The Australian Chess Federation has made a decision on the venue for the 2008 Australian Championship, and already the issue has taken another weird turn. The 2008 Australian Championship will be held in Parramatta, NSW, assuming nothing changes between now and the official announcement. However this wasn't the "winning" bid, but was the lucky loser, after the bid ranked first (from Peter Parr), fell through after the decision was made, due to the non-availability of the proposed venue. In the meantime Chess Victoria is proposing to hold the Victorian Close(sic) Championship, possibly on dates that clash with the Australian Championship.
Clearly Chess Victoria feels that this is a popular time to hold a chess tournament, as they held a weekend event earlier this year, which clashed with the Australian Open Championship. Of course a number of other people think that it is stupid to hold an event which clashes with the national championship, but I suspect as those people are not Victorian, then their opinions don't really count.
Such an idea does raise an important question. What is more important? A national championship or a run of the mill chess tournament in your own backyard? And as this years Canterbury Open had a bigger turn out than the 2006-07 Australian Open, I guess the answer is the backyard chess tournament.
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