ACF WEBPAGE

A reminder that ANDREW ALLEN puts a good deal of time and effort into

updating our webpage on a regular basis. There is always interesting

current information and a wealth or resource material. Check it out

regularly at http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess. Shortly we will be

changing server and the new domain name will correctly reflect Australian

chess. More about that soon.

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AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The closing date for entries is next Friday - please don't miss it!

More Australian Chess Championship News from MAL MURRELL, Mingara Chess

Club President, murrell@bigpond.com, (02) 4392 3873:

The cut off date for entries to the Australian Championship (all divisions)

is December 3. Less than two weeks away so GET YOUR ENTRIES IN SOON!!!

GMs and IMs must complete and send in entry forms even though they have

free entry.

The ACF allows the four highest ranked foreign applicants to compete in the

Australian Championship.

Bulletin Editor - Mingara Chess Club is proud to announce that we have

obtained the services of joint Purdy Medal winner (with Shaun Press) Paul

Dunn as Bulletin Editor for the Australian Championships. Paul and Shaun

also intend to publish a book of the championships and will be taking

orders at the event.

Accommodation - This is filling up very quickly.

Betty Smith of TORRENS LODGE(024333 7773) has kindly offered to hold all

her rooms for chess players only. The place is already half booked by

chess players. There is room for only 15 more(4 doubles 2 singles and a 5

bed flat) a special rate of $35 per day (usually $45) applies this includes

a continental breakfast. You must mention that you are playing in the

Australian Chess Championship otherwise they will say they are booked out.

Be early.

The Sun Valley Caravan Park(43321107) can only accommodate 8 players with

half the stay in villas(4 bed) then you have to move to a trailer(6 bed),

All its O/nite vans & sites fully booked.

The Entrance Backpackers Lodge (02 43341001) still has cheap dormitory beds

at $15 per night (1 night discount per week.) Disabled facilities also

available.

A number of people have asked about tent and caravan sites. If you have

your own caravan or tent you can try the following -Tuggerah Village (02

43622444) Proprietor - John King. Tent sites $12 per day up to 4 people

powered van sites $16 per day 7 minutes from Mingara.

Tuggerah Shore Caravan Park (02 43927252) Proprietors - Gary and Maria

Catto. This is a permanent resident site You must tell them you are playing

in the Australian Chess Championships. Powered van sites and tent sites

$12 per day, small tent sites $10 per day - 15 minutes from Mingara

Glen Gibbs has asked if anyone is willing to share his double room with

ensuite at Torrens Lodge. Glen is 60+ but doesn't mind sharing with chess

players of any age. His phone No is 03 6228 4593 (h) or 03 6233 2266 (o)

email G.Gibbs@dpac.tas.gov.au or ggibbs@netspace.net.au .

Donations - The Mingara Chess Club would like to thank the following

people, clubs and associations for donations towards the running of the

Australian Chess Championships.

NSW Chess Association $300; Ettalong Chess club $5; Keith Farrell $5.

As you would know running the Australian Chess Championships is a very

expensive and time consuming operation. Any donations from clubs,

associations and individuals would be appreciated. Donations can be sent

to: Mingara Chess Club, PO Box 8255, Tumbi Umbi, NSW 2261 - THANK YOU

The Mingara Chess Club would like to thank Brian Jones of Australian Chess

Enterprises for donating the use of digital chess clocks for the Australian

Chess Championships.

The Mingara Chess Club would like to thank the NSWCA, Central Coast Leagues

Club Chess Club, Newcastle Chess Association for the offer of a loan of

chess sets and clocks for the Australian Chess Championships

The Mingara Chess Club would like to thank Peter Parr of Chess Discount

Sales for mailing out Australian Chess Championship pamphlets with his

catalogues and for the use of his extensive mailing list.

DO YOUR BIT TO PREVENT GLOBAL WARMING - CAR POOL TO THE AUSTRALIAN CHESS

CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Don't forget to have a look at the list of car-poolers travelling to

Mingara from Sydney. You may be able to reduce your petrol costs and help

the environment. The list can be found at

http://www.users.bigpond.com/murrell/carpool.htm . If you want to be

included on this list you will need to email me at murrell@bigpond.com with

the following information - Name, Telephone number, suburb, email address,

whether you have a car. These details will be published on the net at the

above address and it will be up to the car-poolers themselves to contact

each other to arrange groups and pickup times and payment for petrol by non

car owners. Don't forget to email me to be removed from the car-pool list

once you have made your travel arrangements.

