ACF Bulletin #200, January 20, 2002 ---------------------- In This Issue ---------------------- * Canberra concerns * Sarai Australian Women's Champion * Australian Junior * Doug Foster RIP * Victoria supports Grand Prix * ACF Medals * Asian Championship offer * ACF Admin Fees * Letters * Grand Prix 2003 * Upcoming tournaments ------------------------------- Canberra concerns ------------------------------- Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the many chess players (and others) in Canberra who have been badly affected by the catastrophic bushfires. Best wishes to everybody in these trying times. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Slavica Sarai Australian Women's Champion ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations to WFM Slavica Sarai of NSW for winning the Australian Women's Championship, conducted as part of the Pratt Foundation Australian Open in Penrith. Slavica finished a very creditable 13th in the overall open event. Eight women participated. Scores (11 rounds): 7.0 WFM Slavica Sarai 6.5 WIM Nancy Lane 6.0 WFM Catherine Lip 5.0 Narelle Szuveges 4.0 Melba Horwood, Carla Wettstein 3.5 Angela Song 2.5 Wendy Smith Full results at the Official site http://austopen.chesskit.com/results.php as well as games and reports. (Ed's note: My apologies for not including this last week, along with the Open and other winners. No disrespect to women's chess was intended - rather the problem was that I had some trouble obtaining the final results for the women's championship.) Some games from the event: [Event "Australian Open 2003"] [Site "?"] [Date "2003.01.08"] [Round "9.19"] [White "Lane, Nancy"] [Black "Sarai, Slavica"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D11"] [WhiteElo "1801"] [BlackElo "2082"] [PlyCount "82"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. e3 Bg4 4. c4 c6 5. Qb3 Qb6 6. Nc3 Qxb3 7. axb3 Bf5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. Nxd5 cxd5 10. Bb5+ Nd7 11. Ne5 a6 12. Bxd7+ Bxd7 13. Nxd7 Kxd7 14. O-O Rc8 15. Bd2 Rc6 16. Ba5 e6 17. Rfc1 Bd6 18. Kf1 Rhc8 19. Rxc6 Rxc6 20. Ke1 Rc2 21. Bc3 Bxh2 22. Rd1 Bd6 23. Rd2 Rxd2 24. Kxd2 h5 25. Kd3 g5 26. f3 f5 27. e4 fxe4+ 28. fxe4 Bg3 29. Bd2 g4 30. exd5 exd5 31. Ke2 Ke6 32. Bh6 Kf5 33. Bg7 Ke4 34. Bf6 h4 35. Bg7 h3 36. gxh3 gxh3 37. Kf1 Kf3 38. Kg1 Bf2+ 39. Kh2 Ke4 40. Kxh3 Bxd4 41. Bf8 Kd3 0-1 [Event "Australian Open 2003"] [Site "?"] [Date "2003.01.08"] [Round "10.15"] [White "Sarai, Slavica"] [Black "Lakner, Jay"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B34"] [WhiteElo "2082"] [BlackElo "1995"] [PlyCount "67"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Be2 O-O 8. O-O d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxd5 Qxd5 11. Bf3 Qc4 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. c3 Bf5 14. Qb3 Qa6 15. a4 e5 16. Rfe1 Bd3 17. Bc5 Rfb8 18. Qa3 f5 19. b4 Rd8 20. b5 cxb5 21. Bxa8 Rxa8 22. Qb4 e4 23. axb5 Qxb5 24. Qxb5 Bxb5 25. Bd4 Bxd4 26. cxd4 a6 27. f3 Bd3 28. fxe4 fxe4 29. Kf2 Rb8 30. Ra2 Rb4 31. Ke3 Rb3 32. Kf4 Rb4 33. g4 Rxd4 34. Ke3 1-0 ---------------------------- Medals awarded ---------------------------- Congratulations to the winners of the ACF medals, announced at the Australian Open: Koshnitsky medal (administration): Norman Greenwood Purdy medal (journalism): Bob Meadley Whyatt medal (problems): Peter Wong and Denis Saunders Steiner medal (player of the year): IM David Smerdon --------------------------- Australian Junior --------------------------- NSW's Tomek Rej had a slender lead going into round 9 of the Australian Junior, now being played in Adelaide. Rej and second-placed Denis Bourmistrov of Victoria are so far undefeated - but Rej was facing a tough challenge in the form of George Xie in round 9. The Girl's Championship is even closer, with three tied for the lead after round 8. And the females are also performing well in the open event, with Michelle Lee and Catherine Lip in ninth and tenth place, respectively. For full details, see the official site at http://www.sajcl.org/2003aj/index.html Games can also be seen at the ACF site: www.auschess.org.au Leading scores after round 8 (Open): 7. 