Report from the Director of Play

10 November 2004

This year’s tournament programme has again been successful with all tournament attracting a good level of participation. Tournaments commenced and were completed close to schedule. The Flood Cup and One Hour tournaments were submitted for rating with the Australian Chess Federation (ACF) so it is expected that all players who competed in these tournaments will have an official ACF rating in the December 2004 list.

Major tournaments conducted during 2004 include the following:

• Flood Cup (including Handicap Trophy)
• One Hour tournament (including Maiden Trophy)
• Allegro tournament (in progress)
• Lightning tournament.

In addition to these I was organiser and arbiter for three other regular tournaments which are played at a more relaxed pace and are enjoyable to all:

• 45 minute tournament (held in Dec2003/Jan 2004)
• Prize Night tournament (Handicap Lightning format)
• St David’s Day tournament (a successful first year).

The club again played Samford Valley CC and Northside CC in home and away fixtures during the past 12 months. Apart from the Samford away game in which only three members showed up to represent The Gap, these nights have been successful, and have been a forum in which players can play serious games without having to be concerned about loss of rating points and tournament standing.

The transition to incremental time controls via the use of Digital Game Timers (DGTs) has been a success, with few problems encountered once players become accustomed to setting the clocks themselves. As with any change there have been mutterings from arch-conservatives. However from an arbiter’s point of view most of the ‘incidents’ during the year occurred during the Lightning and One Hour tournaments, both of which do not use increments. Mindful that we need to cater to all, I support retaining guillotine finishes for some of our tournaments, and leave it to the members to decide how far we should go with spreading the use of what one member recently described as the ‘evil’ and ‘bestial system of increments’.

In 2005 I foresee a similar programme to this year, and welcome any suggestions as to how the programme can be improved. The tournament schedule for 2005 should be available during December, with the first 2005 tournament to be the Lightning run over 6 weeks commencing on 7 January 2005. It is anticipated that the 45 Minute tournament for 2004 will again be held over the summer break (Dec 2004/Jan 2005). The 2004 prize night is scheduled for Friday 21 January 2005.

Once again thanks to all club members for making 2004 a successful year for the club.

Andrew Robinson
Director of Play (DOP)
The Gap Chess Club Inc.