Oceania Zonal is in Rotorua

As I reported in June last year, the next Oceania Zonal (in 2011) was likely to be held in Rotorua, New Zealand. Well now there is nothing likely about it. It's happening right there!

Kiwi Helen Milligan has just emailed me to share info about the still basic website. As you can see, the event is set to run from the 25th to the 31st of January, 2011. Start budgetting folks! I think that one is going to be a fun event in one of the most beautiful places on Earth!

Helen also informs me that the Kiwi contingent for Doeberl and the SIO will be taking piles of brochures with them, so look out for those, too.

Danailov Targets Europe

It looks like Silvio Danailov has higher political ambitions of his own. He might not become the next FIDE boss, but he could possibly take control of the European Chess Union. The Bulgarian paper Standart has the news citing chessdom.bg.

Battle vs Chess

This should keep chess and video games fans happy.



More on the official site.

The State of Nothingness

Oh, yes! I know how John Summerfield feels. In a letter to the CAWA editor, Mr Summerfield is dismayed at the lack of chess clubs:

I have recently returned to active chess after almost 15 years.

In my first outing, I played in the Xmas Swiss where I scored 0/5. Clearly, that wasn't the best choice of tournament for my return.

I look around for a club, and I am appalled. There are almost no clubs, certainly none near me.

I used to live in a suburb of Melbourne were I could, and did, play at Waverley, Dandenong, Mentone, and none was a long drive from where I lived.

Here, nothing.

What are Western Australian chessplayers doing about it? Nothing. It's almost the end of January, and the CAWA website is full of ... nothing but empty space. Not even a mention of the AGM which I thought was coming up.

Read the whole thing and more in CAWA's February 2010 newsletter to its members.

Becoming a Salaryman

The downside to Tokyo life is that one lives just like most other Japanese. Work, work and work.

I miss clocking off at 4 or 5PM in Sydney, head off to Town Hall or Hyde Park and put in at least two hours of chess before catching the train for home. You could have a few laughs with friends, maybe even an argument or two with some dumbass patzer who thinks he knows all the Sicilian secrets, but all in all it was always a lot of fun.

These days, I get none of that.

Twelve plus hour days are common, worsened by the absence of fellow lovers of chess! Post work I head straight for my town, or sometimes Shinjuku, and pop into some tiny bar with enough seats for just 6-8 people. Yes, I'm now a regular salaryman! It feels like it anyway.

Chess Sets in Tokyo

It's not everywhere that you find European chess sets sold around Tokyo. But over the last 2 days I found a couple of places near where I live. One joint basically sells all kinds of wooden toys, while the other is a sort of general store (called "Village Vanguard") for knick-knacks. I was even pleasantly surprised to find the same glass chess sets that Chess Discount Sales once gave away in some tournament (I think the SIO) being sold around here for a very cheap 1,000 yen.

For serious tournament players, the local JCA seems to be the only retailer of popular programs like Fritz or books and boards. But in my case, I have no worries. I pretty much packed all my chess software, a digital clock and a couple of boards when I left.

Let's Quit Playing Chess

Danish pop band, Alphabeat, features a chess-themed song in their latest album, "The Beat Is...".

Baby, let's quit playing chess,
You've been to my address,
You keep checking me out,
I wanna get loud,
Stop playing mouse and cat,
I'm telling you that,
I'm gonna win,
I'm checking you in

Alphabeat is currently supporting Lady Gaga's tour of the UK.

Double Blunder by Zuma

On a visit to England this week, SA president Jacob Zuma managed to achieve a double. He embarassed himself silly in front of his hosts.

After blasting the Brits as "colonialists", the African leader then later met the Queen and presented her with a chess set. There's only one problem. Former SA president Nelson Mandela had already given the same exact chess set way back in 1996! The Mirror has the juice.


In fact, that chess set was shown at this recent exhibition.

Wesley Climbs Higher

With the latest FIDE ratings now out, Pinoy chess fans have rejoiced once again at the news of GM Wesley So climbing up ever higher in the world rankings. Most appropriately, the still 16 year old super grandmaster is ranked 64th in the world!

In terms of countries, RP is placed thirty-third, while Australia is way, way down in number 53 spot.

Karpov Vies for FIDE

Chessvibes is reporting that Karpov will be a candidate for presidency of FIDE.

Sunday night Anatoli Karpov landed at the airport of Saratov, Russia for a simul and a meeting with the local governor. There, according to local news agency SarInform, Karpov announced that he has the ambition to become FIDE President.

“It is necessary to restore order,” Karpov was quoted. “The problems with the World Championship, the calendar, changes of decisions, changes during a cycle, this didn’t happen before. Besides, the prestige of the World Champion should return to its old level.”

Somehow I have big doubts over Karpov's candidacy. Ilyumzhinov and his mates are far too entrenched now, I think, to be movable. I remember very well that journalists' meeting in Dresden when famed Spanish chess journo Leontxo Garcia suddenly remarked (words to this effect), "if you want to see corruption, just go in there", while pointing to the main hall where the FIDE delegates where also meeting. The whole thing is a joke!