people clearly enjoy live coverage of games
with which they have some empathy.

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QUEEN VICTORIA BUILDING, SYDNEY EVENTS 15/16 JULY

JASON LYONS has provided preliminary details of his chess events due to be
held at the QVB Building in Sydney on the weekend of 15/16 July and
sponsored by Dato Tan (Ipoh Ltd). This will be part of the Garry Koshnitsky
Memorial Chess Festival.

a) QVB Cup (winner will have their name engraved alongside GM Joel
Benjamin's on the Saintly Cup)

6/7 rounds, 1 hour each (if digital clocks are used, a small time increment
will be used). Draft prize fund:

1st $800, 2nd $500, 3rd $300, u/2200 $250, u/2000 $250, u/1800 $250, u/1600
$250, u/1400 $250

Entry Fees: $40/$30 ($10 late fee on the day)

b) Clock simul: GM v Australian women's team (details to be confirmed)

c) Street chess on QVB Plaza

d) Junior event (details to be confirmed)

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CORRESPONDENCE CHESS LEAGUE OF AUSTRALIA

MAURICE NEWMAN (02 9327 3583) advises that the CCLA will be running
tournaments for the Email Championship of Australia commencing at the
beginning of November and conducted under the ICCF rules for email. This
will be open to all affiliates of the ACF in addition to CCLA members. The
minimum rating will be 1100; the maximum number of players to be 11; and
the highest rated 11 or 9 entrants to be accepted into the championship.

The entry fee will be $10 for CCLA members and $15 for ACF affiliates. All
entry fees to be sent to the CCLA at GPO Box 2360 Sydney NSW 1043 by 30
September.

I hope to give you an email contact for the next issue.

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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

July 15-16 QVB Stakes, Sydney, Cat 2, JASON LYONS 0412 907686

July 22-23 ANU Open, Canberra, Cat 3, ANDREW GREENWOOD 02 6291 0385

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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ADELAIDE CHECKMATE TOURNAMENT 6-11 AUGUST

Venue: Chess Centre of SA, 10 Ranelagh St, Adelaide

FIDE Rated, 7 Rounds Swiss for players rated 1800 and higher.

Entry Fees: Full $60, Concession $35. Arbiter: Roly Eime.

Prizes: 1st $2,000, 2nd $1,000, 3rd $500 Top Woman $500, Top Junior $200.

Sessions: Sunday 6/8 11.30am - 4.30pm and 6.00pm - 11.00pm. Monday to
Friday 7/8 to 11/8 6.00pm - 11.00pm.

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ADELAIDE CHECKMATE WEEKENDER 12/13 AUGUST - FINALE TO THE GARRY KOSHNITSKY
MEMORIAL FESTIVAL

Cat 3 Grand Prix Event. Venue: Chess Centre of SA, 10 Ranelagh St, Adelaide.

7 Rounds Swiss. Sat 10.30am, 1.30pm, 4.00pm and 8.00pm. Sunday 10.30am,
1.30pm and 4.00pm.

60 mins a side.

Prizes: 1st $1,000, 2nd $500, 3rd $250, Women's prizes $250 and $100.
Junior prizes $100 and $50.

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EVELYN KOSHNITSKY "BEAUTY" PRIZE

$500 prize for the most beautiful or brilliant combination played by an
Australian player during any event of the festival. Entries to be
accompanied by a $10 fee payable to the Australian Chess Federation and
sent to the judge, ROBERT JAMIESON at PO Box 716, Mt Waverley, Vic 3149.

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COACHES ASSOCIATION

I'm pleased to say that Brett Tindall, assisted by John Paul Wallace and
Andrew Allen, has agreed to run with development of the coaches
association. Nik Stawski is fully involved with university studies and has
reluctantly conceded that he has to curtail most of his chess activities at
least for the time being. For those interested in coaching chess in the
schools, there is a huge opening in Brisbane at present. By my
calculations, Brisbane could easily host three or four fulltime coaches in
the schools immediately.

