Winter is over, so things are warming up on and off the board!  There are a number of strong new members that have joined the club, notably our coach International Master Leonid Sandler (2324) and former Victorian Open Champion Wayne Guy (1963).  By the way, Leonid is competing in the Victorian Open Championship ... good luck Leonid, we wish you well.

ACF Ratings: September 2005 - the latest Australian Chess Federation ratings list has been released (September 2005) and our members at Croydon have again performed well.  We now have 14 rated members (up from 11 in the previous list):

Name............  Rating
Sandler, Leonid     2324
Wong, Ngiam Yee     2106
Guy, Wayne          1963
Waller, Tony        1703
Stones, Douglas     1641
Bekker, Gary        1570
LeRoy, Andrew       1446
Abrahams, Charles   1443
Smith, Mike         1378
Frost, Stephen      1360
Kloprogge, Ion      1305
Gabrys, Marek       1095
Young, Jack          620
Christensen, Jared   529

Special congratulations to the following players for their substantially increased ratings when compared to the previous period:

• +139 Douglas Stones, now 1641 (with a bullet!!)
• +99 Charles Abrahams, now 1443
• +99 Stephen Frost, now 1360

Special mention should be made of Douglas' effort ... he was ranked as the fifth fastest improver in Australia during this ratings period!  The average rating amongst all our members is now 1463 (up from 1337 last quarter).  Our top-ranked junior is still Jack Young (620).

A number of currently unrated players will soon have a rating, once the ACF's requirements for the minimum number of games played against rated players is met:

• Sawkins Cliff (6 more games)
• Whitham Warren (6 more games)
• Frost Jared (4 more games)

Note:  games against rated played in the recently-completed "The Kasparov 2005" tournament at Croydon were not included in the September ratings calculations.

Grand Prix Points - as at 1st September 2005, following completion of "The Kasparov 2005" tournament, here are the Grand prix points standings.  The top 8 points scorers are eligible to compete in the round-robin club championship.  All other players will compete in a reserves tournament.  The winner of this year's reserves will be automatically qualified for next year's club championship.

The top 8 has consolidated, with Jared Frost winning a crucial game over Warren Whitham last Thursday night, thus securing his place in the field.  There are now just 10 points on offer in the upcoming Fischer Random tournament (5 games @ 2 points each).  But given that Andrew LeRoy in 8th place is currently inactive and unlikely to take up his place in the field, that throws it wide open again.  I am expecting a strong challenge in the next two weeks from Wayne Guy to try to overtake Warren Whitham and Marek Gabrys.

Player.........  Total  Eligible?
Wong, N Y          105     Yes
Waller, Tony        92     Yes
Frost, Stephen      88     Yes
Stones, Douglas     84     Yes
Smith, Mike         82     Yes
Abrahams, Charles   69.5   Yes
Frost, Jared        59.5   Yes
LeRoy, Andrew       56     Yes
--------------------------------
Whitham, Warren     48.5   Yes
Gabrys, Marek       48     Yes
Guy, Wayne          45     Yes
Gardiner, Jason     33     Yes
Sawkins, Cliff      33     Yes
Brehas, Costa       26     Yes
Kloprogge, Ion      24     Yes
Weiland, Josef      19.5   Yes
Bekker, Gary        16     Yes
Payton, David       15      No
Williams, Trevor    11     Yes
Collins, Bill       10      No
Jenkins, Keith       9      No
Bourmistrov, Denis   6      No
Collins, Michael     6      No
Wales, John          5     Yes
Farrelly, Cathy      4.5    No
Ozwald, Franz        3      No
Yung, Jamie          1     Yes
Kyne, Ben            0      No

Ranges Inter-Club Challenge - on Wednesday, 5th October 2005 we will be playing the return leg of our inter-club challenge against Ranges Chess Club.  When we last played Croydon had a comfortable win, with our junior team winning 4-0 and the senior team winning 3-1.  But that was on "home soil" and we now have to play them again on their turf.  It would be great if some of our members who didn't get to play last time could represent the club this time and get some valuable experience as a result.  If you'd like to be considered to be part of the team, please let me know so we can build a list of candidate players.  Ranges Chess Club meets up at Olinda (details of venue to be confirmed in due course).  The juniors match will be from 6:30pm - 7:30pm and the seniors will play from 7:45pm - 9:45pm.  The main thing that we will need on the night is a couple of volunteer drivers from amongst our parents, so that the kids can leave after they've played their match.

 Have a great week,

Stephen Frost
President - Croydon Chess