ACF NEWSLETTER

The newsletter of the Australian Chess Federation Inc.

No. 388

8 November 2006

AUSTRALIAN CHESS FEDERATION Inc.

Australian Open Championships 2006/2007

GM's Ian Rogers (AUS) and Dejan Antic (Serbia) are confirmed entries.

The organisers are negotiating with another 6 GM's (1 from Australia, 1 from Canada, 1 from India, 1 from Philippines and 2 from Georgia) and hope to have confirmation of their entries soon.

Due to extra sponsorship the prize fund has been increased by $1000, with the Womens Prize now $750 and an additional Womens prize added.

The Open has budgeted for a field of 150 players and with 21 prizes on offer you have a 1 in 7 chance (minimum) of winning a prize.

So with all the extra players from overseas, extra prize money, and the attraction of extra sponsorship we hope that you can support the efforts of the organisers by entering the tournament as soon as possible. It would be fabulous to have an entry of 150+ for the Open, as well as big fields for the supporting events, so we can go back to our sponsors and say "Support Australian Chess and Australian chess players will support you"..

http://www.actjcl.org.au/ausopen2006

Shaun Press

[Note: the highest placed woman in the Open will be the Australian Women's Champion until the next Open, subject to there being sufficient qualifying entries. There need to be at least 6 entries from 3 different States and Territories. DJ]

Australian Schools Teams Championships 2006

Australian Junior Championships 2007

Just an update on the 2006 Australian Schools & 2007 Australian Junior Championship.

Information for the Australian Schools Championship was sent to all known qualifiers last week. Copies of the entry documents (both as pdf & word files) can be found on the website @ http://www.actjcl.org.au/astc2006/index.php The entry package contains answers to most of the FAQs that have come up but please let me know if there are other questions out there that need answering!

We have asked all schools to confirm participation by 14 November except for those states where qualifying competitions are still to be completed (NSW only I believe). This will allow us to organise additional ACT schools to fill any "bye" in the event - we aim to have sufficient participation to permit at least 5 matches in all divisions so nobody will have a long trip for few games. This is particularly important in the Girls' sections where sadly we continue to have somewhat sporadic participation.

The "extra-early" entry bonus for the 2007 Australian Juniors (FREE t-shirt and water bottle) expired on 31 October. T-shirts can be ordered for $20ea up until 14 November (see http://www.actjcl.org.au/ausjuniors2007/entering.php ) so please let players know if anyone wants to order extras. A small number will be on sale at the event but this will be very limited as we aim not to carry significant stock.

The promotion has been highly successful in generating early entries - more than 160 players are already entered with only a handful of those still to confirm their entry with payment. So numbers look very exciting! We are really proud to already have in excess of 20 entries in the U18 Girls but admit disappointment with entries in the U12 Girls. 16 entries to date with 12 from the ACT??? We are disappointed to only have 12 of our local girls so we are still working on our numbers but hope some will not find themselves in the unfortunate position of playing only their local opponents. Hopefully a few more will enter before 22 December. Certainly a bit more of a development effort needs to be happening in this area across all states.

Entries are now listed alphabetically. Sorry that things seem to have "magically" become centred on the website. This isn't our intention (and isn't so in firefox) but we haven't been able to pick up the fault. Players who have entered (but don't appear) have not had their payment confirmed. If any of your players have concerns about their entry they should contact Jenny Wilkinson ausjuniors@internode.net.

Key dates -

1 December - enter before this date for discounted entry fee of $80 (late entry 1/12-22/12 $95)

22 December - all entries CLOSE.

We have two advertisements on the website specifically for inclusion in your publications - newsletters, flyers etc. These can be found @ http://www..actjcl.org.au/ausjuniors2007/downloads.php as both pdf & picture files.

If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to drop me a return email or call me on (02) 6291 7625.

Libby Smith

Tournament Director

SIO Fund Raising Dinner

Parramatta Chess Club is pleased to invite you to a Fund Raising Dinner.

