2022
This was a remarkable year for our club. Our membership number reached its highest level yet and we had the largest participation ever in four of our tournaments. We retained the trophies in the Big Board against St George and Little Board against Harbord with record winning margins in both. Our first prize of $1000 in the Purdy Memorial must be one of the biggest first prizes for a club tournament in Australia. In addition, our club operates with a very solid financial base. It was very pleasing to be able to offer the full 2022 programme without any shutdowns or lockdowns after distruptions in the previous two years..
There were new names on many of our trophies. Congratulations go to Cameron McGowan for his treble in winning the Club Championship, Purdy Memorial and Rapid. Robert Sunyaryo won the Club Championship Blitz, Gareth Charles won the Purdy blitz while Anthony Fikh won the Allegro. Dennis Wan was successful in the Ford Greenwood Seniors as well as the Candidates and Alaina Vincent won the Winter Classic plus gained the NSW Womens title for her performance in the Purdy. Many club members distinguished themselves in individual events around the country.
Our webmaster David Stern won the Norths President’s Shield this year ahead of all the other clubs affiliated to Norths Leagues Club.
Our 2023 programme is ready to roll. After a few social nights we offer the Club Championship blitz in late January followed by the Club Championship in the first week of February.
Our club championship format will again feature the popular ‘small swisses’ with byes instead of postponements. Our top two divisions will revert to 10 player round robins. In that way, our Club Champion and Candidates winners will be determined with all players in each section playing an
identical field.
Our committee is looking carefully at the format of other tournaments during the year, particularly given the size of tournaments, the diversity of player strengths and the need to ensure that our newer members do not get overwhelmed in their first tournaments with us.
Thanks to all on the committee for their hard work during the year and thanks also to the number of members who helped in a variety of ways. I would like to wish long standing committee member and Life member Rex Simmonds all the best as he recovers from health issues.
Thanks also to our members for your support during the year.
2021
It was another unusual year with a number of highs interspersed with some Covid-induced lows.
Fortunately, the negatives were few. We had to close the club for a significant part of the year and as a result had to truncate and declare results for our two winter tournaments – Ford-Greenwood Seniors and Winter Classic just after the half way mark. We were also unable to run the 2021 Purdy Memorial which was a pity as the 2021 edition was to incorporate State Championship and State Women’s Championship.
The positives were many though. Winning back both the Big Board and Little Board trophies from St George and Harbord was a highlight. Winning both legs of each so emphatically was special. Many thanks to all who supported those fixtures – wonderful results for our club.
We have a new club champion in Matthew Bennett. This year we trialled a new format of small swisses across the various sections of our club championship. I personally feel that this was a good innovation that deserves repeating. The sections all proved well contested and the elimination of postponements was welcomed by many.
We have also been able to run Rapids and Blitzes and our online club continues twice a week. Congratulations to all of our prize winners in our tournaments this year.
The growth in our membership this year was extraordinary and we gained a number of very strong new recruits. All this bodes well for the club but our sheer size makes it tricky when government imposes venue capacity restrictions.
In term of our committee, Rob Watson very ably slotted into the Director of Play role. David Stern delivered a new website which gives us a good base for future development. In addition, there was a huge amount of work by some unsung heroes behind the scenes. During the year Tristan Weijermars left our committee due to a move interstate and Pertti Sirkka was unable to stand again as secretary. Thanks to my fellow committee members for their hard work in keeping our club running and developing. We all also appreciate the longstanding support from our hosts at Norths Leagues Club.
The running of our large club falls on a small number of people and that creates a risk. Broadening our resources will be a clear focus as we move into, hopefully, a covid-unaffected 2022.
Peter Abbott, President Norths Chess Club
2020
The best way to sum up 2020 was that we had a ‘Covid’ year. Little more can be said to describe the disruption to our activities.
2020 actually started off quite well. Our Club Blitz Championship was won by International Master Brandon Clarke with a picket fence. Our Club Championships were again well supported, cracking more than 100 participants for the third year in a row.
Then the pandemic struck.
