Thursday 11 October 2007

Dates for your Calendar

If you are planning to visit Canberra to play some chess, here are some dates for your calendar.
The Vikings Weekender is on the 1st & 2nd of December. I will have more details shortly, but a rumour doing the rounds in the nations capital is that the Federal Election will be on the 1st of December. But that shouldn't put you off playing, especially if you are from interstate. On the Saturday evening you can head over to the National Tally Room to see the Liberal Party go down in flames. A real highlight for any tourist!
Another date worth noting is Easter 2008. It is insanely early next year, with Good Friday falling on the 21st of March! So don't let this muck up your planning for the Doeberl Cup.

9 comments:

Justin said...

hi,
could u confirm that the Doeberl Cup is on easter weekend?

and is there a site already up with touranment details and an entry form?

Anonymous said...

Pity that the Vikings is yet again clashing with the Australian Schools teams championships. Not all 16 of the ACT kids going to Brisbane would necessarily play at the Vikings, but if it were held the weekend before there would be a big incentive to turn up and play to get some practise...

Jenni

Alana Chibnall said...

Isn't the Doeberl Cup ALWAYS on the Easter weekend?

Shaun Press said...

As observed by Chesslover, the Doeberl Cup is always on over the Easter Holidays. So the tournament will run from the 20th - 24th of March, with the Premier starting on the 20th, and the Major, Minor, U/1200 (two day event) and Seniors all starting on the 21st (Good Friday).
More details will be available this week, so watch this blog!

Shaun Press said...

The problem with the ASTC is that it tends to move around the calendar, sometimes being the first or second December weekend, or even in late November. While the organisers (which I am not one of) realised there was a clash, they decided to stick with the dates that are (a) traditional (b) already advertised on the GP calendar and (c) the ones that have already been booked with the venue provider.
And unless the ACF fixes the dates for the ASTC in future years to say, the first weekend in December, I suspect that Vikings will continue to use this weekend.

Anonymous said...

ASTC dates will not be fixed, as organisers also have the problems of finding a suitable venue. However Vikings was at its biggest when it used to happen the weekend before the ASTC, as not only Canberra kids, but Sydney ones as well, used to use it as a practise before the ASTC.

The ASTC dates are usually known early in the year (this year by the end of April), and I wouldn't have thought it that hard to shift at that point.

Depends what the organisers are after though - if they not really pushing for extra numbers, then a small comp that is always held on the same weekend is fine.

Jenni

The Closet Grandmaster said...

So are we moving to Woden? What's important for all is affordable accommodation that is within walking distance, like the joints in Kingston where I always stay. But I just checked and there doesn't seem to be any available in Woden except for the Quality Hotel located around the corner.

- TCG

Anonymous said...

Amiel

What you have to understand about Canberra's bus system, is that is runs interchange to interchange. Civic (what we Canberrans call the city), is a major interchange and Woden is a huge one. Getting into the suburbs is a pain in the butt, but getting from Civic to Woden is really easy with a gigantic number of buses at all hours. It takes about 15 minutes by bus and the main intertown bus goes every 15 minutes even on Sundays. Then there will be other bus services that also go from Woden to Civic.

I really wouldn't have thought that was a big travel time.

Once you are in Civic there is a massive amount of accommodation in all price ranges, but here are two cheap ones.

http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/details.cfm?hostelid=240

http://www.citywalkhotel.com.au/

Civic has a even bigger selection of restaurants - it will take you years to exhaust them.

You wil have easy access to the woden shopping centre and heaps of restaurants, ranging from really nice to cheap.

I loved being near Manuka, but the venue had got really tacky and just isn't available. The Woden venue (if that's where it ends up)is a very well run and profitable club, with a much nicer atmosphere.

Jenni

Chris said...

Christopher Masters-
Hi, wow i am honoured that you have featured my game with CY Chong. I will try to find the game and send it to you.