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TASMANIAN CHAMPIONSHIP REPORT - KEVIN BONHAM

The 2000 Tasmanian Championships held in Burnie over the Queens Birthday
long weekend attracted a field of 16 players. It was held as a 6-round
Swiss at 90 minutes per player per game.

There were no major upsets and the major places were determined by clashes
between the top seeds Hornung, Sakov and Bonham. Bonham-Hornung (round 3)
was a lopsided positional crush with Bonham resigning on move 34,
completely zugzwanged on a board half-full of pieces. Hornung-Sakov (round
4) was headed for a draw until Hornung lost a pawn very late in the game.
Sakov only needed a draw against Bonham in round 6 for outright first, and
got it despite being a pawn down for much of the game.

This is Sakov's third title in five years and he is the first player to
successfully defend the title since 1985. Tom Lea won the U1700 ratings
prize outright. Janice Martin won the U1550 prize in a very close tiebreak
over Burnie junior Nick Cuff, who gave some higher-rated players serious
scares.

>From an arbiting perspective, the attitude of all the players was excellent
and everything ran smoothly. We used Swiss Perfect for the first time in a
Tasmanian event and my view is that all its pairings were correct. There
was some surprise when Lea (instead of Bonham) was paired against Sakov in
round 5 but I checked this manually and found that it was forced in order to
prevent violation of either consecutive downfloating or colour allocation
rules.

With no obvious winner, the Best Game prize will be judged after all
annotated games to be published in the commemorative booklet have been
received. An informal lighting was also held on Saturday night and won by
Hornung and Bonham on 8.5/9. Neville Ledger Chess Centre donated a book
prize for this.

5.5/6 SAKOV Pavel (1946), 5/6 HORNUNG Michael (1984), 4/6 BONHAM Kevin
(1879), TODD Andrew (Unr), 3.5/6 LEA Tom (1621), 3/6 STUBBS Mike (1714),
MIHELCIC Milan (1628), DONNELLY Phil (1688), RADOSAVLJEVIC Dragan (1721),
LEDGER Neville (1582), 2.5/6 CUFF Nick (*j*)(1518p), MARTIN Janice
(*f*)(1489), 2/6 HEY Ben (*j*)(1317p), 1.5/6 BARR Nick (1355), RICHARDS
Graham (1459), 1/6 MINOL Leo (1291)

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NSW QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY WEEKENDER

Open - 1st TIM REILLY 5.5, 2nd BEN MARTIN 5.0, 3rd= STEPHEN SOLOMON and N
CABALE 4.0.

Under 1750 - 1st J MELZINI 5.0, 2nd NORM GREENWOOD 4.5, 3rd= R KITE, D
CHARAMOV and A KEUNING 4.0.

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OBITUARY JOHN VAN MANEN - PETER PARR

PETER PARR kindly provided an obituary in respect of John which I
inadvertently omitted last week. This complements the one provided by IAN
ROGERS.

JOHN VAN MANEN died in hospital on May 20th aged 78 in Port Macquarie NSW.
He was the husband of Inge and father and father-in-law of Frank and Janelle.

John van Manen was Australia's best known chess historian. His patient and
diligent research over many years in libraries throughout the country
resulted in 6 volumes of "Australian Chess Lore", The Chess Literature of
Australia and New Zealand and several volumes of cross tables of Australian
tournaments in the early years.

He would have spent countless hours examining old newspapers from
Australian columns at the end of the 19th century up to recent times. Van
Manen also contributed to numerous books most notably Chess Personalia - a
bibliography of 14,000 entries by Gaige and corresponded frequently with
the world's leading chess librarians.

BOB MEADLY of Narromine, NSW assisted Van Manen in his research and even
the gravestones of all former Australian chess champions have been located
and cleaned!

Without van Manen much of Australia's early chess history would have been
lost for ever.

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CORRESPONDENCE

AMIEL ROSARIO

Enough already! OK, so it wasn't the ideal publicity - but a damn good one.
I say, and as the old saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. Alas,
we have proof that chess is really not as esoteric a game as is believed by
the wider imagination; and its practitioners not quite the peaceful nerds!

