Chess in New Caledonia

The Oceania Chess Confederation (of which I am the Treasurer) has been pretty busy lately, organising a number of activities in the South Pacific. The current event is a FIDE rated Round Robin in New Caledonia which, like previous events in Palau and the Solomon Islands, is designed to allow local players to achieve FIDE ratings. Three Australian players have made the trip to Noumea, Lee Jones, Tony Weller and event organiser, Gary Bekker. A couple of the local players already have FIDE ratings (via the French Chess Federation) and hopefully they will be joined by a few more. Early results from the event are here, and full results should be available in a day or two.
There is also a tournament coming up in the Solomon Islands, while on the organisational side the OCC will be organising another arbiters seminar, in Queenstown in 2012. Importantly, the OCC have been able to attract financial support for these events from both the Asian Chess Confederation and FIDE. There are also plans to hold some larger events, like the Asian Seniors Championship in the next year, with a number of member countries being considered as likely hosts.

Jones,Lee (2114) - Weller,Tony (1895) [A52]
Nouvelle Calédonie Nouméa (2), 03.09.2011