From: "Graeme Gardiner" To: Subject: ACF Bulletin # 160 - 14 April 2002 Date: Sunday, April 14, 2002 7:51 ACF Bulletin # 160 - 14 April 2002 Paid Advertisement Australian Chess Enterprises is a leading supplier of chess equipment, books, videos and software. Try your luck and enter our competition! First prize is the latest version of Fritz or Shredder (your choice!). Second prize is a Foxy Opening Video of your choice. Third prize is a Purdy book of your choice. Everyone has a chance of winning! Simply fill in your email address at http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/index.cfm#competition IN THIS ISSUE Structure of Australian Chess, Latest FIDE Ratings, Rejection by Australian Olympic Committee, Gold Coast and Noosa Opens, Asian Boys and Girls Under 20 Championships, ACF Sponsorship Committee, Oceanic Zonal, Olympiad Appeal, Australian Womens Chess League, 2002 Grand Prix, City of Sydney 2002 Rapid Play Championship, Correspondence. STRUCTURE OF AUSTRALIAN CHESS Later in this bulletin in the correspondence section Paul Dunn writes of his frustration regarding the competition in terms of entries provided by the Sydney Easter Cup to the Doeberl Cup. I can understand Paul's frustration. Losing a lot of money is not a lot of fun. Paul is one of Australia's best administrators. So is Bob Keast who organised the Sydney Easter Cup. Bob put up a spirited response to criticism of holding the Sydney Easter Cup at the same time as the Doeberl Cup on the ACF Bulletin Board http://www.chessnetwork.com/ncn/bb/. In my opinion neither of these fine organisers deserves criticism. They should be congratulated on their great efforts on behalf of Australian chess. The problem, in my opinion, lies in the system. In a post on the bulletin board relating to Australian Chess Forum (which was a copy of the lead article in the February issue of Australian Chess Forum), Paul's colleague Shaun Press wrote: "What is important to State Associations is to collect memberships and not go broke. They might organise local events, send delegates to ACF meetings, look after interclub, but overall their focus is inward looking. It's not just Australian Chess Forum that concerns me. The list of Grand Prix events for 2002 is very revealing. NSW has a total of 16 events in the Grand Prix while Victoria has a total of 1. Tasmania has 4 times that amount. Does this indicate that Victoria is about to be swamped by the might of Tasmanian chess? No, it just indicates what priorities some associations place on chess as a national or international activity, as opposed to an internal activity. What this is leading me to is the problem that the ACF has in promoting chess as a national activity. While it is still managed by the state associations in the way that it is, I cannot see the ACF making the breakthroughs it needs to move chess forward in this country. On one hand it is not the responsibility of state associations to promote chess beyond their own borders, while on the other, they will not give effective power to a body who would be able to carry out such a task." In my (Graeme Gardiner's) opinion, the restructure of Australian chess has two parts. Firstly the financial side. Some very slow progress has been made with the introduction of the ACF Admin Fee and the National Schools Levy. The ACF Sponsorship Committee is working on developing a concerted approach to corporate sponsorship and the ACF President has been lobbying for Federal Government funding for some years. Secondly the legal structure (as I said above, in my opinion, the problem lies in the system). The ACF Deputy President, Robert Jamieson, put forward a proposal to the last ACF Conference for an AFL style commission. This was defeated, but encouragingly several of those who voted against stated that they believed that change was necessary, only the details needed to be debated again. To my knowledge we have been through this exercise at least three times in the last 15 years. To me what is clear is that we need to develop a new constitution that achieves the following: 1. Retains responsibility for the states in respect of the matters which states should be responsible for. 2. Gives responsibilty to the ACF in respect of matters that the ACF should be responsible for including a leadership role in the overall development of chess in this country. I agree with Robert Jamieson that the commission (or board or executive - whatever you want to call it) has to be made up of people whose sole responsibilty is to the overall good of Australian chess and not to any particular state. 