When it was clear that we would have to close the club, the committee took the sensible decision to abandon the Club Championships. We were later able to reopen for a few weeks for social chess before the Covid second wave arrived. At that point community gatherings we were limited to ten players (later increased to 30) but Norths Leagues Club decided not to allow their various clubs to resume. It was quite frustrating as some other venues took a different tack and allowed their clubs to restart, but we had to go with the wishes of our hosts.
I thank Nick Cooper, David Stern and Gary Armstrong for taking the initiative to start our on-line club to give members some contact and chess during the closure and for Gary and David for keeping the flame alive. The on-line tournaments have a loyal following and players enjoy games as well as their social connection in the chat room. This has kept the club open despite the physical shutdown. I hope that our on-line club becomes a permanent fixture, and encourage those who haven’t participated, to join the fun.
We were all saddened to learn of the loss of our 2013 Club Champion, Donato Mallari. Donato was an ever popular and enthusiastic member of the club and is missed by all of us who had the pleasure of on and off-board connection with him.
Nick Cooper retired as Director of Play at the 2020 AGM. Nick has been an enormously effective and popular DOP for five years and we thank him for his huge contribution. Although Nick will be much missed we are fortunate that Rob Watson has joined the Club Committee as DOP. Rob, as many know, is a highly experienced and qualified arbiter.
Turn to the way forward, Norths agreed that restrictions have eased sufficiently for us to resume club meetings. The pandemic continues however and we proceed with much caution. Our incoming committee has been hard at work planning our resumption.
We have decided to change the format of the club championship for 2021 so as to be able to determine prizewinners should the tournament need to be truncated as happened in 2020. We will run a series of small Swisses each with more than one ten-person section in them. In this way we can retain the small-group character while ensuring that a leaderboard is available after each round due to the absence of postponements.
Our Treasurer Steve Garner reported that the club had an excellent financial year in 2020 – because there was nothing to spend money on! As a result, all 2020 members are offered 2021 membership at a discounted rate.
I would like to thank our hard working committee for all that they did during the year. Although the actual chess side of it was relatively small, there was a lot achieved during difficult times.
We look forward to a successful 2021.
Peter Abbott, President Norths Chess Club
This was a remarkable year for our club. Our membership number reached its highest level yet and we had the largest participation ever in four of our tournaments. We retained the trophies in the Big Board against St George and Little Board against Harbord with record winning margins in both. Our first prize of $1000 in the Purdy Memorial must be one of the biggest first prizes for a club tournament in Australia. In addition, our club operates with a very solid financial base. It was very pleasing to be able to offer the full 2022 programme without any shutdowns or lockdowns after distruptions in the previous two years..
There were new names on many of our trophies. Congratulations go to Cameron McGowan for his treble in winning the Club Championship, Purdy Memorial and Rapid. Robert Sunyaryo won the Club Championship Blitz, Gareth Charles won the Purdy blitz while Anthony Fikh won the Allegro. Dennis Wan was successful in the Ford Greenwood Seniors as well as the Candidates and Alaina Vincent won the Winter Classic plus gained the NSW Womens title for her performance in the Purdy. Many club members distinguished themselves in individual events around the country.
Our webmaster David Stern won the Norths President’s Shield this year ahead of all the other clubs affiliated to Norths Leagues Club.
Our 2023 programme is ready to roll. After a few social nights we offer the Club Championship blitz in late January followed by the Club Championship in the first week of February.
Our club championship format will again feature the popular ‘small swisses’ with byes instead of postponements. Our top two divisions will revert to 10 player round robins. In that way, our Club Champion and Candidates winners will be determined with all players in each section playing an
identical field.
Our committee is looking carefully at the format of other tournaments during the year, particularly given the size of tournaments, the diversity of player strengths and the need to ensure that our newer members do not get overwhelmed in their first tournaments with us.
Thanks to all on the committee for their hard work during the year and thanks also to the number of members who helped in a variety of ways. I would like to wish long standing committee member and Life member Rex Simmonds all the best as he recovers from health issues.
Thanks also to our members for your support during the year.
2021
It was another unusual year with a number of highs interspersed with some Covid-induced lows.
