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The qualifying rounds for the 2003 Interclub have been played and the smoke
has cleared such that we can announce the teams that play-off next week in the
FINALS.
A grade was won by Pacmen (Peter Froehlich, John Nemeth, Michelle Lee, Ruperto
Lugo) after leading this grade for the entire qualifying season. Sam Chow was
a stalwart on board one in the early rounds. Jawbreakers were a commendable second.
B grade’s Dandenong (Geoff Cook, Keith Jenkins, Milic Sucevic, Zhigen Lin
had a scare as three games (against the Old’N’Bold) finished with draws and it all
depended on Sunil Sunilson v Keith Jenkins; predictably a French defence. Keith’s
nerve held and justice was done. But another hurdle awaits Dandenong. In this
grade, a parallel competition has been held on the other side of Melbourne at
the Hobson’s Bay chess club. Dandenong needs to win over the other qualifier
to be declared Victoria’s best.
C grade’s See-one-see-all faltered after such a good qualifying run. Girlpower
(Casey Hickman, Rocheleh Ziffer, Elena Galiabovitch, Natasha Lauder) triumphed
today and for the future of women’s chess in Australia they are a great hope.
D grade leaders, Currently, were first with daylight second in the qualifiers;
but they failed to hold their nerve in the Final play-off where Mentone prevailed
(Metin Mustafa, Paul Dallimore, Paul Sanderson, Ryan Brice). Well done by Mentone.
Finally, we should record thanks to Gary Wastell as Interclub Director, Gerrit
Hartland as Box Hill organiser (23 teams), Frank Meerbach as Arbiter, and Phillip
O’Connor as Web-master.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
The qualifying rounds for the 2003 Interclub have been played and the smoke
has cleared such that we can announce the teams that play-off next week in the
FINALS.
In A grade, Pacmen retained their long held lead to finish on 18/28 and will
play Jawbreakers (so named due to the length of some names in the team, not
their style of play), who finished on 17.5. The best-performed player
in the grade was Scot Sharman (6/7) of the Poets’ Society. The play-off
starts at 7:45pm Friday 5th September, at the Box Hill Chess Club.
As long expected in B grade Dandenong finished top on 18/28, but, in a triple
by-pass comeback, the much maligned Old ‘N’ Bold came from the clouds (or is
that the pits) to qualify with 12.5 points. These two now meet in a final
next Friday, and the winner will be scheduled to meet the winner of the same
grade from the Hobson’s Bay zone. The best-performed players in the grade
were both from Dandenong, Milic Sucevic and Zhigen Lin (5/7).
There is a final scheduled for C grade and it is See-one-see-all v Girlpower.
The best-performed player in the grade has been mentioned previously so I will
not be putting the name in again. Btw, in the final round, Bruce Simpson
was promoted to B grade and helped Old ‘N’ Bold get over the qualifying line
into the final; will we ever be allowed to forget this?
D grade leaders, Currently (18.5/28), were first from Mentone 16. The
best performed players in the grade were Metin Mustafa and Farn-Ling Khung (6/7).
This Final promises to be exciting.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
The club now runs coaching on Sunday mornings; the level is designed for
those who want to leave the 1000 group behind. Please discuss it with Gerrit
Hartland if you are interested in joining the coaching group.
It is a signal that the business end of the season is approaching when team
captains start checking out the cross-tables of competitors and who plays who
in the final two rounds; a bit like the first swallow of spring really.
Our usual captain, Gerrit Hartland, was absent this round and we needed his
calm steadying influence to handle an extra-ordinary number of no-shows.
In a teams event like the Winter Interclub it is important that a phone call
is made at least 24 hours before Friday evening if you are going to have difficulty
attending. Please ring the club mobile and leave a message.
A grade is coming to an exciting end where we could expect Pacmen to retain
the lead they have had all the way. However, a few key team members are
scheduled to be missing in the final round and there are chances for New Life1
and JawBreakers.
Put down your glasses in B grade as Dandenong has an unassailable lead, and
is paired with the cellar-dwellers in the final qualifying round. The
best that the others could hope for is an upset in the knockout final.
In one C grade semi-final See-one-see-all had an easy run as Set-up Crew
had to give a forfeit on board 2. In the other semi-final Girl-power drew
2-2 with Rookie Quality, so it was out with the tiebreaker rulebook again to
determine who proceeds to the final. The best loser’s semi-final was marred
by a no-show in one team.