3. Includes all stakeholders with some kind of voting rights and collective responsibility. "All stakeholders" includes the Australian Chess Federation, the states (CAQ, NSWCA, ACTCA, VCA, TCA, SACA, CAWA and shortly the NTCA), the junior chess leagues (NSWJCL, ACTJCL, SAJCL), the Australian Women's Chess League, The Correspondence Chess League of Australia. Have I forgotten any organisations? After the January ACF Council meeting, a sub-committee comprising Robert Jamieson, Denis Jessop and Kevin Bonham was formed to completely revamp the constitution in time for motions to be put to the January 2003 ACF Conference. Many people feel very strongly on issues relating to the restructure of Australian chess. I would be delighted to receive your thoughts on this whole issue. I will pass on to the sub-committee your thoughts and assume, unless you say otherwise, that it is ok to publish your thoughts in the correspondence section of this weekly email bulletin. Please email me at . LATEST FIDE RATINGS The latest FIDE ratings for Australia and the Oceania region are shown on Gary Bekker's Oceania webpage http://www.auschess.org.au/oceania/oce0204.htm. Greg Canfell, Leonid Sandler and Stephen Solomon were the most active Oceania players on the FIDE list with 20 games each. REJECTION BY AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE I have just written to Michael Mercer, CEO of the Australian Olympic Committee as follows: Dear Michael The former Secretary (and now Webmaster) of the Australian Chess Federation, Paul Broekhuyse has emailed me and advised that he has received the following letter from the Australian Olympic Committee: "As you know your Federation's request for membership of the AOC has been on the table for some time. It was finally rejected at our Executive meeting on 22 March 2002. We wish your Federation all the best in your future activities. Yours sincerely John D Coates" As was stated in the letter, the matter was on the table for some time. Under the circumstances we would very much appreciate some detailed feedback on why the application was rejected. We need to report back to our membership and we need to decide what further action we are going to take to develop chess as a sport in this country. Gaining full membership of the AOC is central to our plans. Your assistance in this matter would be much appreciated. Sincerely Graeme Gardiner I have just read the constitution of the Australian Olympic Committee and in particular the section on membership. It can be read at http://www.olympics.com.au/cp7/c9/webi/externaldocument/000177ao.pdf As far as I can see there is nothing that should preclude the ACF becoming a member of the AOC. I have also just read the chapter in the FIDE publication "Teachers as Arbiters in School Chess" entitled "Chess as Sport". There are many references in the AOC Constitution and this FIDE publication (and other resources on chess as a sport) that lead me to believe that a well briefed lawyer/barrister would have a field day if we were to take the AOC to court. Do we have any lawyers/barristers (or perhaps a group of lawyers) who would be prepared to look into this matter with a view to possibly taking the AOC to court on a pro bono basis please? Do we have any benefactors who would be prepared to underwrite any costs awarded against the ACF? If so, please email me on . I sense that if we were to take the AOC to court, not only would we achieve our aim, but it would provide a huge amount of positive exposure for chess. I also sense that if we were to win this case, the Australian Sports Commission, and hence the Federal Government, would have to recognise chess also. GOLD COAST OPEN AND NOOSA OPEN The Gold Coast Open, a Category 3 Grand Prix event, will be held at the Robina Town Centre Community Hall (modern, carpeted, air conditioned) on Sat/Sun 22/23 June. There are $3,500 in prizes and confirmed entries include GM Ian Rogers, GM Darryl Johansen and IM Gary Lane. This is the 10th Anniversary of the event and for the first time the tournament is to be split between Open and Under 1600 sections. There will be $700 in prizes for players rated under 2000 who enter the Open section. The rate of play will be 40 mins plus 30 secs a move from the start (Fischer). Previous winners have been Ian Rogers (3), Stephen Solomon (3), Predrag Nikolic, Alex Wohl and David Smerdon. Contact Graeme Gardiner for an entry form. A new version of the Suncoast Chess Club web page, , including all details for the Suncoast Noosa Open Tournament on the 29th/30th June 2002 is now available. Accommodation details, entry fees, and prizes are included, together with a printable entry form. In between the Gold Coast and Noosa Opens, the Queensland Junior Championships will be held on the Gold Coast from 25 to 28 June. Juniors from interstate are welcome to enter and billets will be organised. We look forward to a great turn-out to these events which are being held just before the Olympiad selections are made. ASIAN BOYS AND GIRLS UNDER 20 CHAMPIONSHIPS SRI LANKA 27 JUNE TO 6 JULY The following juniors have expressed interest in this event: David Smerdon 2293 Vincent Suttor 1632 Richard Machet 1526 Rukman Vijayakumar 1234 Jordan Grives 971 Rengan Vijayakumar 804. David Cordover, who has relatives in Sri Lanka, has expressed interest in attending as Australian coach. Would those juniors who have already expressed an interest and any other juniors interested in representing Australia in this event, please contact Brett Tindall by next Friday 19 April latest so that he can organise a selection. These Asian events invariably offer our juniors a wonderfully exotic experience which will stay with them for the rest of their lives. What is more, nobody can ever remove from their CV the fact that they have represented Australia. ACF SPONSORSHIP COMMITTEE Here are the remaining six items for which the committee would like your ideas and support: 8. Research Information - location of research reports into the benefits of playing chess 9. Sponsoring companies - eg Cepacol, Mercantile Mutual, etc and form of sponsorship 10. Special Stories - Big Blue vs Kasparov 11. Australian Chess Achievements (like a Guiness book of Australian Chess records) Cecil Purdy - World Correspondence Championship World Telechess Championship 1991? First Grandmaster Ian Rogers Highest Rating Best international Results 12. No of Australian players - facts or guesses Joe Public Juniors Social players Registered players 13. Individuals who are experts on Australian chess facts/history etc. OCEANIC ZONAL 6-11 MAY The 2002 Men's and Women's Oceania Zonal Tournament will be held at The Warwick Hotel/Resort from Monday 6 May to Saturday 11 May. The event is open to all players from the members of Zone 3.2b (Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and PNG). This is the official Oceanic qualifying event for the 2003 World Championships. Closing date for entries is next Friday 19 May. The following likely entries have been taken from Gary Bekker's Oceania webpage http://www.auschess.org.au/oceania/fzt.htm. Name Fed FIDE IM Gary Lane AUS 2448 IM Vladimir Feldman AUS 2346 IM Anthony Ker NZL 2320 FM Bob Smith NZL 2282 Peter Green NZL 2247 FM Tim Reilly AUS 2235 Brian Jones AUS 2223 Damian Norris FIJ 2220 Stuart Fancy PNG 2209 Paul Spiller NZL 2095 Hilton Bennett NZL 2088 William Doobenen FIJ 2000 Bill Egan AUS 2000 Sanmogam Goundar FIJ 2000 Lee Jones AUS 2000 Manoj Kumar FIJ 2000 Nilesh Prasad FIJ 2000 Roneel Sharma FIJ 2000 Anticipated Women's Entries: Name Fed FIDE WIM Irina Berezina AUS 2274 WIM Laura Moylan AUS 2087 Catherine Lip AUS 2076 WFM Narelle Szuveges AUS 2027 Artila Devi FIJ 2000 Anjali Prasad FIJ 2000 Nancy Lane AUS 2000 Vivian Smith NZL 2000 Enquiries: Dr. Virgilio C. De Asa President, Fiji Chess Federation. Chairman, Organising Committee. Phone: (679) 3314-450 (w); (679) 3312-682(h) Mobile: (679) 9979-924 Fax: (679) 3303-655. Postal address: G.P.O. Box 12408, Suva, Fiji. E-Mail: virgilio_de_asa@hotmail.com. OLYMPIAD APPEAL As usual Australia will be sending men's and women's teams to the upcoming Olympiad in Bled, Slovenia from 25 October to 11 November. In the absence of government or commercial sponsorship, the considerable costs of sending our teams overseas are borne by the chess community (that means us!) with the team members themselves having to make up any shortfall. There can be little doubt that if chess involved running, jumping, swimming, riding a bicycle or chasing some type of roughly spherical object around, then governments would be more than willing to channel taxpayer's money into chess. But that is not the case. Physical games are of paramount importance it seems, but intellectual games just don't count! Well, not so far anyway! It