Fortunately, the negatives were few. We had to close the club for a significant part of the year and as a result had to truncate and declare results for our two winter tournaments – Ford-Greenwood Seniors and Winter Classic just after the half way mark. We were also unable to run the 2021 Purdy Memorial which was a pity as the 2021 edition was to incorporate State Championship and State Women’s Championship.
The positives were many though. Winning back both the Big Board and Little Board trophies from St George and Harbord was a highlight. Winning both legs of each so emphatically was special. Many thanks to all who supported those fixtures – wonderful results for our club.
We have a new club champion in Matthew Bennett. This year we trialled a new format of small swisses across the various sections of our club championship. I personally feel that this was a good innovation that deserves repeating. The sections all proved well contested and the elimination of postponements was welcomed by many.
We have also been able to run Rapids and Blitzes and our online club continues twice a week. Congratulations to all of our prize winners in our tournaments this year.
The growth in our membership this year was extraordinary and we gained a number of very strong new recruits. All this bodes well for the club but our sheer size makes it tricky when government imposes venue capacity restrictions.
In term of our committee, Rob Watson very ably slotted into the Director of Play role. David Stern delivered a new website which gives us a good base for future development. In addition, there was a huge amount of work by some unsung heroes behind the scenes. During the year Tristan Weijermars left our committee due to a move interstate and Pertti Sirkka was unable to stand again as secretary. Thanks to my fellow committee members for their hard work in keeping our club running and developing. We all also appreciate the longstanding support from our hosts at Norths Leagues Club.
The running of our large club falls on a small number of people and that creates a risk. Broadening our resources will be a clear focus as we move into, hopefully, a covid-unaffected 2022.
Peter Abbott, President Norths Chess Club
2020
The best way to sum up 2020 was that we had a ‘Covid’ year. Little more can be said to describe the disruption to our activities.
2020 actually started off quite well. Our Club Blitz Championship was won by International Master Brandon Clarke with a picket fence. Our Club Championships were again well supported, cracking more than 100 participants for the third year in a row.
Then the pandemic struck.
When it was clear that we would have to close the club, the committee took the sensible decision to abandon the Club Championships. We were later able to reopen for a few weeks for social chess before the Covid second wave arrived. At that point community gatherings we were limited to ten players (later increased to 30) but Norths Leagues Club decided not to allow their various clubs to resume. It was quite frustrating as some other venues took a different tack and allowed their clubs to restart, but we had to go with the wishes of our hosts.
I thank Nick Cooper, David Stern and Gary Armstrong for taking the initiative to start our on-line club to give members some contact and chess during the closure and for Gary and David for keeping the flame alive. The on-line tournaments have a loyal following and players enjoy games as well as their social connection in the chat room. This has kept the club open despite the physical shutdown. I hope that our on-line club becomes a permanent fixture, and encourage those who haven’t participated, to join the fun.
We were all saddened to learn of the loss of our 2013 Club Champion, Donato Mallari. Donato was an ever popular and enthusiastic member of the club and is missed by all of us who had the pleasure of on and off-board connection with him.
Nick Cooper retired as Director of Play at the 2020 AGM. Nick has been an enormously effective and popular DOP for five years and we thank him for his huge contribution. Although Nick will be much missed we are fortunate that Rob Watson has joined the Club Committee as DOP. Rob, as many know, is a highly experienced and qualified arbiter.
Turn to the way forward, Norths agreed that restrictions have eased sufficiently for us to resume club meetings. The pandemic continues however and we proceed with much caution. Our incoming committee has been hard at work planning our resumption.
We have decided to change the format of the club championship for 2021 so as to be able to determine prizewinners should the tournament need to be truncated as happened in 2020. We will run a series of small Swisses each with more than one ten-person section in them. In this way we can retain the small-group character while ensuring that a leaderboard is available after each round due to the absence of postponements.
Our Treasurer Steve Garner reported that the club had an excellent financial year in 2020 – because there was nothing to spend money on! As a result, all 2020 members are offered 2021 membership at a discounted rate.
I would like to thank our hard working committee for all that they did during the year. Although the actual chess side of it was relatively small, there was a lot achieved during difficult times.
We look forward to a successful 2021.
Peter Abbott, President Norths Chess Club
