This year the ASTC will be using a time control of 30 minutes plus a 10 second increment per move per player for the game in order to cater for potential technical difficulties and time zones.

Since its inception, the Australian Schools Teams Championships has gone from strength to strength with many of Australia’s top junior boys and girls participating in the event.

The first ASTC tournament was first held in Sydney during December 1998, initially with Primary and Secondary Open divisions. In 1999, Primary and Secondary Girls divisions were added in order to encourage more girls to participate.

Each state and territory is entitled to enter one representative team per division in the four ASTC divisions. Typically, these teams are winners of their state or territory chess association endorsed finals or playoffs.

Further details on the ASTC-2020 website

Games can be viewed live here

Canberra Southern Cross Club

The Doeberl Cup is the longest running weekend chess event in Australia. Since 1963 it has been held every year in Canberra, Australia. Grandmaster Ian Rogers holds the record for the most number of wins (either outright or on tie-break) with 12.

The Doeberl Cup was named after its primary sponsor, Erich Doeberl.

The 2020 Doeberl Cup starts on the 9th April, which is only 6 weeks away. 83 players have registered to date; including 6 GMs with current top seed 2020 Australian Champion GM Timur Kuybokarov and 2019 Doeberl Cup winning GM Hrant Melkumyan from Armenia also taking part. It’s already shaping up to be a good event! Current entries can be seen here

As previously mentioned in the Doeberl newsletter – there are a few changes in terms of the Doeberl organisation. O2C has stepped back and the event is now managed by the ACT Chess Association. The new Chief Organiser is Shaun Press and the Chief Arbiter is IA Alana Chibnall.

The Doeberl Cup this year has a special accommodation rate available to players wishing to stay close at the Abode Hotel – more information can be found on the website

Players wishing to play are encouraged to enter as soon as possible via the registration page on the website. Registering early helps give an indication to the organising team about the number of players to be expected, as well as encouraging your chess playing friends to also enter.

The Gold Coast Open is Queensland’s biggest chess tournament with a record attendance of over 180 players, including 5 GM’s in 2018 . Then 2019 saw 176 participants! 2020 is set to be even bigger! 4 GM’s have entered to date. An event not to miss as JETS is also on the Gold Coast in 2020.

This is the event that saw Temur Kuybokarov earn his last GM Norm – and so with the current entry list we expect that more GM norms will be up for grabs this year!

Visit the website for more details.