Often a tournament will have a surprise winner, but it is quite unusual to have a surprise tournament. However this is what seems to happening with this years ACT Championship. The tournament received no pre-publicity and the first most ACT Chess Association members knew about it was when the first round results were sent out via email. In fact one participant in the tournament said they had just turned up at the Tuggeranong Chess Club expecting to enter the new club tournament and was most surprised to find they were playing in the ACT Championship.
Another email I received on the matter stated "By the nominal start time of 7.30pm, some 16 odd senior players turned out for the ACT comp. No top rated ACT players appeared." Apparently in an effort to boost numbers a group of junior players was added to the event, although this necessitated the time controls for game involving those players being reduced to 60m+10s per move, rather than the 90m+30s that is standard for a championship event. "A final draw was called about 8.25pm"
A number of further questions are being asked of the ACTCA concerning this and other matters, although at this point no answers have been forthcoming. Probably the most important one concerns the legality of the current ACTCA committee itself as they may be in breach of both the ACTCA constitution and more importantly the ACT Associations Incorporation Act, by not holding an Annual General Meeting within the time specified under the act.
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6 comments:
It's outragous that players entering a state championship and a 90/30 event, had the rules changed so that some games were changed to 60/10 to benefit a handfull of players. Juniors should be treated the same as seniors in senior events.
I would of appealed and then withdrawn if this was forced upon me.
CameronD
In this case it doesn't seem to be a case of benefiting junior players. The 60m+10s time limit has always been available to junior players at the Tuggeranong Chess Club (in club events) so they can finish their games by a reasonable time of 9:30pm.
In this case it seems they were happy playing a separate event, but were added to the Championship field by the tournament organiser as a way of boosting numbers.
Of course it is still unsatisfactory as on any given round 8 of the 12 games may be played using the short time control, but the blame starts at the top, rather than the bottom.
I'm not blaming the juniors or club policy. Just that a state championship is being run under 2 time controls.
Maybe the event should have been changed to 60/10. But then you have the problem that people have entered with the understanding that it was a 90/30 tournament.
I think that the ACT needs to rethink the event if their not getting the entries. In Queensland, the CAQ has scraped the Qld championship due to a lack of entries, so its not just in the ACT.
CameronD
The following post is only been made to correct some information from a previous poster. I do want to see conversation return to the ACT Championship after my post.
The Qld Championship has not been 'scrapped'.
For quite a number of years, the Qld Open and Qld Championship were held in alternating years. Three years ago the CAQ Council of that time decided to try running both title events in the same year.
CAQ Council is not certain if the Qld Championship will be run this year as negotiations are still continuing.
The Qld Championship has definetely not been scrapped. CAQ Council may just return to the previous policy of holding them in alternate years instead.
Garvin Gray
CAQ President
1. The entrants were all asked if they had any objections and nobody objected. This seems fair and reasonable. That said, one would have to feel strongly to be the first to object in front of everyone and thus exclude the extra juniors. Peer pressure alive and well.
2. I'm an ACTCA member, I didn't get an email, how do I get on the mailing list.
Shanon Vuglar
Click on this link and add your email address
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/chess
NB This isn't an ACTCA email list (as they don't have one) but is the list that everyone in Canberra (including the ACTCA) uses to communicate chess news.
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