Top Honours to Rooty Hill

Each year the Australian Chess Federation awards three medals for excellence in chess:
          —the Koshnitsky Medal is awarded for chess administration on a national or state level;
          —the Purdy Medal is awarded for an outstanding contribution as either player or journalist; and
          —the Steiner Medal for Australian chess player of the year.

Peter Cassettari receives his award from NSWCA President, Bill Gletsos

This year two of those three medals were won by Rooty Hill members.

Congratulations to Club President, Peter Cassettari who was awarded the Koshnitsky Medal. We all know how much work he does at the club level and that's apart from his business life and athletics. Peter has often sent emails from work before 7.00 am, which sounds like an early start—but it's even more surprising when you realise that he found time to go for a training run before driving to the office.

And what does he train for? Peter is not only a great chess player (who knows what his rating would be if he had time available like the rest of us) he is probably an even better athlete, with a string of high-quality performances to his credit including second place in the 2006 NSW 10,000M Championship (Age Group). I won't tell you which age group—you'd never believe me!—but the man who finished third was a former state champion. Peter also won the NSW State Marathon (Age Group) in 2006. He ran the 21.1 kilometres in 89.06. That's quick!

But, of course, none of that counts toward deciding who should win the Koshnitsky Medal. It is awarded for contribution at a State or National level and Peter's work on the NSWCA for many years has been tireless. He has served in so many capacities, and invested so much time, that the award was well deserved—and probably long overdue.

Given that there are only twenty-four hours in a day, how does he manage to do so much? Well, Peter isn't saying but I think he works on the "eight by three" system. You divide your day into three equal parts of eight hours each and allocate eight for work, eight for sleep, and eight for recreation:

Then you do away with recreation and cut down on sleep!

Brian Jones: Purdy Medal

(After reading that last paragraph Peter admitted that he works fifty hours a week and sleeps only six hours a night.)

Congratulations are also due to FM Brian Jones who won the Purdy Medal for Chess Journalism.

Brian is not only the proprietor of Australian Chess Enterprises, tournament organiser/promoter, and tireless worker in other areas, including the Grand Prix series, but he is the publisher of Australian Chess, a bi-monthly magazine full of information about local and overseas chess.

If you would like to subscribe to Australian Chess you can click on the link below or just visit Brian's web site by clicking on the link at the foot of the Rooty Hill home page.

Brian is currently involved in organising the most ambitious tournament ever held in Australia—the Sydney International Open. At the time of writing nine GMs and six IMs have signed up, as well as a host of FMs and WIMs. It's going to be enormous. There's a preliminary report about it on the Rooty Hill home page.

Brian's award was presented at the Australian Open in Canberra earlier this month and, like Peter's, is well-deserved.

Of course, there was a third award. The Steiner Medal for "Chess Player of the Year" went to IM-elect George Xie following an exceptional string of successes over the past two years. He doesn't play for Rooty Hill, of course, though he has played here during the Grade Matches. But, hey, we can't win them all. Besides, Gary Lane won the Steiner in 2005!

                              —Story:   David Evans