D grade leaders, Currently, were first with daylight second; they only need
to hold their nerve in the final play-off.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
The club now runs coaching on Sunday mornings; the level is designed for
those who want to leave the 1000 group behind. Please discuss it with Gerrit
Hartland if you are interested in joining the coaching group.
The evening started with the welcome appearance of two well-known chess players:
Bill Collins is a life member of BHCC and has recently returned from Ireland;
and Guy West is an Australian Champion who has been persuaded to play board
one for the Melbourne Chess Club team. It is also appropriate to note
that quite a few visitors have been enjoying watching Interclub, and BHCC welcomes
these also.
Flyers for the Victorian Championships are available at the Club rooms.
The last game to finish in A grade was Jovica Mirkovic v Janusz Dutka and
this was rook and bishop against lone rook. One arbiter knew this was
a book win, the other arbiter thought you had do something in a corner but he
was not sure which. The players were equally undecided and the game meandered
late for 50 moves without a pawn capture. Game over.
The most interesting game was in A grade, Guy West v Denis Bourmistrov.
Link here to see this battle, however we may be over-ruled
by the Webmaster who reckons his smothered mate is the bees knees; in which
case, link here instead.
A grade is led by Pacmen on 13/20, but Jawbreakers are close on 12.5/20.
Best player to date is Jusuf Pekmezovic on 4.5/5.
In B grade the Old’N’Bold have done the dead-cat bounce against Steadfast
to win 2.5/1.5. The grade is led by Dandenong 13/20, and as they have
"suffered the bye" already they look home and hosed. Best player to date
is Milic Sucevic.
The final position in C grade had the arbiters scratching for their rule-books.
(I don’t know why because they wrote the rules originally). This was the
final of the qualifying rounds for C grade which has seven teams. Two
teams finished on 10.5/20 and a tie-break was required to declare Set-up Crew
and Girlpower #1, #2. But also, three teams tied on 10/20, and a tie-break first
relegated New Life2 from the place-getters, and a further tie-break declared
See-one-see-all and Rookie Quality #3, #4. Whew. Next week in this
grade #1 v #4 and #2 v #3. And the fate of the sniper who was undefeated
last week on 4/4? He hit the target again and is 5/5. Can the organisers
promote him next year?
D grade is looks certain to be Currently, followed probably by the Quiet
Achievers. Best player to date is Farn-Ling Khung on 5/5.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
The club now runs coaching on Sunday mornings; the level is designed for
those who want to leave the 1000 group behind. Please discuss it with Gerrit
Hartland if you are interested in joining the coaching group.
In A grade, the Pacmen team now lead at 12/16, two points ahead of the Jawbreakers
on 10. These may be the two teams that play-off in the final unless some
upsets start to occur. Sam Chow is undefeated after four rounds on board
one. Melbourne has moved from being the cellar-dweller after last week's
exposure in the bulletin.
In B grade, Dandenong lead with 10/16 (they had a bye in round three), 1.5
points clear of the young Ratings Challengers who Dandenong defeated 3.5/0.5
in round one. It is a pitiful sight to see the Old’N’Bold sitting on 4
points at the foot of the table; is it too early to declare these Dead’N’Buried?
Milic Sucevic, Stefan Taylor and Rad Chmiel are all doing well individually
in this grade.
C grade is still a close affair with Set-up Crew now leading See-one-see-all
by 1.5 points. This seems to be a match-race in two and the two team captains
are prominent in the set-up of the club before play starts; is there a moral
in that observation? The best-performing player in C grade to date is
Bruce (Sniper) Simpson on 4/4. Can anyone beat him? Please!
D grade’s score-line has shocked itself and now Currently leads with 13/16
from the Young Guns on 10/16, Mentone on 7/12 and daylight. However, as
the leader has yet to play the next two teams before having their bye in the
lasts round, there will be some critical games ahead!
The best-performing player in this grade is Farn’Ling Khung.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
Your correspondent was dropped from B grade (and what is more, dropped from
the bottom side) for round four. Due to a late absence he was called into board
four A grade as a reserve and nearly pulled off an upset; link here to see this
interesting game.
