Expats

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:06 pm

Hi from Melbourne Australia, its been nearly 5 years since I was last in England and I'll try to bring some news from Brits down-under.

2 Brits are in Melbourne at the moment. Eric Teichmann recently competed in the Australasian Masters, a 10-player round robin where he scored 4.5 for equal 6th. This was probably a bit below par for Eric but another half point would have put him equal 3rd, so it was pretty close.

Also in town is David Garner who has started playing at the Melbourne Chess Club winning a few rapid events. Unfortunately for David he applied to play in the Australian Championships but was refused entry. I'm not sure what reasons were given for this.

I've missed David at the MCC when he's been there, and never knew him in England but hopefully I'll bump into him at some stage.

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:18 pm

Looking at the field for the Australian Champs to be held in Sydney in January (yes, that's our summer so while you're all freezing we're dying of heat stroke

) there are some players who may be known to English players.

GM Gawain Jones is flying the NZ flag now and he'll be playing.
IM Gary Lane is an Australian citizen, but some of you might remember him, especially in the South West
FM Laurence Webb is also playing.

Alex Holowczak · Post by **Alex Holowczak** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:25 pm

Carl Gorka wrote: GM Gawain Jones is flying the NZ flag now and he'll be playing.

Is he? Does this mean he'll be representing New Zealand at Olympiads, and not England?

John Saunders · Post by **John Saunders** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 2:35 pm

I've just had a look at the Australian Championship website...

http://www.australianchesschampionship. ... in.Players

Gawain Jones is listed as ENG so, strictly speaking, he is not "flying the NZ flag" (though it is true he's domiciled there at the moment). I don't think he has plans to change his chess registration. Incidentally, while checking the FIDE site just in case Gawain did have plans to transfer, I noticed that former British champion Jacob Aagaard is switching back his affiliation to Denmark.

LozCooper · Post by **LozCooper** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:07 am

Alex Holowczak wrote:
Carl Gorka wrote: GM Gawain Jones is flying the NZ flag now and he'll be playing.
Is he? Does this mean he'll be representing New Zealand at Olympiads, and not England?

Gawain will most definitely continue to play for England. I'm in constant contact with him and he has no plans to transfer and he is very focused on establishing himself as the England number five, if not higher.

LozCooper · Post by **LozCooper** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:10 am

Carl Gorka wrote:Hi from Melbourne Australia, its been nearly 5 years since I was last in England and I'll try to bring some news from Brits down-under.

2 Brits are in Melbourne at the moment. Eric Teichmann recently competed in the Australasian Masters, a 10-player round robin where he scored 4.5 for equal 6th. This was probably a bit below par for Eric but another half point would have put him equal 3rd, so it was pretty close.

Also in town is David Garner who has started playing at the Melbourne Chess Club winning a few rapid events. Unfortunately for David he applied to play in the Australian Championships but was refused entry. I'm not sure what reasons were given for this.

I've missed David at the MCC when he's been there, and never knew him in England but hopefully I'll bump into him at some stage.

Hi Carl, nice to hear from you. I can't imagine why you swapped Macclesfield for Melbourne!

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:39 am

LozCooper wrote:
Carl Gorka wrote:Hi from Melbourne Australia, its been nearly 5 years since I was last in England and I'll try to bring some news from Brits down-under.

2 Brits are in Melbourne at the moment. Eric Teichmann recently competed in the Australasian Masters, a 10-player round robin where he scored 4.5 for equal 6th. This was probably a bit below par for Eric but another half point would have put him equal 3rd, so it was pretty close.

Also in town is David Garner who has started playing at the Melbourne Chess Club winning a few rapid events. Unfortunately for David he applied to play in the Australian Championships but was refused entry. I'm not sure what reasons were given for this.

I've missed David at the MCC when he's been there, and never knew him in England but hopefully I'll bump into him at some stage.
Hi Carl, nice to hear from you. I can't imagine why you swapped Macclesfield for Melbourne!

Hi Lawrence, the lack of rain and cold has been a hard burden to bear

However, chess here is certainly different to that which I experienced in the UK. There is virtually no team chess here for example and the weekenders are less well attended, probably due to the geography of the country. Some of the issues I'm reading about on these forums are certainly applicable here, like grading issues (we have the cursed Glicko system here), conversion rates of junior to adult players, lack of admins and arbiters etc.

Saying that, a lot of chess happens here and the links with England abound. For example, we have a bank holiday for the Queen's Birthday

I'll pass back some news and gossip from here which might interest UK players.

Alex Holowczak · Post by **Alex Holowczak** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:43 am

Carl Gorka wrote: Saying that, a lot of chess happens here and the links with England abound. For example, we have a bank holiday for the Queen's Birthday

Well, she is your Head of State too.

That said, we don't have one for that...

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:47 am

My apologies about getting Gawain Jones federation mixed up. Firstly, there have been a lot of rumours flying about, and secondly, he showed up as a New Zealander in my playerbase from some downladed TWIC files, so I guess someone has made the same mistake as me and assumed his fed to be NZ.

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Wed Dec 23, 2009 10:54 am

Alex Holowczak wrote:
Well, she is your Head of State too.

That said, we don't have one for that...

I am no royalist, but I'm happy for any holiday that comes my way....and there is a big chess weekender over that weekend in Melbourne

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:46 pm

Australian Champs has started, but didn't manage any live transmissions on the first day.

Gawain Jones was apparently a late finisher, but came through ok. He will have quite a tough match against Vladimir Smirnov tomorrow, but witht he White pieces should be favourite.

In the Major, David garner is the top seed and won his first round game. He is playing Gawain's partner NZ WIM Sue Maroroa. Presumably Sue is palying in Sydney as averse to the NZ Champs to be with Gawain, and there is no title for her in the NZ champs anyway. Anyway, I will still be tipping Garner to win this one.

David Clayton · Post by **David Clayton** » Sat Jan 02, 2010 11:07 pm

Carl

Is this the url to the live games?

http://www.australianchesschampionship. ... LiveBoards

Will the games start at midnight here in the UK?

David

David Clayton · Post by **David Clayton** » Sat Jan 02, 2010 11:54 pm

David Clayton wrote:Carl

Is this the url to the live games?

http://www.australianchesschampionship. ... LiveBoards

Will the games start at midnight here in the UK?

David

I think it looks like yes to the first question, and probable yes to the second, but I am off to bed.

Others may choose to watch Gary Lane v Zong Yuan Zhuo

David

Carl Gorka · Post by **Carl Gorka** » Sun Jan 03, 2010 12:00 am

David Clayton wrote:Carl

Is this the url to the live games?

http://www.australianchesschampionship. ... LiveBoards

Will the games start at midnight here in the UK?

David

There is an 11 hour difference between London and Sydney so I reckon the games start at midnight in England.

As for the transmission, I do not know if it has been fixed yet. A lot of work went into the site yesterday, apparently so we can only hope so. It appears the transmission is working, but....http://www.australianchesschampionship. ... LiveBoards

benedgell · Post by **benedgell** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 5:10 pm

Bad news from down under- Gawain Jones lost in round 3 to George Wendi Xie, 2448 rated.

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