ACF Bulletin No. 83 - 17 September 2000 AUSTRALIAN OPEN, CANBERRA JAN 2000 At the foot of this bulletin (before correspondence) is an update from ANDREW GREENWOOD on the progress in planning this prestigious event. I believe that the ACT have first class organisers for this Centenary of Federation event, including Andrew Greenwood and DEBBIE POULTON, which will lead to one of the best ever Australian Opens for both strong and club players. There is every incentive from the points of view of prize money, playing venue, strength of opposition and variety of tournaments for club players to make this tournament your late December/early January holiday destination. Andrew Greenwood thought that it would be a nice gesture to send Australian Open invitation letters out to past organisers and administrators involved with Australian chess. This would give them a sense of recognition of their contributions and also offer them their chance to play in a prestigious event without the burden of organisation. If you know of anyone who may have slipped out of the active chess community who might just appreciate an invitation, please email Andrew now at andrew.greenwood@anu.edu.au ********** ACF POSITIONS BRETT TINDALL has enthusiastically taken on the position of National Junior Coordinator. The main responsibilities of this position are the coordination of Australian junior representative selections and the development of elite junior chess in Australia. Many thanks, Brett and we wish you well in this important task. The ACF have urgent need for a Grand Prix supervisor for the 2001 event. JASON LYONS, who has done a splendid job in getting the Grand Prix up to 41 tournaments this year, is standing down partly because of his commitments as Australian Women's Olympiad Team Captain. The duties will include the early promotion and administration of the 2001 series between now and Christmas. I'm particularly keen for this series to flourish. I will be overseas for a couple of months from around mid October to mid December during which time ROBERT JAMIESON has kindly agreed to deputise as President. ********** WA PRESIDENT The email address of the new WA President, DENIS MCMAHON is Denis.Mcmahon@eddept.wa.edu.au. The new email address of the SA President, GEORGE HOWARD, is georgeshoward@hotmail.com. AUSTRALIAN JUNIOR REPRESENTATIVES MATTHEW SONTER has returned from the Asian Junior Under 20s which were held in Mumbai, India with a score of 4.5/11. He was heavily outrated in most games but still managed a couple of wins against 2200+ players. Well done Matthew! LEON TAYLOR from West Australia has headed off to Armenia for the World Junior Under 20s. ********** WORLD WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIPS LAURA MOYLAN, the winner of the Oceanic Zonal at the Parkroyal Surfers Paradise last year, has advised that she is unavailable for the next Women's World Championships. There have been a few false starts for this event and I have written to FIDE asking if they are able to confirm the dates and venue for this much postponed tournament. Last year VERONICA KLIMENKO and GERALDINE JOHNS-PUTRA came equal second in the Zonal qualifier. ********** CHESS PROMOTION AT THE SYDNEY OLYMPICS Final arrangements for the invitation only event have now been put in place. Amongst the overseas visitors will be FIDE President, KIRSAN ILYUMZHINOV, his personal assistant ALEXEI ORLOV, his translator POLINA TSEDINOVA, PT UMMER KOYA, Executive Director EMMANUEL OMUKU, FIDE Event Organiser PETER KOSTELOV and his assistants RUSLAN MAKHAMASHEV and SERGEY DONCHENKO, Treasurer DAVID JARRETT and his wife VALENTINA, NOUREDDINE TABBANE as well as FLORENCIO CAMPOMANES who is already in Sydney. The players attending will be ALEXEI SHIROV, VISHY ANAND and ALEXANDRA KOSTENJUK as well as Vishy's wife ARUNA and Alexandra's father KONSTANTIN. The event will be held at 2pm at the Olympic Village next Sunday 24th. The Anand/Shirov game will be relayed live to the internet at approx 2.30pm Sydney time at http://sydney.fide.com/. JASON LYONS and MANUEL WEEKS are trying to organise social/chess events in Sydney so that the Sydney chess community can meet these world famous players. Please contact Jason at z2137288@student.unsw.edu.au or Manuel at manuelw@ozemail.com.au if you are interested in attending or being involved. According to the latest information that I have received, Anand and Shirov both arrive on the 23rd with Anand departing on the 27th and Shirov on the 30th. ********** OLYMPIAD APPEAL May I once again appeal to everyone to get behind our team with financial support. No donation is too small. Please act now and send your donation to the ACF Treasurer NORM GREENWOOD, Unit 15, Horizon Towers, 208 Pacific Highway, Hornsby NSW 2077. ********** $10,000,000 PUBLIC LIABILITY INSURANCE FOR YOUR CLUB OR STATE? States $303 each Clubs with 100 or more members $242 per club Clubs with 50 to less than 100 members $182 per club Clubs with less than 50 members $121 per club I think that you will find these quotes hard to beat. Compare them with what you are paying now. To take advantage of this special offer, all you need to do is email NORM GREENWOOD with the following details: Name of club, number of current members, main meeting venue (if any), incorporated or unincorporated, any previous liability incidents, contact name/address/phone/fax/email, interested parties to be noted on policy (if any). You will then be contacted directly by the insurer, CHRIS ZUCCALA, who will advise you of the pro rata premium to pay to the common renewal date (31 August). If you wish to contact Chris Zuccala direct please do so on email vicwide@hotmail.com or phone 03 9569 1569 or fax 03 9569 1515. ********** AUSTRALIAN EMAIL