New Year's Eve - I have been asked what is happening on the NSW Central

Coast for New Year's Eve. There will be a huge fireworks display at the

Entrance and there is always some entertainment at the Mingara Recreation

Club.

The multi-million dollar Sydney New Year's Eve extravaganza is just a

train ride away.

Looking forward to seeing you at the last Australian Chess Championships of

the century/millennium

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KOSHNITSKY AND STEINER MEDALS

State Associations are invited by Gary Wastell to forward nominations for

the Steiner and Koshnitsky medals as soon as possible. Gary would like all

nominations to be in writing addressed to "ACF Medals", 20 Sycamore Grove,

East St Kilda, Vic, 3183, so as to be received on or before December 14.

Alternatively, nominations may be e-mailed to gwastell@netspace.net.au or

faxed to (03) 9525 9632.

The terms of reference (copied from the handbook) are:

Steiner Medal

"This is awarded to the "Player of the Year". It is to be the player who

has made the greatest impact, not necessarily the highest-rated - it is for

the most notable achievement of the year."

Koshnitsky Medal

"This is awarded for an outstanding contribution to Australian chess

administration at a national or a state level."

GARY WASTELL will chair the panels set up to decide the Steiner and

Koshnitsky medals. The following have been invited to be on the panels:

STEINER MEDAL: Paul Dunn, Chris Depasquale, Ian Murray, David Ellis, Brian

Jones.

KOSHNITSKY MEDAL: Bob Pilgrim, Phil Viner, Alan Goldsmith, John Kable,

Darryl Johansen.

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ASIAN MEN'S AND WOMEN'S, UDAIPUR

These championships have now been moved back to 10-21 January 2000. Please

contact Robert Jamieson if interested, on auschess@iaccess.com.au.

***********

ROOTY HILL CLUB FREE LECTURE

IM Gary Lane will be giving a free lecture at the Rooty Hill Club on 20

December. Contact Peter Cassettari pcass@zeta.org.au.

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COACHES' DATABASE

BRETT TINDALL:

I have 47 coaches in the database at the moment. I have no coaches from

Chess Ideas in it and I think there would at least be 15. I have no coaches

from Nik's chess coaching business, none from South Australia and Tasmania

and only one from Western Australia.

If these groups can email me or send me information of their coaches then I

can add them to the database - <brettt@lightstorm.com.au>

***********

GRAND PRIX 1999

ANDREW GREENWOOD:

1999 Tuggeranong Vikings Weekender

The last ACF Grand Prix event for 1999. Generous Grand Prix points

available (Class 3). Groups travelling down to Canberra for the Australian

Schools Championship on the same weekend may wish to bring other players

not competing in the schools down for the weekender.

Saturday/Sunday: December 11-12 1999

Tuggeranong Valley Rugby Union and Amateur Sports Club, Ricardo St,

Wanniassa, ACT

A Class 3 Australian Chess Federation Grand Prix Event

7 Round Rated Swiss Event

Time Limits: 1 hour + 10 sec/move thereafter (DGTs)

7 Round Swiss: 10:30am, 1:00pm, 3:30pm and 6:30pm (Saturday), 10:00am,

12:30pm and 3:00pm Sunday with prize-giving at 5:15pm

Entries taken until 10:00am on Saturday 11 December

Entry Fees: $40 adult, $30 concession, $20 junior

Prizes:

Open: 1st $300, 2nd $200, 3rd $100

U/1800: 1st $150, 2nd $75

U/1400: 1st $150, 2nd $75

Junior: 1st $100, 2nd $50

2 half point byes are available

If you are interested in playing in this tournament please contact ANDREW

GREENWOOD on 02 62910385 or e-mail aag@wwdg.com

Sponsored by the Tuggeranong Valley Rugby Union and Amateur Sports Club

Tuggeranong Chess Club:

http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Shaun.Press/tuggeranong.html

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GRAND PRIX 2000

JASON LYONS is doing a fine job in putting together a revamped Grand Prix

for next year. He deserves your support. Australian chess deserves a team

approach to building this competition up. Please don't leave it until he

phones you - make his job easier by getting your entry in. If you have not

received an entry form please email Jason on <jl@student.unsw.edu.au>

***********

KAGAN/SANDLER MATCH

It has been pointed out to me that, according to the ACF constitution, the

submission of results for rating is solely the responsibility of the state

association. According to the VCA this match has not been organised through

a VCA registered club and was not pre registered as required by FIDE.