5 Rej (NSW) 7.0 Bourmistrov (VIC) 6.0 Xie (NSW), Yang (SA), Oliver (ACT), Jovanovic (ACT) 5.5 Chow (VIC), Stojic (VIC), Lee (VIC), Lip (NSW), Yap (NSW), Zvedeniouk (NSW), Lazarus (QLD), Heng (SA) Leading scores in the Girls' Championship: 6.0 Huddleston, Harris, Song (all NSW) 5.5 Chu (NSW), Evans (QLD) Some games from the event: [Round "6.1"] [White "Chow, Samuel"] [Black "Rej, Tomek"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B23"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. g3 d5 4. exd5 exd5 5. Bg2 Nf6 6. d3 d4 7. Ne4 Nxe4 8. dxe4 Nc6 9. Ne2 Bd6 10. O-O O-O 11. c3 Qb6 12. b3 Bg4 13. f3 Be6 14. Bb2 Rad8 15. cxd4 Nxd4 16. Kh1 Be5 17. Nxd4 Bxd4 18. Bxd4 Rxd4 19. Qc2 Rfd8 20. Rac1 Rd2 21. Qxc5 Qxc5 22. Rxc5 Rxa2 23. Rc7 Rdd2 24. Rg1 Bh3 25. Rxb7 h5 0-1 [Round "6.2"] [White "Bourmistrov, Denis"] [Black "Xie, George"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A70"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 e6 4. Nc3 exd5 5. cxd5 d6 6. e4 g6 7. h3 Bg7 8. Nf3 O-O 9. Bd3 Bd7 10. O-O b5 11. Nxb5 Nxe4 12. Re1 Nxf2 13. Kxf2 c4 14. Nbd4 cxd3 15. Qxd3 Qb6 16. Be3 Na6 17. Qa3 Qb7 18. Rad1 Nb4 19. Bf4 Qb6 20. Qb3 Rab8 21. a3 Na6 22. Qxb6 Rxb6 23. b4 Nc7 24. Nc6 Nb5 25. Rc1 Bb2 26. Rc2 Bxa3 27. Bh6 Ra8 28. Ne7+ Kh8 29. Ng5 Be8 30. Rc8 Rxc8 31. Nxc8 Bd7 32. Nxb6 axb6 33. Re7 1-0 [Event "Australian Girls' Championship"] [Round "6.2"] [White "Huddleston, Heather"] [Black "Reid, Vanessa"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A43"] 1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 c5 3. c3 d5 4. Bg5 Qc7 5. e3 Bd6 6. Bd3 c4 7. Bc2 b5 8. Nbd2 Ne7 9. O-O Bb7 10. e4 dxe4 11. Nxe4 O-O 12. Nxd6 Qxd6 13. Re1 a5 14. Qe2 Nd7 15. Rad1 Nb6 16. Bh4 Bd5 17. Ng5 h6 18. Ne4 Qc7 19. Bg3 Qc6 20. f3 b4 21. Bd6 Rfe8 22. Bc5 b3 23. Bb1 a4 24. a3 Nd7 25. Bb4 Qb7 26. Nd6 Qc7 27. Nxe8 Rxe8 28. Bxe7 Rxe7 29. Be4 Nb6 30. Qd2 Rd7 31. Qf2 Nc8 32. Bxd5 Rxd5 33. Re5 Na7 34. Rde1 Nb5 35. Qe2 Qd6 36. Rxd5 Qxd5 37. Qe5 1-0 -------------------------------------------------- Ballarat Begonia & Grand Prix -------------------------------------------------- Victoria appears to be rejoining the Grand Prix fold with several events planned, after years of relatively little involvement. The latest news is that the popular Ballarat Begonia Weekend Tournament (8-10 March 2003) will be a category 3 GP event, and that David Cordover also plans to hold several GP events: Chess World ANZAC Day weekender (April 25-27) and an X-Mas Swiss Tournament (December 20-21 . Ballarat stalwart Bas Van Riel writes: "You may be interested to know that we have decided to again include the Ballarat Begonia Weekend Tournament (8-10 March 2003) in the Grand Prix, category 3, after an 'absence' of a few years. This sudden change of heart occurred after David Cordover approached us, informing us that he was planning a number of Grand Prix events in Victoria for this year. This would take one of our objections away, allowing participants in our tournament the opportunity to score additional Grand Prix points without having to travel to Queensland or NSW. David generously offered to cover our Grand Prix costs which takes away another of our previous bottlenecks. ... we have tried to support the Grand Prix in the past, until we came to a point that we couldn’t justify the extra effort and expense compared to a possible benefit to us. This was compounded by the disappearance of Grand Prix tournaments in Victoria. Therefore, I believe that this initiative by David is most important, both for the viability of the Grand Prix and for weekend chess in Victoria. " All the best, Bas van Riel (for) the Ballarat Begonia Committee --------------------------- Doug Foster RIP --------------------------- Those who knew Doug Foster will join me in mourning his passing - Doug died peacefully last Thursday in Wesley Hospital at the age of 84. He was the driving force behind The Gap Chess Club from the 1970s and remained an active player right up till last month. He was a staunch supporter of CAQ as well as junior and womens chess, dedicated to prosyletising the game. He was