Victorian Team Championship 2011

Before the first round of this event there was a meeting held for captains, players and anyone else who felt like contributing, to raise issues and ask questions about the league structure and rules. The meeting was well attended and held in a completely friendly and non confrontational way. If this atmosphere pervades the tournament as a whole, it will be a most pleasing event for all players involved. The room was filled with a group of people who seemed intent on ensuring fair play, inclusion and friendship rated above convoluted rule sets, large cash prizes and exclusivity. Don't get me wrong, all the teams will be trying their hardest to win their games and their divisions, though this seems primarily motivated by their loyalty to the friends they play with and the clubs or teams they represent.

Saying all this, there are certainly things which need to be addressed and finalised for future years. From a structural point of view:

1. Should the league be determined by match points or individual game points?

2. Division 3 sees a 4 team double round robin with a finals day at the end. Is this preferable to the single round robin which is happening in divisions 1 and 2?

Then from a rules perspective, the issue of postponements and forfeits was raised. This is a difficult area, and it was agreed to try to be as flexible as possible this year. Everyone wants to play all their games. But perhaps these will be issues that needs to be addressed before the 2012 season.


Box Hill Chess Club is a buzz of excitement before the first round of the Victorian Teams Championship (thanks to Elliott Renzies for this photo)

Anyway, the league is up and running and after meeting with Chess Victoria President Leonid Sandler earlier today, I am aware that matches are already being arranged for the June games. Leonid shared my disappointment that last year's Division 2 winners, Geelong have been unable to field a team this year, but he is going to make some enquiries and see if he can help to assemble a team from the West!

Victorian Teams Championship is underway

The first round of the 2011 Victorian Teams Championship started today with 3 divisions of teams. Prior to the games themselves, there was a meeting for captain's which was well attended and generally positive. I think we will have a season with relatively few hassles. I will report on some of the issues raised at this meeting in a later post.

The games got under way shortly after 4.30pm and a big thank you goes out to our hosts for the day, Box Hill and Canterbury Junior Chess Club. As well as accommodating all the teams, our hosts even managed to put on some refreshments. A welcome was made by Chess Victoria President, Leonid Sandler.

Now on to the matches. In division 1, Box Hill Chess Club's team had a bit of a crisis during the week, and were not sure if they were going to be able to field a team this year at all. After talking to the team manager, it was agreed that Box Hill would be given some time to replace their players and that they could rearrange their match at a later date. The MCC 1 team are fine with this. As Elwood had a bye this round, that left 2 matches with the defending champions, Canterbury Juniors winning against MCC 2, and Darkhorse joining them by defeating Noble Park.

In division 2, the match between Yarra and Noble Park has been postponed, so there were 3 scheduled matches. However, teams from Dandenong and Geelong did not appear which left just one match between Croydon and Ballarat, which Croydon won. With 2 teams waiting with no one to play, it was decided to pair these against each other, and Box Hill defeated Melbourne.

The third division is a four team double round robin. All the teams were present, and Melbourne took the lead in the division by defeating the all girls team, while the other match between Canterbury Juniors and Noble Park was a draw.

 Hiding before the games start.

 Croydon-Ballarat in Division 2 attracting some attention.

Towards the end of the division 3 match between Canterbury Juniors and Noble Park

Division 1 Results May 2011

Place	Team	Played	Points	Games
1	CJCC	1	3	2.5
2	Darkhorse	1	3	2.5
3	MCC2	1	0	1.5
4	NPCC	1	0	1.5
5	BHCC	0	0	0
6	Elwood	0	0	0
7	MCC1	0	0	0

CJCC-MCC2 2.5-1.5

Matheson-Gorka 1-0

Chan- Dyer 1-0

Dale-Simutanyi 0-1

Yu-Lekkas ½

Darkhorse-NPCC 2.5-1.5

Wallis-D. Stojic 1-0

Zelesco-Dragicevic 1-0

Tang-Tan 0-1

Bhattarcharya-S. Stojic ½

Elwood Bye

MCC1-BHCC postponed

Division 2 Results May 2011

Place	Team	Played	Points	Games
1	Croydon	1	3	3
2	BHCC	1	3	3
3	MCC	1	0	1
4	Ballarat	1	0	1
5	Geelong	0	0	0
6	Dandenong	0	0	0
7	Yarra	0	0	0
8	NPCC	0	0	0

Ballarat-Croydon 1-3

Wijesuiya-Birchill 0-1

Beggs-Cross 0-1

Cook-Gibson ½

Kloprogge-Perrin ½

MCC3-Geelong postponed

NPCC2-Yarra postponed

BHCC2-Dandenong postponed

BHCC2-MCC3 3-1

Martinez-Stone 1-0

D’Onofrio-Tosevski 0-1

Brown-Karumbi 1-0

Renzies-Warren 1-0

Division 3 May 2011

Place	Team	Played	Points	Games
1	MCC	1	3	4
2	NPCC	1	1	2
3	CJCC	1	1	2
4	Girls	1	0	0

Girls-MCC4 0-4

Dilnutt-Cavezza 0-1

N. Chin-Hain 0-1

C. Chin-Hughes 0-1

Def. 0-1

CJCC2-NPCC3 2-2

Chew Lee-Fan 1-0

Cannon-Cheong 0-1

Cheah-Krysiak 1-0

Chen-Sy 0-1