Whilst there was an arbiter, he was not present throughout the match.

There is absolutely no suggestion that there was anything wrong with the

match. The question of developing a standard policy for the rating of such

matches will be an agenda item at the next ACF Council meeting to be held

at Tumbi Umbi on 6 January. I have been surprised to find that FIDE do not

appear to have a policy on this matter. In fact, upon enquiring with

respected overseas experts, vastly differing opinions were given on what

policy they have.

In the meantime FIDE will be advised not to rate the match until this

matter has been resolved.

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ARCHIVES OF GAMES OF LEADING AUSTRALIAN PLAYERS

Paul Dunn advises of his new email address for correspondence on this

matter pjdunn@compuserve.com

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NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES' COMPETITION

MATT SWEENEY (University of Woolongong) is keen to organise such a

competition. Please contact him if you are in any way involved with chess

at a university mhjs01@uow.edu.au

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VCA ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SWISS

This will be held at the Elwood Chess Club on 18/19 December.

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CLUBS' CORNER

I'd like to highlight a different club each week, if possible. Please let

me know of anything interesting going on in your club and I'll try to

include it. This week I've heard from ALF KLINKBY (Coffs Harbour), the club

that has produced outstanding junior ZONG YUAN ZHAO.

ALF KLINKBY, Publicity Officer, Ph 6656 1185 ah; 6652 2788 bh

Press Release 24 November, 1999

GEORGE GELAGIN is the new Chess Champion.

Coffs Harbour Chess Club has a new Club Champion, George Gelagin who after

many previous attempts showed consistency and won the crown in a tournament

held at Coffs Harbour Senior Chess Club.

George scored 8 points from 9 games, which gave him a half point break from

equal second placed Adam Tschaut and Greg Burgess, two players with more

than 15 Championships between them. Adam was the only player to defeat the

hard-hitting George in this tournament, but conceded a couple of draws and

a loss to Geoff Byng.

It is fitting and well deserved that George Gelagin at last has his name on

the list of Champions. He has been a member of the Club for many years,

just interrupted when work commitments have taken him to other places. He

has always been a dangerous player, but in the past has been known to let

certain "wins" escape.

George has also been instrumental in fostering strong support of school

chess in Coffs Harbour, and it is noticeable that his current school,

Sawtell Primary School, will soon play in the final for the NSW Country

Championship.

***********

AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS' TEAMS' FINALS WEEKEND

Evelyn FitzPatrick <afitzpat@pcug.org.au> reports that some schools haven't

sent in players'names yet. Also we need the winners from the NSW Open

Primary.

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RESTRUCTURE CORRESPONDENCE

STEPHEN SOLOMON:

I am in favour of the proposed restructure of Australian Chess. The

membership scheme via rated games seems an excellent idea to me. I don't

think it needs to be a set $1 per game though; maybe only for the big,

round per day tournaments. Other tournaments could be 50c per game and

maybe juniors 20c per game. A couple of correspondents are worried about

how to administer this during the actual tournaments, but I think it could

be made very simple by amalgamating the rating fee into the entry fee, with

no opportunity for refunds in the case of withdrawal etc (except for the

full refund if the player can't turn up). In the case of the Doeberl Cup

for example, one of our prestigious tournaments, the entry fee would be

raised from say $60 to $64, not really a big jump. For the Australian

Championship it would be raised from $120 to $131, again not a great jump.

