Smart Move by NSWCA

At least for me anyway. I arrived home today with the latest NSWCA newsletter in my letterbox and the first thing I read was some good news from our state chess administrators. The 2007 City of Sydney tournament will be played to a different format. Instead of spanning across 9 Sundays, at one game a week, the event will next year be played over just two weekends - 24-25 February and 3-4 March.

Of course, the change won't suit most players but for time-poor folks like myself, it's definitely the ideal choice. The event will have 7 rounds and played at a rate of 2 games a day (except the final Sunday). That will still make the City of Sydney fully compliant with FIDE rating requirements which, again, is another incentive.

I'm marking this one in my calendar.

ASTC Handbook

The chess organisers in Canberra continue to show the rest of Australia exactly how it's done. Libby Smith, tournament director of the Australian School Teams Championships, and crew have produced an outstanding handbook for that tournament. I especially like how sponsors and business partners have very prominent positioning.

Download the booklet here.

About the experience of producing the publication, Libby had this to say (in a posting in the now comatose Australian Chess Club Forum), "A lot of swearing, near-divorce moments and banging my head against things (plus the sponsorship of FUJI Xerox & Canberra Tourism) led to the end result."

And while we're at it, we might as well remind everyone of the upcoming events in Canberra later this month and in January 2007. The Junior Championships will begin mid-Jan while the Australian Open begins in just a few days time.

Dandenong Chess Festival

Noble Park CC is hosting a strong tournament - the Dandenong International festival. The event includes the Australian Masters as well as a FIDE-rated reserves tournament. Some of our Pinoy readers will be interested to note that FM Jesse Sales is playing in the Masters section against the likes of grandmasters Daryl Johansen and visitor Dejan Antic. The latter drew against FM George Xie in round one then lost to Victorian player Eddy Levi in round three. (The round 2 game Antic-Gorka will be played next week).



The festival will run until 23 December.

I notice also that the Noble Park website has a link to the blog. Thanks very much for that. All power to these folks. According to their website, they have "big plans for the future".

Kasparov Marching Forward

This morning I woke up to the voice of Gary Kasparov as he was being interviewed by the BBC radio. He was talking about Russian politics, the slow death of democracy in that country and the effort of an opposition front, "The Other Russia", to try and stem the powers of Russian president Vladimir Putin. As reported by Chessbase, Kasparov will today, Moscow time, lead a protest march in the Russian capital.

What is happening in Russia sounds very alarming. If you believe the ex-chess world champion, Putin is forming himself into a 21st century dictatorial tsar whose regime, according to some dissidents, is guilty of the same bad habits as the old Soviets.

In an interview with Britain's The Times newspaper, Kasparov has mixed feelings about his country's political fortunes:

If we can keep The Other Russia united for the next six months there will be more and more losers in the Kremlin battle who are looking for other options. The momentum will be on our side. It gives me some optimism, although not much because it could go either way. There could be repressions and arrests.

Let's hope that Kasparov can keep himself fairly safe. From time to time, it's tempting to think that the same fate suffered by Alexander Litvinenko could also befall the chess maestro - a horrible thought, I know. After all, Putin himself has his own supporters. The Independent reports that on Sunday, a pro-Putin march is being organised by the "Nashi" youth movement that is expected to attract as many as 100,000 people.

Jesse's Mother Arrested for Threat

Jesse Gilbert's mother has been arrested by British police for allegedly threatening to kill Ian Gilbert, Jesse's father. Last Thursday, UK time, Ian Gilbert was cleared of rape charges by the Guildford Crown Court.

Angela Gilbert was quoted as saying, "We believe that Jessie died because of the evil acts of one man, who stole her childhood and systematically destroyed her".

From the Evening Standard.

Jason Chan's Blog

Here I am, on this dreary Saturday morning, researching some topic to write about when suddenly I found an interesting incoming link to my blog. I thought the URL looked a bit familiar - "1mingrandmaster". Well there is only one and genuine 1-minute grandmaster I know. Lo and behold, the incoming link was Jason Chan's blog - "Life and the Universe According to Jason Chan"!

I had no idea Jason has been a regular blogger. He's been at it since December 2005. The blog, surprisingly for me though, is a lot less about chess (since I met and know him mainly through this beautiful game). Jason's post are quite personal and thoughtful. But while not about chess, a handful of chess personalities do make an appearance.

This post, under the category of "Amazing People I Know", about my good friend Nick Kordahi made me LOL. And it is difficult to disagree with this one about another friend of mine, Jose Escribano.

It is probably true that Jose could make his life a little easier and improve his image as seen by others, but I think he is largely a very considerate person and does not want to cause trouble. He is not perfect, but he usually thinks from the perspective of other people and tries to treat them well.

Canberra chess organiser, Jenni Oliver is also featured. We're just not sure if we agree with this: "She does not seem to make any enemies."

Jason Chan is presently completing his PhD thesis in Computer Science. He is actually one of the most intelligent I know. This guy once created a rating system for the chess players at Hyde Park, in Sydney. I remember that we all used to get quite excited about how we went after a day's play, what was our rating, who was on top, and so on. I miss those days actually.

Finally, I must say, Mr Chan might consider switching careers to Psychology! He seems to have the feel for it.

Singapore Masters and Challengers

One of the biggest events in Asia, the Singapore Masters and Challengers Open, is due to commence on Boxing Day. The event is often attended by some of the best Pinoy talents and this year is no different. Some familiar names are Mark Paragua, Wesley So, Oliver Barbosa and John-Paul Gomez plus many others.

Of interest to our Aussie readers is the participation of Raymond and Angela Song who are both currently residing in China with their parents.

The Australian and Pinoy entries will go head-to-head against some of the region's strongest players like grandmasters Zhang Pengxiang, Ni Hua, Utut Adianto and Indian female star Humpy Koneru.

As ususal, we'll try to keep an up-to-date coverage of this event. Hopefully there will also be a few games available for download.

Jesse's Father Cleared

As promised, here is an update on the Jesse Gilbert story. Her father, Ian Gilbert, facing several charges of rape was yesterday cleared of those charges by a court in the UK.

From the BBC and the Guardian.

Tournament in Kalgoorlie

A small tournament was held in the William Grundt Library in Kalgoorlie, WA. Monies raised went into toy boxes for the local hospital. A great effort it seems. Actually, that's an interesting idea: a chess tournament for charity with most proceeds going into some charity. Eastern chess administrators should consider it.

From the Kalgoorlie Golden Mail.

Indians Take Chess Gold

The powerful Indian team took out the team gold yesterday in the mixed team's classical chess event of the Doha Games. India's final total was 22.5 points after drawing with the Kazakhs in the last round at 1.5 points apiece.

Various news sources are quoting Humpy Koneru as saying, "It is a good feeling to win another gold for the country. We were confident of winning the title before the competitions started, and its great to have done it".

Team Philippines also had a peaceful end to their campaign by splitting the points with Turkmenistan. RP end Doha on 14.5 points overall.

Leading finishers:

22.5 - India
17.5 - China
16.5 - Iran
16.0 - Kazakhstan, Indonesia
15.0 - Qatar