may be of interest to note that the Federal Department of Sport has an annual budget of well over $100 million, but not a dollar for chess. So much for the rhetoric about creating a "clever country". I therefore urge all Chess players to consider making a donation towards the cost of sending our Olympiad team overseas. Donations may be sent to the ACF Treasurer, Norm Greenwood PO Box 1840 Hornsby Westfield NSW 1635. Income from the paid advertisements shown at the top of each bulletin will be added to the Olympiad Appeal this year. AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S CHESS LEAGUE - CAROL HOLMES It's that time again. Please send articles, games, photos, state news, tournament results, ads, and anything else you want me to publish in the May AWCL magazine (preferably by email ). I am attempting to get the magazine out earlier than I did with the February one!!! Don't forget the Dorothy Dibley competition starts in May, so as soon as the match is over, please send me the results so I can publish them. I also hope to publish some interesting games from the Dorothy Dibley competition this year, so please send them to me (preferably annotated by the player), so we can all enjoy them. Good luck to everyone involved in the Dorothy Dibley competition. Editor's note: Reading the current issue of the AWCL Bulletin I find the following information: President Evelyn Koshnitsky Secretary and Editor Carol Holmes 02 6645 4440 Treasurer Irene Ozolins 08 8261 1065 Full AWCL membership Adults $15pa Family $20pa Concession $10pa (Juniors, Pensioners, F/T Students) Bulletin Subscriptions for non members $12 Overseas subscriptions $16 (Oceania) $18 Europe/America) State Delegates: ACT Jenni Oliver NSW Carol Holmes Qld Russell Mowles SA Evelyn Koshnitsky Tas Tony Sturges 03 6272 7550 Vic Narelle Szuveges WA Natalie Taylor 2002 GRAND PRIX Organiser: Norm Braybrooke 19 Trafalgar Drive Kippa-Ring 4021 Email . Webpage http://crcchess.topcities.com/GP2002.html Dates now shown for Fairfield Winter and Summer Cups. Inclusion of three more events from South Australia. The Adelaide Cup, Queens Birthday Weekender and Lidums Cup. Remaining events in 2002 (a reminder that we welcome details of each event for publication in this bulletin): 4/5 May Laurieton May Open NSW Cat 1 Endel Lane 02 6559 9060 endel@fasternet.com.au 4-6 May Redcliffe Peninsula Open QLD Cat 1 Mark Stokes 07 3205 6042 mstokes@bne.catholic.edu.au 18/19 May NSWCA Cat 1 Robert Keast 02 9649 8614 robert.keast@didata.com.au 18/19 May Adelaide Cup SA Cat 1 George Howard 08 8271 2757 georgeshoward@hotmail.com 8/9 June Queens Birthday Weekender SA Cat 1 George Howard 08 8271 2757 georgeshoward@hotmail.com 8-10 June Tasmanian Championships Burnie TAS Cat 1 Neville Ledger nlchess@tassie.net.au ph 03 6431 1280 8-10 June NSWCA Cat 2 Robert Keast 02 9649 8614 robert.keast@didata.com.au 22/23 June Taree RSL Open NSW Cat 1 Endel Lane 02 6559 9060 endel@fasternet.com.au 22/23 June Gold Coast Open QLD Cat 3 Graeme Gardiner 07 5530 5794 ggardiner@auschess.org.au 29/30 June Suncoast Open Chess Tournament Noosa QLD Cat 3 Robert Hochstadt 07 5447 5056 robhoch@ozemail.com.au 13/14 July Fairfield Winter Cup NSW Cat TBA Rolando Atienza 0421 379940 atienzarolando@hotmail.com 13/14 July Adelaide University Open SA Cat 3 Robin Wedding 08 8303 3029 chess@smug.adelaide.edu.au 3/4 August NSWCA Cat 1 Robert Keast 02 9649 8614 robert.keast@didata.com.au 10/11 August Coal City Open NSW Cat 2 George Lithgow 02 4943 3862 george.lithgow@bigpond.com 7/8 September Launceston Weekender TAS Cat 1 Leo Minol 03 6344 7472 leominol@bigpond.com 14/15 Sept Hobsons Bay Open VIC Cat 1 Peter Caissa 0411 710900 pcaissa@melbpc.org.au 21/22 Sept Gold Coast Classic QLD Cat 3 Graeme Gardiner 07 5530 5794 ggardiner@auschess.org.au 5/6 Oct Redliffe Challenge QLD Cat 1 Mark Stokes 07 3205 6042 mstokes@bne.catholic.edu.au 5/6 October Lidums Cup SA Cat 2 George Howard 08 8271 2757 georgeshoward@hotmail.com 5-7 Oct Koala Open NSW Cat 3 Brian Jones 02 9838 1529 chessaus@chessaustralia.com.au 12/13 Oct Tweed Heads Open QLD Cat 3 Audie Pennefather 07 5536 9185 pennefather@iprimus.com 2/3 Nov Laurieton Open NSW Cat 1 Endel Lane 02 6559 9060 endel@fasternet.com.au 3-5 Nov Tasmanian Open Hobart TAS Cat 1 Kevin Bonham 03 6224 8487 k_bonham@tassie.net.au 16/17 Nov Taree RSL Spring Open NSW Cat 1 Endel Lane 02 6559 9060 endel@fasternet.com.au 23/24 Nov NSWCA Cat 1 Robert Keast 02 9649 8614 robert.keast@didata.com.au 