The club now runs coaching on Sunday mornings; the level is designed for
those who want to leave the 1000 group behind. Please discuss it with Gerrit
Hartland if you are interested in joining the coaching group.
In A grade, the Pacmen team now lead at 9.5/12, 2 points ahead of the Jawbreakers
7.5/8. This may be the two teams that play-off in the final unless some
upsets start to occur. Melbourne is not playing to its potential and surely
must cause problems soon.
In B grade, Dandenong had the bye , but still lead with 7/8, one point clear
of High Flyers and Daisy Ages. It is a pitiful sight to see the Old’N’Bold
sitting on 2 points; is it too early to declare these over-the-hill? Could
they still act as spoilers in the later rounds of the tournament? Should
they be put in C grade next year?
C grade is still a close affair with See-one-see-all, Girlpower and Set-up
Crew all on 7/12, after a few notable upsets.
D grade’s close score-line from last week has sorted itself and now.
Currently leads with 9/12 from the Young Guns on 8/12 and daylight. Mentone
also may feature on 5/8 as they have had to sit out the bye in this grade.
Best performed players in each grade are A John Nemeth 3/3, B Rad Chmiel
and Stefan Taylor, C Bruce Simpson 3/3, D Thomas Feng 3/3.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
We have also been posting
our results on the
Australian Chess Federation
Bulletin Board.
The last finishing game was an exciting A grade clash between Mike Woodhams
and Sam Chow. Link here to see the game. The rook and pawn end-game
was in Mike’s favour, but not just quite enough to get beyond ½-½.
The club now runs coaching on Sunday mornings; the level is designed for
those who want to leave the 1000 group behind. Please discuss it with
Gerrit Hartland if you are interested in joining the coaching group.
Games started on time at 7:45 as per the advertised time and I think most
of us were ready this week.
In A grade, the Pacmen team have jumped to an early lead with 6.5/8 ahead
of Gentlemen’s Club and Jawbreakers 4.5/8. (Jawbreakers comes from some
team-members having rather lengthy names).
In B grade, Dandenong are doing even better with 7/8, three points clear
of High Flyers on 4/8. Could it be that this grade is decided with only
two rounds played?
C grade is a closer affair with See-one-see-all on 5.5/8, Girlpower on 4.5/8
and Set-up Crew on 4/8.
D grade is an amazing scoreline. Four teams, Mentone, Young Guns, Currently,
and Quiet Achievers all feature on 5/8. This promises to be the most interesting
grade.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
We have also been posting
our results on the
Australian Chess Federation
Bulletin Board.
The last finishing game was an exciting A grade clash between Kim Cornish
and Milenko Rikalo. Link (coming?) here to see the game. The crowd
around the final board was so thick it could have been a rugby scrum.
Perhaps the organisers need to address this extra pressure by creating some
crowd barriers.
Finally, we reveal some of the ideas behind team names.
In D grade, CURRENTLY, comes the observation that the team captain is Frank
Benjamin, which in term is reminiscent of Benjamin Franklin, the man who discovered
electricity. Now you know.
Box Hill extends a welcome to all visiting clubs to the 2003 Winter Interclub
competition. As well as regulars from Dandenong, Serbia, and Bosnia, we
are pleased to see representatives from the Mentone and Melbourne Chess Clubs.
Games were started promptly by your arbiter Gary Wastell; and this startled
a few late-comers who not accustomed to such efficient organisation of a chess
event. My guess is that we will start on time at 7:45 each week of the
event.
Most of the A grade games were recorded on our web-site by the Sunday night.
The visibility of our games is an important element in making sure our good
players can be recognised by selectors who choose Australian representative
teams.
Keep contact with club activities by reading
http://www.boxhillchess.org.au.
We have also been posting
our results on the
Australian Chess Federation
Bulletin Board.
A lot of interest centred on IM Mirko Rujevic’s game against
Sam Chow. Sam played a French defence as we now expect, and it was
Mirko who took the game into little known by-ways. Strangely the French
defence featured in all four games of this team pairing. The results were
two wins for white and two wins for black. I will leave you to
check the team scores from this oddity.
A few questions were raised about the curious names that were assigned to
many entrants. For example, who are the Micromites? The answers
to these questions are "secret Administrators business", which might be revealed
slowly as the tournament progresses.
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