instrumental recently in the founding of the Samford Valley Chess Club. Since his retirement, his interests kept expanding, and he was proud to become a luthier, a master guitar maker. Funeral arrangements will be published in The Courier Mail on Tuesday. - Ian Murray --------------------------------------------------- 4th Asian Chess Championship --------------------------------------------------- The Qatar Chess Federation is offering two places with full board and lodging for Australian entrants in the 4th Asian Chess Championship, to be held in Doha, Qatar, from 21 February to 3 March. So far only Timothy Reilly has nominated for Australia, so there's one subsidised spot left - and nominations are invited. Please send your entry to ACF President George Howard at georgeshoward@hotmail.com There are also two places available for players who pay their for own lodging. -------------------------- ACF Admin Fees -------------------------- These fees were changed at the ACF National Conference as part of the budget. For tournaments starting after after 31st Dec 2002 the Admin Fee is 25 cents per player per game on the main list, 10 cents per player per game on the rapid list for events involving adult players, and 5 cents per player per game for 'junior only' events. - Thanks to Bill Gletsos for the info. ---------------------------------------------- ACF Bulletin: please register ---------------------------------------------- Another reminder to people to please register for this Bulletin at www.auschess.org.au I've adjusted the webpage so the large "Want to receive the ACF Bulletin" registration box should be a little easier to find. ------------ Letters ------------ Thank you for the comprehensive report from the recent chess events. I am very disappointed to see that you did not even mention Australian Womens Championship held in Penrith (section: Pratt Foundation 2003 Australian Open Championships, ACF Bulletin 199). In last four years, for how long I am following Australian chess, it became obvious to me that the women chess is a completely irrelevant category - as if it does not exist. It is shame that an official ACF bulletin did not have even a single line. Only 8 female chess players have been present in Penrith in last two weeks and they have played some very interesting games. There were IM amongst them. This year women were ranked high as 13th and 24th in the final results. But what all that matters when even a Week 1 tournament results were more important to you. Luckily there are still people in Australia how care more for female chess players than you do. Your report is a blatant example of a discrimination on a sexual basis. It is very sad that people in chess media are acting so counterproductive. I would not be surprised if on next Championship would be present even half as much female chess players. - Jovan Sarai (Ed's note: I think your feelings are very understandable, but I want to stress that what actually happened was quite different. When I compiled the previous Bulletin I was quite mindful of the Australian Women's Championship and certainly wanted to include the results. However, I was at the time unable to access the relevant part of the official tournament site, and hence unable to get the relevant results. I considered trying to "work out" the women's results from the open results I had, but I was far from certain how many women were playing, what their names were, and so on. Also, with a number of foreign players (or players with first names unfamiliar to me) I was not able to ascertain precisely *which* players were female. So I decided it would be better to hold off for a week, rather than present results which may well be incomplete and incorrect. My apologies to anybody who feels slighted by the omission, which has been corrected this week. I can assure you, that along with chess administrators generally, I have a healthy respect for women's chess and would love to see it flourish. As a concrete example of this, I'll be working with the Australian Women Chess League to set up a website for women's chess in the near future. Kind