I understand what some correspondents are saying about it being unfair on

the more active players, me being one of those! But really I don't mind

paying even $1 for each of my games when it is going to such good causes,

and the improvement of Australian Chess in general. Someone such as Lloyd

Fell who is still one of our most active players after fifty years of

playing should be an honorary life member of the ACF by now! There are

many very active players, so maybe there could be a system introduced so

that if you play more than a certain number of games then you pay less per

rated game. To keep this simple for the tournament organizers, it should

be no different for them, but the player should just receive a cheque for

the refunded amount from the ACF after the ratings are done.

I went to one of the meetings on Graeme's trip around the States, in

Melbourne, and there as I believe in all States it was agreed that

Australian Chess needs to take great leaps forward. I have been playing

competitive chess for nearly thirty years, and Australian Chess really

hasn't made any advances as far as strength compared to the rest of the

world. With the restructure, we will raise the money to start the academy

and have a full time CEO etc. and our promising juniors will be finishing

regularly in the top ten in twenty years time. Consequently our Olympiad

Team will be doing the same, and playing Russia in every Olympiad like a

regular top team!

Throughout my thirty years as a player, I sincerely thank all the

administrators for doing a great job running chess and running tournaments,

a better job than I would probably do as an administrator (I was on the CAQ

for about four years and found it very hard work), but having said that

Australian Chess still hasn't really improved on the world stage in those

thirty years. I think the main reason for this is what Graeme calls the

burnout factor of our hard working administrators. One very honest hard

working administrator does good things for chess for a few years, and sees

not much in the way of promising things happening and becomes tired of it,

so they step down and before the next good administrator comes along there

may be a lapse of a year where all the good work of the previous

administrator is undone. I have seen this repeated many times during my

thirty years, and it is nobody's fault! We must allow the good

administrator when they come along, and Graeme is an excellent one, to do

as they see is best for Australian Chess, and this is the Restructure by 2001.

OK, we must look at the bottom end of the scale. I didn't hear of Robert

Jamieson and Max Fuller until I played in the Vic Juniors in the early 70s,

so certainly Alvin Chipmunk (his Mum told him to play interschool chess for

his sport) wouldn't have heard of Ian Rogers. Would he have heard of Wayne

Carey? Steve Waugh? John Eales? Yes. Yes. Probably. Would he have

heard of Keiran Perkins? Cathy Freeman? Yes. Yes. This is fair enough.

We expect this these days, as these are all spectator sports, the heroes of

which our juniors are proud of. With a National Chess Academy, in twenty

years time chess will regularly be on the news and we will have ten

Grandmasters who all Australians will be proud of. Mum won't be telling

him to try chess; he and thousands of others will want to play it and it

will be easy because chess will be in all the schools by then with our many

trained coaches etc! Now, referring to the same correspondent, dear Alvin

won't see anything for his five dollars? He is playing chess! Hopefully

he will achieve a State junior rating (though I'm sure most primary, and

even secondary, interschool chess players wouldn't even look at a magazine

if it was sent to their home address, so probably it should be sent to the

school, where all the players can compare their ratings.), and also it

would go towards the cost of the people running interschool chess, but he

is just playing chess! This should be enough. And if that $5 goes towards

Ian Rogers and the Olympiad team, that is fair enough too. Take other

sports again. My three boys are playing Junior Rugby League. John (his

parents!) pays his $40 to the Biloela JRL, which is affiliated with the

Gladstone Central JRL, which is affiliated with CQRL…to QRL …to ARL. Some

of the money I am sure goes to Brad Fittler and the Australian Test Team

and we are proud of that. We have to buy equipment on top of that, such as

boots, helmet, mouthguard, etc. In chess the equipment is provided! They

also play cricket, and Rachael who is 6 started Milo cricket this year.

Again the fees are much more than in chess, for each kid. Again it is

affiliated through to the ACB, and I hope our money helps Steve Waugh and

the Test Team which we are all very proud of. In twenty years all the kids

of Australia can be very proud of our Chess Olympiad Team, and all our

Grandmasters. I think the proposed restructure, as in bulletin 38A is the

way to go about this.

I like very much the proposed new structure of the ACF Grand Prix, as

outlined by Jason Lyons in bulletin 40. I hope this goes ahead next year,

and that all the weekend tournaments are a part of it! Even Class ones

will be influential, whereas in the Five class system they were hardly

worth it. I think there will only be two or three Class 3s so the other

class tournaments will definitely have a big say in the final winner. I am

only worried that with the top five scores only counting there could be a

few equal winners on maximum points, so maybe it should still be top seven.