Date: Friday 24 November 2006

Time: 7.00pm for 7.30pm

Venue: Parramatta RSL Club, Macquarie & O'Connell Sts, Parramatta

Tickets: $50 per person, includes 3 course dinner

Bar: available for drinks (pay as you go)

Dress: Smart Casual or lounge suit

Parking: Free carpark opposite the club (Macquarie St)

Silent auction: One week skiing holiday at Jindabyne (value $3,500)

Public auction: One week summer holiday at Nelson Bay (value $2,500)

Raffle prizes: Various

RSVP by 17 November 2006

Vasil Tulevski, 2 Wentworth Ave, North Rocks NSW 2151

Or phone Brian Jones on 02-9838-1529

Book online at www.chessaustralia.com.au

All proceeds will go towards the 2007 Sydney International Open and Parramatta Chess Festival 10-14 April 2007.

More information on the Sydney International Open is available at http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/open/index.cfm

2007 Oceania Zonal Chess Championships

I am still awaiting official confirmation of the revised schedule for the Oceania Zonal. Meanwhile here are some other datails.

Venue: Sofitel Fiji Resort & SPA

Grand Ballroom

Denarau, Fiji Islands

Dates:7th May to 12th May 2007

Format:Open Tournament; 9 round Swiss

Womens Tournament - 9 round Swiss or round robin (depending on the no. of entries)

Time Control: 40moves in 90 minutes plus 30 minutes to finish game plus 30 second per move from start

Entry Fees:

FIDE Rating Open: Women:

2400+ Free Free2300+ F$150 Free

2200+ F$200 F$1002100+ F$225 F$1252000+ F$250 F$150

1800+ F$275 F$175

Unrated F$300 F$200

NB: Entries will not be considered confirmed until all fees have been paid. Entry fees not paid by 30th April 2007 will incur an additional 20% surcharge.

Prize Fund Open: Women:

1st $1500 $750

2nd $1000 $500

3rd $500 $250

4th $300

5th $200

Best local player: $200 $100

NB: All prize fund is in Fiji dollars

International Titles

International titles will be awarded in both the Open & Womens sections. These include an International Master (IM), two FIDE Master (FM) titles and Candidate Master (CM) titles in the Open section and Women’s International Master (WIM) and Womens FIDE Master (WFM) titles.

FIDE Rated/World Championship Qualifier

Both events will be FIDE rated and will serve as the final qualifying cycles for both Open and Womens Individual World Championships.

Registration Form:

Name:

Address:

Email:

FIDE Rating:

Entry Fee:

FCF Registration Fee (FCF Players Only):

Donation to Assists Costs:

Contact:Dr Virgilio de Asa< President, Fiji Chess Federation, at phones (679) 331-4450 (w)/ (679) 331-2682 (a/h) or fax (679) 330-3655. Email: virgilio_de_asa@hotmail.com .

MYER TAN AUSTRALIAN CHESS GRAND PRIX

Bendigo Bank Elwood Chess Championship 2006

This event, played last weekend and yesterday, saw a sensational performance from Zhigen Lin, the Victorian Junior who recently stepped up from the u14 to the u18 class in the World Youth Championships and scored a creditable 4.5. This time he went one, or perhaps many more, better by winning the Elwood event with 6/7 ahead of GM Darryl Johansen, IMs Stephen Solomon and Guy West and FM Igor Goldenberg on 5.5. Those are the only details I have at present.

Burnie Shines Weekender (aka Burnie Open), Tasmania, 4 to 5 November

Some extracts from Tournament Director Phil Donnelly's report. The full text and results are available at http://members.dodo.com.au/~phild707/NovWeekend/NovWeekend.htm and http://members.dodo.com.au/~phild707/NovWeekend/SPfiles_6.htm respectively

25 Chess players from around the State converged on the Havenview Primary School for the Burnie Shines Weekend Chess Tournament which was organised and run by the Burnie Chess Club (BCC) . The format was a 6 round Swiss with a Fischer incremental time control of 75 minutes per player per game with a 10 second increment per move.

The field was quite strong for a Tasmanian event with 4 players rated over 1800 and a fairly smooth gradient of playing strengths throughout the remainder. 6 players were unrated and the tournament committee decided to award a special prize of $25 for the best of these.

The prizes awarded were as follows: -

Joint 1st, 2nd place: Andrew Todd, Kevin Bonham $250 each

Best under 1700 and Under 1500 combined Janice Martin, Alastair Dyer $75 each.