14/15 December Fairfield Winter Cup NSW Cat TBA Rolando Atienza 0421 379940 atienzarolando@hotmail.com NSW 16, Qld 6, Tas 4, SA 4, ACT 1, WA 1, Vic 1. Total 33 events. CITY OF SYDNEY 2002 RAPID PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP Venue: Ashfield Catholic and Community Club 7 Charlotte St, Ashfield (1 minute from Ashfield Railway Station) Seven Rounds (Time Limit 20 minutes plus 10 seconds per move) Sunday 12 May 2002 Starting Time 10.00 am Registration 9:00am - 9:30am Entry Fees: Adult $30 Juniors, Concession $25. All entries must be on official entry form (or copy) Payment and entries accepted on the day before 9:30am. Or pre register via phone or email and save $5. All NSW resident players must be members of NSWCA or NSWJCL. 1st Prize $250 Other prizes will be announced on the day and are dependant on the number of players. Players are eligible for only 1 prize. Please make all cheques payable to NSWCA Inc. Mail must be sent before 28th April 2002 to GPO Box 2418 Sydney 1043. Enquiries - Pre registration - pay on the day Robert Keast 0417 497258. website http//www.ozemail.com.au/~nswca/ CORRESPONDENCE PAUL DUNN Dear Graeme, I noted in the last issue of your magazine the reports of the Doeberl Cup and the Easter Cup held in Sydney to intentionally clash with the Doeberl Cup and thereby detract from the ACF Grand Prix. I noticed that Bob Keast in his report stated that his event did not detract from the Doeberl Cup. Of course, Bob wouldn't know at the time he wrote his report whether it detracted or not. As the Treasurer of the Doeberl Cup Committee, I would like to inform your readers that because of Mr Keast's efforts in Sydney there were 10 fewer entries received in 2002 Doeberl Cup compared to 2001. This year, the Doeberl Cup lost approximately $2,500. Clearly, continuing losses of this kind cannot be sustained by the ACT Chess Association. The financial position of the Doeberl Cup has been a year to year proposition since Erich Doeberl died in 1994. It is sad to see an event with the tradition of the Doeberl Cup targeted by a rival Chess Association without any consideration of whether it is good for chess in Australia as a whole. It's a pity that NSW are not capable of organising their own event and running it continuously for forty years to build its own tradition, instead of trying to destroy other Associations' events. But I'm probably being paranoid, perhaps they didn't target the event. Perhaps it was an accident that they organised it on that weekend. Perhaps they meant to organise it the week before and it was just late. Perhaps they didn't know the Doeberl Cup was on that weekend, after all Easter does keep moving around. Perhaps they really meant to target the Australian Championships and forgot when it was held. Perhaps it was the only spare weekend available in the year because of all the other NSW Class 3 Grand Prix events. What is the future for the Doeberl Cup? We could restructure the Prize fund or increase the Entry fee. We could pull out of the Grand Prix and save a bit of money. We could shut it down. We could be inward looking and exclude NSW Chess players, after all NSW players usually win a very large share of the prize money. The ACTCA doesn't run it to make a profit, but organises it for the good of Australian chess. Perhaps the ACTCA should wake up to itself, after all it is there to look after ACT Chess players and it is really the ACF who should be looking after Australian chess. Perhaps it should be run to make a profit for ACT Chess. The ACF have levied Grand Prix Events to try and improve Australian chess, but if Associations like the NSWCA continue to undermine the Grand Prix events by running competing events which have a financial advantage because they don't pay Grand Prix fees, soon there will be no Grand Prix. If the ACF doesn't protect its premier events, these events will stop supporting the ACF. In a couple of years can you see Australia's Grandmasters competing at the Canterbury Leagues Club at Easter for the $250 First Prize. I think not! But if chess organisers continue to work against each other instead of for chess, they probably won't be competing in Canberra either. Paul Dunn Treasurer Doeberl Cup Committee ACTCA RICHARD THORNE Dear Graeme, Re: Paid advertising promoting gambling, racing, etc. in ACF Bulletin 159 I appreciate Australian Chess Federation needs to increase revenue and advertising is one way, but