44th Begonia Tournament 2010

Chess Victoria Player of the Month: Erik moved to Australia in 1996 and became a proud resident of Melbourne in 1997. He had a very successful last year (winning Ballarat Begonia Open, Victorian Open and Melbourne Cup weekender). Last month he won the Ballarat Begonia Open. He was the top scoring Victorian in the Premier division of the Doeberl Cup 2010, scoring his 4th International master norm (the last three he made in 1980s). His current FIDE rating is around 2380 and no doubt he will lift his rating to the required 2400 mark very soon. Erik is a highly original player who very often starts games with the Sokolsky opening (1.b4). Congratulations, Erik!

From ChessChat: Bas: The first round of the 44th Ballarat Begonia weekender has started about an hour ago. The organisers are thrilled to bits with 123 players turning up. It most likely comes close to the record for Ballarat. About one hour before the prelimenaries, we experienced an unusual heavy downpour of rain with hail, and thunder-and-the-works. However, soon after the sun returned while the temperatures are quite mild at the moment. In other words: the perfect weather to play chess… Soon after the usual speeches and technical information, given by the organisers, Gary Wastell (President of the ACF) and Leonid Sandler (President of Vic Chess), arbiter Gary Bekker produced the accelerated draw for the first round. Only after one false start, otherwise right on time. There are 15 players with ratings above 2000. In order of seeding they are: S.Solomon, G.West, E.Teichman, B.Cheng, L.Sandler, M.Rujevic, J.Morris, D.Dragicevic, D. Stojic, C.Gorka, C.Wallis, D.Hamilton, J.Dowling, S.Booth, L.Mattheson. more...