Annual Report – December 2005

I have certainly enjoyed being a member of Rooty Hill RSL Chess Club in 2005. It is a very friendly club, but with a culture of lively competition, which makes for satisfying and challenging chess at all times.
I must say at the outset that we are enormously indebted to Peter Cassetari for the way he manages all our activities with such a sure and steady hand.
The other feature of our club that many of us feel good about is the excellent website, so creatively conceived and managed by David Evans and Robert Ambalong. It keeps us in touch, week by week, with everything happening at the club and in chess generally.

Ben Zalac – Youngest   Ken MacGillivray – Oldest

We have quite a wide range of chess abilities with several players above 2000 and a good spread through to 1000 and below due to newcomers arriving from time to time during the year. It is nice to see the well known chess author and columnist, IM Gary Lane, at the club every now and then. When Gary and our FM's, Brian and Lee Jones, and WIM, Nancy Lane, are playing away in major tournaments many of us follow this with interest.

This year they did very well at the Oceania Zonal, held in Auckland, New Zealand. IM Gary Lane won the tournament without conceding a loss (draws with GM Darryl Johansen, IM Mirko Rujevic, FM Greg Canfell and Leonard McLaren). (This win qualified him to play in the World Championship Knockout at Khanty-Mansiysk in Siberia.) FM's Brian Jones and Lee Jones conceded only two losses each to finish midway through the field with 4.5/9.

But the heart and soul of club chess, of course, is not what the elite players do; it is the enjoyment we get out of regular competition amongst ourselves at all different levels. At this club we have a very full calendar covering every Monday night of the year and including lightning, allegro and rapid tournaments as well as the major events. There is always someone available to welcome a newcomer to the club and play a few friendly games to help them get started or resume their club chess.

Team events have a special significance in that our club likes to field as many teams as possible and we get to know one another much better through travelling and playing together in a team.

In the Western Suburbs Chess Premiership (WSCP) we fielded seven teams with some commendable results. Our U1700 Knights team won Division B (ahead of our U1800 teams, incidentally). Congratulations to Rick Carballo, Doug Djukovic, Stevan Jovanovic and Henry Rara for this great effort. Our U1400 and U1300 teams won their sections of Division C. Doug Djukovic, Rolando Gonzales and Peter Watts won individual prizes also.

The WSCP Lightning Championship, with seven players rated over 2000, was won by visitor Peter Tidoy (2226). Muhamed Buza and Brian Jones were the highest placed Rooty Hill members on 6/9 followed by Leonardo Tenorio, Rick Carballo and Paul Laurance on 5.5.

In the Interclub Grade Matches this year Rooty Hill became the first club in the history of the event to field eight teams – Open, Under 2000, Under 1800 (2), Under 1600 (2), and Under 1400 (2). There is a great sense of team spirit in the club during this competition. For some of us it is a highlight of the year, even though we do quite a lot of travelling to reach far flung venues. This year our teams performed reasonably well in all grades, but were not successful in winning any of them. Individual performance prizes were won by Norrie Tique from the U1600 Knights and Leonardo Tenorio from the U1800 Knights.

"Say Genie, we could have used some magic for the Parramatta Challenge. We had to forfeit on two boards." "Magic be darned! Couldn't somebody have played a simul?"

The inaugural Western Suburbs Rapid Challenge between Rooty Hill/Koala and Fairfield/Parramatta Chess Clubs was held this year over three rounds at Rooty Hill. The first round went convincingly to Fairfield/Parramatta, 12-8. Round 2 was equally convincing for Rooty Hill/Koala who equalised at 20-all. The home side ran away with Round 3 winning the night 34-26. Thanks to Shane Burgess for initiating this event.
(The return match was played at Parramatta RSL on December 1, after this report was written. Rooty Hill forfeited on two boards at the cost of eight points. The result was a turn-around and the combined scores from both nights left Fairfield/Parramatta the winners by half a point.)

The Rooty Hill Open attracted 41 entries including last year's winner Jim Holland and previous winners FM Brian Jones and Tony Bouchaaya. After 4 rounds Tony led outright, but he lost to FM Lee Jones in round 6. At the end of round 7 we had a new Open Champion in FM Lee Jones, who was undefeated, drawing just one game with the other FM, Brian Jones.

In the Club Championships there were 42 entries which meant that we had five divisions again this year. Tony Bouchaaya emerged as the Club Champion for the third time in the last four years.
WIM Nancy Lane played in the top Division and is clearly the leading female player in our club (although only one other lady, Carrie Evans, played in our main events this year).
The most outstanding performance in this event was by young Ben Harris who won Division B without losing a game and with only one draw. The other Divisions were very closely contested with the result unclear until the final round making for a very interesting final tournament of the year.
Brian Jones won the Club Rapid Championship earlier this year and Tony Bouchaaya has just won the Club Lightning, which incidentally had been won last year by Lee Jones and the previous year by Gary Lane (neither of whom played this year).

This adds up to a very full and exciting year of club chess and I look forward, as I'm sure all our members do, to another good one next year.