this should not extend to gambling, particularly when there is a suggestion by the promoters that by "betting scientifically" one wins. The bookies and casino know differently. It is ludicrous to draw an analogy between a game of pure skill like chess and gambling (luck) with or without a "system". I do not believe an association with gambling, racing or other controversial products or services should be promoted or advertised on ACF website or Bulletin. Richard Thorne JOHN KABLE Dear Graeme, Selecting the Field for the Australian Championship In his editorial in the September, 2001 issue of 'Australian Chess Forum', Shaun Press suggested a number of additional categories of players who should be entitled to entry in the Australian Championship, and it has occurred to me that with the next tournament more than eighteen months away there is probably no better time than the present to review the rules. However, before any such review is begun there is a need, I suggest, to check the validity of the regulations appearing in By law No.1, which is the only by law dealing specifically with the Australian Championship. By validity I mean consistency with the over riding provisions in the preliminary section of By laws for ACF Tournaments, of which By law No.1 forms a part. Such a review would reveal that those paragraphs in By law No.1, introduced by the Melbourne Council of the early nineties, whereby players who are ineligible to gain the title of Australian Champion are guaranteed entry in the Australian Championship, are invalid. I use the word 'guaranteed' because the ACF Council has the power to invite individuals who are ineligible to gain the title to compete in the tournament. Prior to the changes made by the Melbourne Council it had always been understood that the Australian Championship was a closed event, as distinct from the Australian Open. It is true that there had been occasional instances of ineligible players managing to get a place in the field, but this had always been due to an extremely loose interpretation of the residency rule than a deliberate flouting of the rule. The title of Australian Champion is one of thirty titles listed under 'Titles' in paragraph 2 of By laws for ACF Tournaments. Paragraph 3 of that section of the ACF Administrative Manual states that eligibility to hold any of the thirty titles, except those that relate to open tournaments (numbers 5, 9, 10, 22 and 30) is restricted to Australian nationals and bona fide residents of Australia, and paragraph 4 makes provision for individuals who are neither Australian nationals nor bona fide residents of Australia to play in the Australian Championship if they are specifically invited by the ACF Council, on the understanding that they are not eligible to gain the title. No other reference to individuals or groups of players appears in this over riding section of By laws for ACF Tournaments. It follows, therefore, that as these two groups are the only ones referred to in that by law, any subsidiary by law, such as By law No. 1 must only apply to these mutually exclusive groups. It follows that the inclusion in By law No.1 of any other group is invalid, and all references to players who do not belong to one of these groups are invalid and should, therefore, be removed from By law No. l. The paragraphs involved are 2(f), 2(g) (to the extent that it applies to players who are ineligible to gain the title) and 4. Digressing for a moment, the absurdity of providing guaranteed places in the Australian Championship field to players who are ineligible to gain the title can be demonstrated quite simply. A strong overseas player could pay a short visit to Australia in the first half of a year and play in three 7 round rated tournaments. (This could have been done this year within a span of just over eight weeks if the player had played in the Box Hill Autumn Cup, the Begonia Open and the Doeberl Cup.) Having played the required number of 20 rated games, as stipulated in paragraph 2(g) of By law No.1, the player could return home and then, eighteen months later, turn up in Australia again and claim a spot in our national tournament. What nonsense. Continuing, there is a need to make specific provision in By law No.1 for the power of the ACF Council to invite players (not just one player) to compete in the Championship tournament, because paragraph 5 fails to do this. The problem with paragraph 5 is that it does not specify the