Joint 3rd Peter Lucas, John O'Mara $50 each

Best junior under 18 Thomas Hendrey $50

Best junior under 15 Vincent Horton, Andrew Fifield $20 each

Best unrated player Suneet Kohli $25

The tournament comittee was encouraged by such a good turnout on what is a short weekend for the people from the South of the state and pleased to see the two strong local players Andrew Todd and Peter Lucas make a welcome return to a Burnie weekender.The now veteran juniors were impressive yet again. Jamie, Charlie, Kevin, Thomas, Vincent and Alastair all performed well but in addition local junior newcomer Aisling McCullough of Ulverstone managed to get a win on the board in her 1st senior event while Andrew Fifield , who began turning up at the Burnie Club only a few weeks ago, showed that he will be a force to be reckoned with, defeating Tony Sturges and Carey Kuzmic on the way to 3/6.

Unrated senior Suneet Kohli, who hailed from Southern India before moving to Latrobe recently, also impressed finishing in outright 10th spot with 3.5 points.

The 2006 Myer Tan Australian Chess Grand Prix is coming to a close with only seven tournaments remaining. They are:

Coffs Harbour Open NSW Coffs Harbour 11/11/06 12/11/06 Cat.3

Ralph Seberry MemorialNSW Sydney 18/11/06 19/11/06 Cat.2

November Weekender QLD Brisbane 18/11/06 19/11/06 Cat.2

Best in the West VIC Melbourne 25/11/06 26/11/06 Cat.1

Tuggeranong Vikings ACT Canberra 02/12/06 03/12/06 Cat.1

Xmas Open WA Perth 02/12/06 03/12/06 Cat.1

Christmas Swiss WeekenderVIC Melbourne 16/12/06 17/12/06 Cat.1

More information about them can be found on the Grand Prix web page www.chessaustralia.com.au/grandprix/index.cfm .

But here is a bit about one of them that is a nice warm up for the Australian Open.

2006 Vikings Weekender

The 2006 Vikings Weekender, sponsored by Tuggeranong Vikings, is on 2 to 3 December at Vikings Erindale, Wanniassa ACT. A flyer is available here

http://www.netspeed.com.au/ianandjan...006Vikings.htm

Please direct any questions to the listed contact, Michael Whitely, as the content of the flyer is the limit of my knowledge.

Note that if you have a vehicle or a good pair of walking shoes (I don't really recommend the walk but it can be done) you can also check out the venue for the 2007 Australian Open while at this event.

Ian Rout

Myer Tan Australian Chess Grand Prix 2007

Entry forms for the 2007 Myer Tan Australian Grand Prix are now available at http://www.chessaustralia.com.au/grandprix2007/index.cfm.

Please enter by the end of November so that programs can be printed before Xmas.

Brian Jones

Australian Chess Enterprises

www.chessaustralia.com.au

[Organisers are strongly urged to enter their events in the 2007 Myer Tan GP so as to build on the excellent start made under Brian Jones' Direction this year. DJ]

Correspondence Chess

Here is an informative note that Shaun Press recently posted on the Canberra chess e-mail list. Some people may not know tthat the Correspondence Chess League of Australia is affiliated with the ACF as an Associated Body.

A number of people have asked me for information concerning correspondence chess recently, so I thought I'd make a general broadcast of the details. Correspondence chess in Australia is run by the CCLA (Correspondence Chess League of Australia). They run numerous tournaments and produce a magazine (Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly) which comes out every 3 months.

Recently they have updated their website to make joining easier.

The CCLA Website is http://www.ccla.asn.au and the page containing the joining information is http://www.ccla.asn.au/joiningform.php

The best part is the cost. A full years membership is $20 while juniors/concessions are only $10. So even if you only joined just to get a good chess magazine every 3 months you would still be getting value for money.

Shaun Press

FIDE Trainer Titles

A reminder that the closing date for application for a title wqithout the need for an examination is 30 November 2006. So far we have two applicants but it would be good to see more. Here are some details.

Application for a FIDE training title

From the FIDE website:

- direct approval process extended till 30th November 2006

Following the appeal by General Secretary Ignatius Leong to national federations to participate in the FIDE Accreditation of FIDE Trainers, the FIDE General Assembly endorsed the recommendation of the FIDE Trainers Committee to award titles to 143 FIDE Trainers and 136 FIDE Instructors. These were among more than 500 applications.