That would probably favour me as a very active player, though!

I am not in favour of everything proposed. I am not a fan of the

Swissperfect pairing program at all, as from much experience at tournaments

it always gives "incorrect" pairings! I think none of the pairing programs

that have been written are any good. When I used to play in big

tournaments in Melbourne, Dr John Frew and Frank Meerbach used to be very

good at producing the correct pairings with cards. Also all the top

players are good at that too, obviously from their vast experience. Why

can't one of these people write a good pairings program? Seriously, I am

of course in favour of the one pairings program being used throughout

Australia and of course amalgamated with the rating system, and if it has

to be Swissperfect then so be it. At the beginning of each tournament I

guess the conditions are the same for everyone.

I think the initial few weeks of silence was because everyone is very happy

with the proposed restructure. Since there have been a few negative

viewpoints brought forward, and Graeme was calling for some positive ones,

I thought I better send my thoughts.

JOSEPH TANTI:

I've been following recent exchanges in the ACF Bulletins, and think it's

about time I made a contribution. On this occasion I would like to comment

on some of the things that have been said about the Ratings System.

In 1994, when a series of very popular, weekend allegro events were

underway(the Garry Koshnitsky Shield) the South Australian Chess

Association introduced an Allegro Rating List. The ratings were calculated

using the Elo system by parsing modified Swiss-Sys pairing files through

the ratings program. When the system was fully operational, new ratings

could be (and often were) calculated and posted immediately after the

completion of a tournament. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the

popularity of

the G.K. Shield and other allegro competitions waned, and the Allegro

Rating List was abandoned.

In 1998, the South Australian Junior Chess League, after many years,

re-introduced a Junior Rating List. Several years earlier, the SAJCL had

stopped trying to rate games because of the many problems inherent in the

scholastic rating pool, such as: an enormous numbers of competitors (up to

1000 new players every year); many juniors playing only one or two games;

overwhelming numbers of 'provisionally rated' players and the eventual loss

of all reliably rated players from the pool.

The 1998 SAJCL Rating List was created from the results of SAJCL

tournaments from 1994 through to 1998, which had been kept as Swiss-Sys

files and were now passed through the new ratings program. The

aforementioned problems inherent in this rating pool were circumvented by

the use of the Glicko Rating System. This system (invented by Prof. Mark

Glickman and used by various internet chess clubs) attaches a second number

(RD) to the rating, to give a measure of the 'reliability' or the rating

itself. The RD falls as the players rating becomes more reliable, as more

games are played against reliably rated players. Using the Glicko Rating

System, EVERY game becomes significant, not just those games played against

(the few) already rated players.

In 2000 I hope (as the SAJCL Ratings Officer) to establish the SAJCL Rating

List as a database driven website. In this way, organisers can make

updates by simply entering the results of the latest event, and players can

consult the new rating list within minutes of a tournament's completion.

Which brings me to the point of this whole missive. I have costed this

exercise, and 20 cents per game rated would have been a very generous

payment. If a website is set up to do the job there is no further,

significant, input of labour. Even if I, personally, do not do as outlined

in the pevious paragraph, someone, somewhere, surely will. There has, for

example, been some talk about a 'Ratings Server' in recent Newsgroup

discussion.

I do not agree that "The proposed rating fee system ... has the potential

to bring a strong, reliable, sustainable income stream into Australian

chess." (G.Gardiner, ACF Bulletin No. 44). In fact, to attach the ACF's

financial future to the rating system on a 'user-pays' basis may be a

terminal error, as I suspect that the market will soon cost the maintenance

of a rating system at pretty close to nil.

***********

Best wishes

Graeme Gardiner

-------------------------------------------

Graeme Gardiner

President, Australian Chess Federation

C/- Somerset College, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba Q 4213

Phone 07 5530 3777 (w) 07 5530 5794 (h) Fax 07 5525 2676 (w)

Email: ggardiner@somerset.qld.edu.au http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au/chess/

Chess - the clever sport!