regards - PaulB) ------ Dear Paul Another Open has been run and another champion crowned, new talent found and old talent revitalised. Apart from the chess community - who knows about it? A lot of effort goes into web sites, live games and up-to-date results but if the wider community don't know about it, how will chess ever be more than a chess column in weekend newspapers giving out-of-date information. Chessplayers on-line knew who won the event while chess columns in major newspapers were telling us about the lead mid tournament! Surely the major effort needed by the ACF is to be in the face of the Australian public, such as via the ABC and SBS. The ACF Grand Prix, State tournaments, Australians winning New Zealand Championships, etc. We have the product, all we need is a salesman. This is the person who should be paid! - Peter Caissa ----------------------------------------- Upcoming tournaments ----------------------------------------- ============================== NSW 2003 Australia Day Weekender ============================== Category 2 Grand Prix event. $2,000 in prizes North Sydney Anzac Memorial Club Corner Ernest & Miller St, Cammeray Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th January For further information contact Jason Lyons by telephone [0412 907 686], email jasongraham@yahoo.com, or visit the NSWCA website: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~nswca/ ------------------------------------ ACF Grand Prix 2003 ------------------------------------ Australia Day Weekender Category 2 NSW Jan 25-26 contact P.Cassettari pcass@zeta.org.au Newcastle Open 2003 Category 2 NSW Feb 8-9 contact for info phone (02) 49433862, (02) 49469627, (02) 49612223 Taree RSL Open Category 1 NSW Feb 15-16 Phillip Brown - 02 6553 7764 Tasmanian Open Championship - Burnie Category 1 TAS Mar 8-10 contact, Neville Ledger (03) 64311280 nlchess@tassie.net.au Dubbo RSL Open Category 1 NSW Mar 15-16 contact, Alexander Aich (02) 68844561 sjaich@tpg.com.au Doeberl Cup Category 3 ACT Apr 18-21 contact, Roger McCart 'phone (06) 6251 6190 Roger.McCart@anu.edu.au 37th. Peninsula Open Category 1 QLD May 3-5 contact, Mark Stokes (07) 32056042 markcstokes@hotmail.com Laurieton May Open Category 1 NSW May3-4 contact, Endel Lane (02) 6559 9060 endel@fasternet.com.au NSWCA Mat Weekender Category 2 NSW May 17-18 contact P.Cassettari pcass@zeta.org.au Tasmanian Chess Championship Category 1 TAS Jun 7-9 contact, K.Bonham (03) 62248487 k_bonham@tassie.net.au NSW Open Championship Category 3 NSW Jun 7-9 contact P.Cassettari pcass@zeta.org.au Taree RSL June Open Category 1 NSW Jun 14-15 contact, Phillip Brown - 02 6553 7764 Gold Coast Open (Gold Coast CC) Category 3 QLD Jun 21-22 contact, Graeme Gardiner ggardiner@gardinerchess.com (07) 55305794 Caloundra Open 3? QLD Jun28/29 contact, Derrick Jeffries chesswis@australis.aunz.com University Open Category 3 SA Jul 5-6 Contact: Andrew Saint chess@smug.adelaide.edu.au or andrew.saint@adelaide.edu.au (08) 83033029 or (08) 8332 3752 http://users.senet.com.au/~adelandr NSWCA August Weekender Category 2 NSW Aug2-3 contact P.Cassettari pcass@zeta.org.au Gold Coast Classic (Gold Coast CC) Category 3 QLDSep 20-21 contact, Graeme Gardiner ggardiner@gardinerchess.com 07) 55305794 12th. Redcliffe Challenge Category 2 QLD Sep 27-28 contact, Mark Stokes (07) 32056042 markcstokes@hotmail.com Tweed Open Category 3 QLD Oct 4-5 Contact, Audie pennefather, pennefather@iprimus.com.au Koala Open Category 3 NSW Oct 5-6 contact, Brian Jones chessaus@chessaustralia.com.au Laurieton Open Category 1 NSW Nov 1-2 contact Endel Lane (02) 6559 9060 endel@fasternet.com.au November weekender Category 1 TAS Nov 1-2 or 1-3 contact, K.Bonham (03) 62248487 k_bonham@tassie.net.au Gosford Open Category 2 NSW Nov 8-9 contact, Lachlan Lee l.yee@unsw.edu.au Taree RSL Spring Open Category 1 NSW Nov 15-16 contact, Phillip Brown - 02 6553 7764 NSWCA November weekender Category 2 Nov 22-23 contact P.Cassettari pcass@zeta.org.au Total 20 NSW 14 QLD 6 ACT 1 TAS 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Best wishes till next time - Paul Broekhuyse