CHAMPIONSHIP Don't Forget, Australian Email Championship Entries close end of September Play starts beginning of November Entry fee: $10 - Correspondence Chess League (CCLA) Members $15 - Others (includes CCLA membership for one year) Send cheque to: CCLA, GPO Box 2360, Sydney, NSW 1043 Further Information: BobMather@bigpond.com.au. ********** COAL CITY OPEN 21/22 OCTOBER This event will be held at the Cardiff Workers Club. It will be a Class 2 Grand Prix event with a first prize of $500. Entry Fees will be Adults $50 and Juniors $35. There is a $5 discount for payment before 14 October. There will be free entry for any juniors who have never played in an adult tournament before. Contact: GEORGE LITHGOW george.lithgow@bigpond.com phone 02 4943 3862 or phone GREG WILSON on 0419 120265. ********** GRAND PRIX Upcoming events: September 30- October 1 Lidums Cup, South Australian Chess Centre, 10 Ranelagh Street, Adelaide, Cat 1, CHESS CENTRE 08 8211 7189 October 7-8 Redcliffe Challenge, Clontarf High School, Cat 1, NORM BRAYBROOKE 0418 716374 October 14-15 Geelong Open, Venue to be advised, Cat to be advised, STEPHEN MCKENZIE 03 5222 4524 October 21-22 Coal City Open, Cardiff Workers Club, Cat 2, GEORGE LITHGOW 02 4943 3862 October 21-22 Ctrl Coast Weekender, Central Coast Leagues Club, Cat 1, KEITH FARRELL 02 4341 7864 October 28-29 Tweed Heads Open, Tweed Heads Civic Centre, Cat 3, AUDIE PENNEFATHER 07 5536 9185 ********** CENTENARY OF FEDERATION AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2001 28 Dec 2000 - 9 Jan 2001 Venue: Rydges Canberra, London Circuit UPDATE: Now 8 confirmed Grandmasters GM YURI YAKOVICH (RUSSIA 2585) GM UTUT ADIANTO (INDONESIA 2583) GM IAN ROGERS (AUSTRALIA 2558) GM ALEXANDER VOLZHIN (RUSSIA 2556) GM DARRYL JOHANSEN (AUSTRALIA 2505) GM MARKUS STANGL (GERMANY 2479) GM GORAN TODOROVICH (YUGOSLAVIA 2455) GM H. ARDIANSYAH (INDONESIA 2421) Confirmed International Masters: IM GARY LANE (ENGLAND 2452) IM MICHAEL GLUZMAN (AUSTRALIA 2432) IM VLADIMIR FELDMAN (AUSTRALIA 2399) IM GUY WEST (AUSTRALIA 2372) IM ZONG YUAN ZHAO (AUSTRALIA 2341) IM DAVID SMERDON (AUSTRALIA 2315) IM IRINA BEREZINA-FELDMAN (AUSTRALIA 2304) Other confirmed overseas players: ISRAEL YADAO (PHILIPPINES 2303) RUDDY LANTANG (INDONESIA 2184) WFM ANITA STANGL (GERMANY 2153) There has also been interest from other international players in New Zealand, Indonesia, Russia, Philippines, Malaysia, Yugoslavia and also some other countries. Come and compete alongside these players! The venue will be the entire first floor of the luxurious ballroom at the prestigious Rydges Canberra Hotel on Lake Burley Griffin. A lot of local players should have already received their personal copy of the September edition of ChessACTion 2001. If you have not received it, it will be sent to all ACTCA members who have not got one yet. Let's get behind Canberra's first ever Australian Open and to ensure that the event is a great success for all players! ANDREW GREENWOOD, Chief Organiser, Australian Centenary Open 2001 ACT Chess Association Inc. PO Box 470 Erindale Centre ACT 2903 AUSTRALIA Tel. 0403-191-777 Fax. 02-6291-0385 Email: andrew.greenwood@anu.edu.au http://www.auschess.org.au/centenary/ ********** CORRESPONDENCE Dr Jonathan Sarfati FM: TIE-BREAKS I accept Bruce Harris's point that a playoff can be a pain for players and organisers, although rather like the idea of 5:4 minutes to White, draw odds for Black. However, I still beg to differ about pseudo-mathematical tie-breaks. Bruce is indeed correct that some players meet stronger fields than others. But an obvious point is the players have no control of whom they play. I'm also not sure why he brought up the average rating, since I'm not aware of any case where this has been used as a tie-break. In the case of Smerdon and Duxbury tying for first way ahead of the others (drawing with each other and winning the rest), neither average rating nor SOS is very useful. First, neither could have improved on 10/10 against the rest, so it's unfair to penalise either for not meeting stronger players. Second, it's likely that the tie would be broken because one played a 1400 player and the other a 1200 player, say. It's very likely that the 1400 player will score much better than the 1200, as well as push the average rating up. But with all due respect to them, neither of them is likely to provide much opposition to either of the winners. So saying that the one who, by luck of the draw, played the 1400 player faced the 'stronger' field is largely meaningless. Maybe sometimes the SOS will produce a semi-reasonable indication of a stronger field, as Bruce suggests. But many times (I would estimate, most times), it will be decided by the silly scenario described. Since there's no way of predicting which one, it becomes a lottery of whether the SOS will be meaningful in a given tournament. Thus it would be better to expunge such systems. A serious methodological weakness of SOS and related tie-breaks hasn't been considered before to my knowledge, but seems obvious to me as a scientist. A Swiss tournament is theoretically pretty accurate for the top places, and less so for the minor places. Conversely a point here or there is doesn't mean too much for the middle of the field and below. Therefore, an SOS tie-break of the winners is calibrating the more accurate with the less accurate. It's like a chemist using milligram-sensitive balances to find that two samples have equal weights, then trying to choose between them using bathroom scales! Such scientifically fallacious procedures have no place in chess. ********** 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 this bulletin in future, please email wgardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au