ineligibility. If it was designed to allow the ACF to obviate the need for a bye, for instance, the ineligibility should be specified as the failure to gain selection under paragraph 2(e). If it was designed to meet the requirement of paragraph 4 in By laws for ACF Tournaments it should refer to players (plural) and it should specify that the ineligibility is the ineligibility to gain the title of Australian Champion. On this point, the ACF Council has twice invited more than one player to play in a Championship: four players were invited in 1957 (Melbourne) and two players were invited in 1960 (Adelaide). Needless to say, if paragraph 4 is changed so that it specifies an ineligibility other than the ineligibility to gain the title, it would be necessary to add a paragraph to care for this ineligibility. There are two further changes that should, I suggest, be made. The first is to change the words in paragraph 2(a) in By law No.1 'the winner of the previous Australian Chess Championship' back to 'the Australian Champion' and the words in paragraph 2(c) 'the winners of each of the two previous Australian Junior Championships' back to ‘the current and previous year's Australian Junior Champion'. The intention of these two exemptions was to recognise the achievement of gaining a national title, not the winning of a tournament, because both events can be won by overseas players. Thus, the Australian Championship tournament was won by the Hungarian (at that time) Steiner in 1937, the New Zealander Sarapu in 1957 and the Soviet player Averbakh in 1960, but none of these three became the Australian Champion by virtue of his tournament win, and the Australian Junior Championship tournament could have been won in the past, and may well be won in the future, by an invited New Zealand junior. The second necessary change is to restore the word 'Reserves' for the subsidiary tournament. The name 'Reserves' goes back to 1887, and the only reason the change to 'Major' was made was because one of the two respondents to the Melbourne Executive's invitation for comments on their intended changes to the by laws wrote: 'The Reserves should be re named the Major. The word reserves is bad.' Surely an alteration to the name of an event that goes back such a long way should be based on something more substantial than the throw away suggestion of one person. In this connection it is interesting to note that of the last four events (Sydney 95/96,'Melbourne 97/98, Tumbi Umbi 99/00 and Melbourne 01/02) only the Sydney event was called the Major. And I wonder if having a Minor event, let alone recommending it, is good for Australian chess. The other stage in a review of the regulations governing participation in the Australian Championship should, I suggest, start with trying to identify the consistent theme (if any) running through By law No.l. Until the Melbourne Council of the early nineties changed the nature of By law No.1 to include all the specifications for determining which players should be allowed to play in the Australian Championship, this by law provided only one of the avenues through which players could gain entry to the Championship, the other avenue being through a procedure, appearing in paragraph 25 of By laws for ACF Tournaments but no longer applicable to the Australian Championship as a consequence of its having been excluded through the preamble in By law No.l, which provided for a panel of selectors to determine, on the basis of current playing strength, which players would make up the Championship field after provision had been made for any players entitled to exemption under By law No.1. This paragraph (25) also contained the provision for the ACF Council to invite individuals who were not eligible to gain the title. By law No.1 was limited to exempting certain players. These were: 1. the Australian Champion 2. the current and previous year's Australian Junior Champions, 3. the winner of the previous Reserves tournament and one player, nominated by his or her State Association, if that State would not otherwise be represented in the Championship. The Melbourne Council decided that there should only be one by law covering the Australian Championship and Reserves (Major), and in the process they replaced the procedure in paragraph 25 of By laws for ACF Tournaments with a requirement that to play in the Australian Championship a player would need to have a minimum rating of AU 2100 or FIDE 2200, with