The meeting of the Trainers Committee in Turin saw overwhelming attendance and interest in the work of the Committee. The attendees appreciated and understood that the accreditation process augurs well for those who take to coaching as a serious career as well as to those who wish to engage a qualified trainer. By consensus, the Trainers Committee agreed to extend the `direct approval` process by six months, after which all aspiring trainers MUST enroll and pass training seminars.

Herewith is a brief summary on the training titles:-

1 Developmental Instructor (DI) Knows the rules of Chess; rating of minimum 1400 Simple instructions

2 National Instructor (NI) Minimum 2 years experience as Developmental Instructor; rating of minimum 1600; trainees have minimum top 10 placings in recognized national-level competitions Train players with rating up to 1600

3 FIDE Instructor (FI) Minimum 2 years experience or National Instructor;rating of minimum 1800 National examiner and conduct courses for Instructors from Levels 1 and 2; train players with rating up 1800

4 FIDE Trainer (FT) Minimum 5 year experience; tertiary education or FIDE Instructor; rating of minimum 2300 or for a time;speaks one FIDE language National examiner and conduct course for Instructors from Levels 1 to 3; train players with rating above 2300

5 FIDE Senior Trainer (FST) Minimum 10 years or FIDE Trainer; tertiary education; rating of minimum 2450 or for a time; speaks English; trainees have world/international successes National examiner; conduct courses for chess trainers from Level 3 upwards; train players with rating above 2450

Fees are payable for these titles. A license is valid within 30 days after the date of examination or `direct approval by GA`. The license fee is renewable every two years upon successful attendance in a training seminar.

Application for the direct approval process must be submitted by a national federation or FIDE-endorsed Academy using this Application form. The deadline is 30th November 2006. Results will be announced before 1st January 2007 and federations will be invoiced for successful applications. Late applications and appeals will not be accepted.

Visit www.fide.com for full details

STOP PRESS (almost) a major Victorian Tournament just before Christmas

Dandenong International Chess Festival

Noble Park Chess Club is proud to present Dandenong International Chess Festival

Sponsored by Hallsteen Pty Ltd, Dandenong Club, Dandenong Council.

Tournament 1

Australian Masters- 12 player round robin IM norm event.

Tournaments 2 & 3

Noble Park Chess Club FIDE Rated Tournament- 2 divisions of 12 players in each division with a chance for unrated players to gain FIDE rating. Winners of both tournaments will be in the running to play in Australian Masters 2007 but only the player who has higher FIDE rating will be eligible to play.

Schedule

Opening ceremony Friday, December 15th 6 pm

Round 1 Friday, December 15th 6.30pm

Round 2 Saturday, December 16th 12 pm

Round 3 Saturday, December 16th 5:30pm

Round 4 Sunday, December 17th 12 pm

Round 5 Sunday, December 17th 5:30 pm

Round 6 Monday, December 18th 6:30 pm

Round 7 Tuesday, December 19th 6:30 pm

Round 8 Wednesday, December 20th 6:30 pm

Round 9 Thursday, December 21st 6:30 pm

Round 10 Friday, December 22nd 6:30 pm

Round 11 Saturday, December 23rd 10 am

Closing ceremony Saturday, December 23rd 3 pm

Where: Bosnia & Herzegovina Islamic Society Noble Park, 18 Leonard Avenue, Noble Park 3174

Time Control: 90 minutes + 30 seconds/move

Entry fees

Tournament 1

Gms, Ims, foreign-free

FMs- $75

Non-titled players-$120

$20 discount for juniors

Tournament 2& 3

Titled players-free

FIDE rated players- $80

Unrated players- $120

$20 discount for juniors

Prizes

Tournament 1

1st $1000

2nd $600

3rd $400

Tournaments 2 & 3

1st $350

2nd $250

3rd $100

(minimum prize fund guaranteed)

Close of entries

Players who wish to play have to enter by Friday, 1st December 2006. The final field of the tournament will be known on Monday, 4th December 2006.

If you wish to enter, you can contact the following people

Carl Gorka-9528 6452, 0406 021 559, carlgorka@hotmail.com

Domagoj Dragicevic- 0421 896 365, domic1000@hotmail.com

Or you can email australianmasters@yahoo.com.au

And now I'll say goodbye until next time.

Denis Jessop

Acting Editor and ACF President

E-mail: denis.jessop@netspeed.com.au

Post: 33 Cargelligo Street, Duffy, ACT 2611

Phone: 02 6288 1935

0418 278 324