Victorian Championships

Our international readers must excuse me for a bit when I refer to our Victorian cousins as "Mexicans". Because they live south of our border is exactly why we call them that. There is nothing sinister intended. It's an Aussie thing.

Anyway, the 2005 Mexican Championships are up and running. They're a funny lot those Mexicans. Instead of playing the entire event in one place at one scheduled time for all competitors, players actually have a choice of up to 16 playing sessions across some four different venues. It's so bloody confusing that some have dubbed it the "orienteering" championship! The event is probably the only chess tournament in the world where the players are actually issued a map.

This business of toing-and-froing from one venue to the next does have it's odd side effect. For example, what if a player is banned from one of the venues? Well it appears that this is exactly what's happened to well-known chess personality, David Beaumont. Senior Beaumont is currently serving as secretary of Australia's premiere club - the Melbourne Chess Club. Yet he appears to find himself on the blacklist of one of the venues. It will be interesting to see how the matter is handled. Will the blacklist be lifted? Or will Senior Beaumont choose, instead, to withdraw from the tournament? Stay tuned!