It’s been a rocky road to the 44th Chess Olympiad, scheduled to be held in 2020. The host city was originally Khanty-Mansiysk but was leter transferred to Moscow. The COVID pandemic forced postponement to 2022, then Russia invaded Ukraine and Moscow became politically untenable. India stepped up at very short notice to organise the event in Chennai, starting on 26 July.

Our teams have now been selected – see http://acfappeal.aunz.org/teams.html With an all-GM open team for the first time and a women’s team spearheaded by two WGMs, Australia is poised to gain its best-ever result.

The Purdy Medal for Journalism 2021 was presented to GM David Smerdon by former ACF and OCC President Graeme Gardiner during the afternoon break.

WA ASTC 2020 Hybrid Hub

Due to Australia’s current border issues across its States and Territories,
the ACF has decided to host the 2021 Australian Schools Teams Championships
as an online-hybrid event. The tournament will be held in a very similar
fashion to the 2020 ASTC and in-line with the instructions and regulations
available on the website:

ASTC-2021 Website

We are calling on all States and Territories to appoint State Organisers
and State Arbiters to manage their zone. The responsibilities of each of
these positions are available on the website. The State Organiser must
submit all their team information by the 24th of November.

Please use this form.

If you have any inquires or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me
at hughstonparle@gmail.com

Hughston Parle
Australian Junior Chess Coordinator

The FIDE Council has approved a new set of rules to be applied to official online chess competitions. The document, which will be incorporated into the laws of chess, is the result of a joint effort by a dedicated task force, in which several FIDE Commissions were involved.

“The vast experience of different competitions held online has been taken into account: many commissions’ experts (mainly arbiters and Fair Play Panel members) have been involved in FIDE major events and other online competitions held throughout 2020. The initial draft was prepared by the Rules Commission, with invaluable input from the Arbiters and the Qualification Commissions. Fair Play and the FIDE Commission for people with Disabilities also added specific rules adjusted to the online format, which are included as appendixes. During the final stage, the Global Strategy Commission was responsible for consolidating all the inputs, giving the documents its final shape”, explains Pavel Tregubov, Secretary of the GSC.

The document’s structure is similar to that of the “over-the-board” Rules of Chess. The first part refers to basic rules, while Part II addresses specific rules for online competitions. Part III is entirely devoted to competition rules and divided into two subparts:

A) Online competitions with supervision

B) Hybrid competitions.

The so-called “hybrid competition” is a new format where the games are played online, but the participants are physically present in a public place like a club, federation headquarters, hotel, et cetera.

“We see a lot of potential in this format, which would allow hosting chess competitions with participants scattered across multiple venues, in a branded environment. This increases the opportunities for media exposure and sponsorship activations”, explains David Llada, FIDE’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. FIDE expects the hybrid format to be used in some official events in the near future, and some Continents have expressed their intention to hold their Zonal and even Continental Championships under this format.

Annex_6.4_Fide_Online_Chess_Regulations