On sending a team to the World Rapid and Blitz Teams Championship

 I was involved in the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Teams Championship in Astana, as a pairings officer. I thought it was a great event, and provided an opportunity for players who might not make their national team a chance to play an Olympiad style event. 

So when the event was announced for Hong Kong this year, I decided to organise a team. It was never going to be a national team or event a hand picked team of top players. It was going to be a team representing Street Chess Canberra, and was going to be picked from players with a strong connection to that event. The initial selections were based on players who had won the tournament a significant number of times (eg Fred Litchfield who has won it more than 100 times), or had assisted me over the years in running the event (e.g. Miles Patterson who is the playing captain of the team.) So as not to decide the team based on the ability to pay, I covered all the airfares for the players, paid the event entry fee , and purchased team shirts for the event. The players were required to cover their own accommodation and meal expenses (although I did offer to cover that for 2 players who declined their invitation).

While 5 players were happy with this arrangement, in the end I did need to pick 3 replacements. One replacement had played Street Chess in the past, while for one spot, I simply offered a place on the team as a prize at this years Doeberl Cup. But ultimately, it was a team  representative of a grass roots chess activity that has run for over 30 years in Canberra and has provided a venue for enjoyable chess events for regular club players.

Interestingly, I was told that a group of top Australian players were thinking of playing, but their efforts came to naught, as they could not get themselves organised in time. This does not surprise me at all, as for a lot of Australian chess (at least in my 40 years experience), it is always 'someone else' who should be supplying the answers. Fortunately for the  team from Canberra, we (and not just me) are good at solving problems, both on and off the chess board.