The country circuit

One new thing I learnt while playing at Dubbo this year was the existence of the NSW Country Chess Circuit. The idea of Gary Losh, it is the informal collection of NSW Country Weekenders that are also part of the Myer Tan Grand Prix Series. There are 8 tournaments in total, although 3 (Toukley, Newcastle and Dubbo) have already been completed. The next 2 events in the series are Laurieton (3 May 2008) followed by Mingara (17 May 2008).
The Mingara event is already looking good, with extra money going into the prize pool. There are also plans to have an extra prize event following the last round, and hopefully I'll have more details soon.
While for this year the Country Circuit is mainly about coordinating publicity for NSW Country chess events, next year may even see the addition of prizes for the best scoring players in the series.