Friday 22 June 2007

PNG Profile - Rupert Jones

For such a small chess playing community, Papua New Guinea has produced some decent administrators, none more so than FM Rupert Jones (pictured here waiting for the Rome-Turin Express).
Rupert was born in Papua New Guinea, and did all his early schooling there until returning to England to start High School. Beginning a career in teaching, he moved to Botswana, and played a pivotal role in developing chess in taht country, as well as other countries in Southern Africa. It is a testament to Ruperts efforts there that Chess is the number 2 sport in Botswana, behind Football, and chess is regular back page news in the countries newspapers.
Having returned to England after more than a decade in Botswana, Rupert plunged into the dicey waters of English chess politics and served as the BCF International Director for a number of years. He also took on the role of the manager of the White Rose 4NCL team, a role that he continues to fill.
On the international scene he is also a member of CACDEC (FIDE's commission for the Assistance of chess in developing countries) and still maintains strong ties with the African chess community.
And despite all this he is a more than useful Board 3 for the Papua New Guinea team at the Chess Olympiad, having also represented Botswana previously.
His debut for the PNG is the Majorca Olympiad in 2004 was pretty spectacular. Having been drafted into the team as a last minute replacement for players who were stranded by visa trouble, he scored an impressive 10/13 earning a FIDE Master title along the way.

Here is one of his games from the 2004 Olympiad, where he finishes his opponent off with a neat queen sacrifice.

Jones,R - Tjipueja,W [B23]
36th Olympiad Calvia ESP (9), 24.10.2004

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bb5+ Nc6 5.Qe2 Be7 6.Nf3 a6 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.d3 Nf6 9.0-0 0-0 10.e5 Nd7 11.Bd2 Re8 12.h4 a5 13.Rfe1 h6 14.Nh2 Ba6 15.Qg4 Kh7 16.Nf3 Nf8 17.Qh5 Kg8 18.Qg4 Kh8 19.Qh5 Nh7 20.Kg2 Rf8 21.Ne2 c4 22.d4 c5 23.c3 Rb8 24.Rab1 a4 25.a3 Rb3 26.g4 Qb6 27.g5 hxg5 28.hxg5 g6 29.Qh6 Rg8 30.Rh1 Rg7 31.Rh3 Kg8 32.Rbh1 Kf8 (D) 33.Qxg7+ 1-0

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Black (Tjipueja) probably had to play 31...Qb8, but I think that this move is also losing. Somewhere earlier in the game he went wrong, but almost all moves look rather reasonable. Perhaps 16...Nf8 is the move to blame. 16...Rb8 or 16...c4 seems more natural.

My Journey said...

Hi Shaun

Do youhave contactdetails for Rupert Jones. I worked with him at Marang CJSS in Botswana from 1986-1987 and he visited me in Australia in about 1998 1999. Would love to catch up with him if you have contact details.

With many thanks

Sandra Stewart

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