So you see, we're no different to rugby players, or tennis, or whatever
sport. We, too, do get excited from time to time. I am a great lover of
chess and believe that we must act nobly and honourably for the sake of
chess. But, please, please - let's dispense with this nonsense that the
incident should not have been publicised. For why not (John Mackie)? Thanks
to those two Gladiators (Sweeney's description), we scored a mention in the
Telegraph. That's exceedingly more than any administrator has achieved for
chess, insofar as publicity is concerned.

And Mr. Sweeney, there is a big difference between this fight and murder.
Let's get some perspective here. Great job for breaking up the argument,
but let us not equate the spectators' lack of action to that of failing
their ethical and civic duties. The accusation is absurd.

Do I condone the fight? Of course not. Just quit the melodrama. But hey! A
bit of action - that's what we need!

JENNI OLIVER

I absolutely agree with Mr Sweeney's comments. However I don't actually
think people stood around not wanting to get involved, or even perhaps
enjoying the spectacle. My memory of the events is a series of pictures.
My daughter running into the room crying, someone smashing into the glass,
my daughter huddled behind a wall screaming in terror, the two opponents
being held back from laying into each other.

If my life depended on it I could not tell you exactly what happened or how
long the events took. I suspect everyone else (apart from a few quick
witted people like Mr Sweeney), was in the same boat. It took a few minutes
for the realisation that people were fighting each other to sink in, and by
the time that realisation penetrated into people's minds, the combatants
had been separated.

Blame can be apportioned to many people over the whole sorry incident - the
organisers should have exercised more control over the noise in the
corridor, the many spectators should have been quieter in the corridor,
people should have separated the two men when the incident first started,
whoever leaked the story to the press perhaps shouldn't have. Even with the
two men, probably more blame rests with one than the other (although having
heard 6 different versions, I wouldn't like to say which one).

However at the end of the day, we are talking about 2 adults who couldn't
control their temper and sort out their differences in a civilized way. If
my children behaved like that I would be severely disappointed with them,
how much more so adults who are supposed to be providing a role model! Do
we really want chess descending to the level of soccer hoodlums? However
much we might wish to shift the blame to various people, it lies fair and
square on their shoulders.

I support the organisers 100% in the way they dealt with the incident and
if any disciplinary action has been taken by the ACF I would be delighted
to hear of it (and disappointed if they have failed to exercise any). I
would also like to say that if either of the two morons who were involved
in the incident are reading this - you owe my daughter a letter of apology.
She is a gentle 8 year old, who loves chess and was playing in her first
adult tournament. She has a right to expect she can do so, in physical and
emotional security.

PHILLIP O'CONNOR

Placing the email addresses on the web is not the best idea. It creates a
significant risk that they will be used for some purpose other than that
for which you collected them.

I don't know about anyone else on the list but I get too much junk email
already.

Is it possible to change the distribution technique for the email list to
exclude "mailbot" engines from finding the addresses? The list could be
placed in a secured area on the web site and the username/password given to
authorised users on request.

NB. Phil advises that the web address of the Box Hill Chess Club is
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au/

BAS VAN RIEL

The Ballarat Chess Club Inc held its Annual General Meeting last Thursday 8
June 2000. Those items, which I believe are worthwhile for the ACF data
base are as follows: The following members were nominated and elected by
the meeting to be on the Club's Committee for 2000-2001:

President: PATRICK COOK; Secretary: BAS VAN RIEL; Treasurer: KEVIN PERRIN;
Vice President: GEOFF DAVIS; Tournament Director: JOHN FRANGAKIS; Publicity
Officer: MICHAEL SHREENAN; Team Selectors: BAS VAN RIEL & PATRICK COOK

Club Enquiries: PATRICK COOK, ph(03)53316658 or BAS VAN RIEL, ph (03)53316439.

Venue: Every Thursday evening at 8.00 pm. Eastwood Leisure Complex in
Eastwood Street near the corner of Peel Street and opposite Safeway; Ballarat.

**********

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.