those who did not satisfy this requirement being placed automatically in the Reserves (Major). It is interesting that although the framers of paragraph 2(e) recognised that a player's last published rating may not provide a true measure of his current playing strength and introduced a 'deeming' provision whereby a player with a current rating less than 2100 could be deemed to be of a level of proficiency equivalent to 2100, which would allow that player to play in the Championship, they made no provision for the logical extension of this deeming process to allow the exclusion of a player with a 2100+ rating who was deemed no longer to be of a level of proficiency equivalent to 2100. In view of the foregoing, the effectiveness of By law No.1 must be questioned. The suspicion arises that the setting of an arbitrary cut?off rating was prompted more by the expedient of administrative convenience than by a belief that it ensures that the strongest players are selected. In May, 1998 the Sydney Council decided to add the following to the groups of exempt players: 1. all current State Champions, 2. the top five place getters in the National Grand Prix series and 3. improving juniors of sufficient standard to justify inclusion. It must be obvious that with so many players not having to satisfy a minimum playing standard any attempt to establish a consistent standard for the Championship was, and is, doomed to failure. Where does this leave paragraph 2(e), the one that is used as a cut off between the Championship and the Reserves (Major)? It might be claimed that with so many sub standard players being able to get into the Championship the need to maintain a minimum standard for the rest of the field is even more important. But surprisingly there were not enough players in the recent Melbourne event who gained access to the Championship through the process in paragraph 2(e) to bring the field up to 32, a figure that is considered the minimum (and perhaps also the optimum) size for an 11 round Swiss, and it was found necessary to include a player whose ACF rating fell short of 2100 by 54 points and whose FIDE rating fell short of 2200 by 59 points in order to bring the size of the field up to 32. It is a piece of irony that the process of drawing upon reserves to fill a place in the Championship is the one provided for in the discarded paragraph 25. Perhaps the issues I have raised could be used as a starting point for a review of the processes and rules for selecting the Championship field. I would like to make one final comment. I made it to the President of the Sydney Council, and I make it now with due respect to the members of the present Council, and that is that in an area as sensitive as making rules governing participation in the Australian Championship those who happen to be members pf the ACF Council at any particular time should not decide what changes be made to those rules without consulting widely and inviting comment from a large range of interested parties, including, of course, State Associations. I would go further and suggest that changes to by laws affecting the Australian Championship should be restored as Special Motions requiring submission to the States for voting. To summarise my suggestions: 1. All references in the by laws to players who are ineligible to gain the title of Australian Champion being entitled to play in an Australian Championship tournament should be removed. 2. It should be made clear that the ACF Council's power to invite individuals who are ineligible to gain the title to play in the Australian Championship tournament is not limited to one individual. 3. The right of the Australian Champion and the current and previous year’s Australian Junior Champions should be restored. 4. The name 'Reserves' should be restored for the subsidiary tournament. 4. The recommendation that a Minor tournament be held in conjunction with the Championship and the Reserves should be removed. 5. The use of a specific rating figure to separate Championship from Reserves players should be abolished. 7. Motions to change the by laws relating to the Australian Championship should be classified as Special Motions. With best wishes, John Kable With very best wishes to all. Graeme Gardiner President Australian Chess Federation 11 Hardys Road Mudgeeraba Queensland 4213 Phone +61 7 5530 5794 Mobile 0438 305797 Fax +61 7 5530 6959 Email ggardiner@auschess.org.au Chess - the Clever Sport!