Ballarat Chess Club has entered a team in the Victorian Teams Competition 2010 in Second Division. Two rounds have been completed and our Club has done well. In Round 1 we hosted City of Yarra Chess Club 2 and won with the following board results :

    Board 1 Bosko Mijatovic 1802 (Yarra) v Rob Loveband 1581 (Ball)     1-0
    Board 2 Patrick Cook 1550 (Ball)       v Milan Brkljac 1727 (Yarra)     ½-½
    Board 3 Milan Ilic 1733 (Yarra)           v Peter Miitel 1470 (Ball)          0-1
    Board 4 Rod Jacobs 1561 (Ball)         v Cviko Radovanovic (Yarra)     1-0

Ballarat travelled to Melbourne in Round 2 to play Melbourne Chess Club 4 and we felt disappointed with the drawn result.

    Board 1 Bas van Riel 1829 (Ballarat)     v  Frank Lekkas (MCC4)           0-1
    Board 2  Michael Addamo 1607 (MCC4) v Rob Loveband 1581 (Ball)     1-0
    Board 3 Patrick Cook 1550 (Ballarat)    v Michael Tanner 1261 (MCC4) 1-0
    Board 4 Adolph Lekkas unr (MCC4)      v Joel Beggs 1575 (Ballarat)     0-1

Despite the drawn result we remain in a good position in equal first with a number of other clubs and will host Dandenong Chess Club in Round 3. Further details of the competition can be viewed on the Chess Victoria website, and stay tuned here for updates on our progress.

Ballarat Chess Club hosted Dandenong Chess Club on Sunday afternoon in Round 3 of the 2010 Victorian Teams Competition.
All four games ended in wins for White, so a 2-2 drawn match was the result with the following board results :

     Board 1 : Garry Lycett 1777 (Dan.)     v   Bas van Riel 1829 (Bal.)       1-0
     Board 2 : Rob Loveband 1581 (Bal.)   v   Matthew Potter 1635 (Dan.)   1-0
     Board 3 : Chris Potter 1509 (Dan.)       v  Rod Jacobs 1561 (Bal.)        1-0
     Board 4 : Joel Beggs 1575 (Bal.)      v   Kevin Forster 1490 (Dan.)       1-0    

The Ballarat team travelled to Croydon for our Round 4 match, with Peter Lumsdon making a return to competition chess as a last minute replacement for Joel Beggs. We scored a good match victory with board scores as follows :

     Board 1 :  Bas van Riel 1829 (Bal.)       v  Ian Birchall 1764 (Croy.)            0-1
     Board 2 :  Jean Watson1283 (Croy.)     v  Peter Lumsdon (Bal.)                 0-1
     Board 3 :  Patrick Cook 1550 (Bal.)       v  Rodney Matthews 1123 (Croy.) ½-½
     Board 4 :  Herman Naude 1342 (Croy.)  v  Rod Jacobs 1561 (Bal.)              0-1

Round 5 of this competition, and Ballarat hosted Melbourne Chess Club 3. Kevin Perrin played his first game for the team as a replacement for Bas van Riel. The match ended as a 2-2 draw, keeping us at the top end of the tournament with 2 rounds to go. The board results were as follows :

     Board 1 : Rad Chmiel 1664 (MCC3)      v  Kevin Perrin 1501 (Bal.)          ½-½
     Board 2 : Patrick Cook 1550 (Bal.)       v  Roger Beattie 1632 (MCC3)    ½-½
     Board 3 : Alex Kaplan 1487 (MCC3)      v  Rod Jacobs 1561 (Bal.)         1-0
     Board 4 : Joel Beggs 1575(Bal.)            v Adam Lovegrove 1348 (MCC3) 1-0

Round 6 of the competition, and Ballarat hosted the tournament leaders, Geelong Chess Club. A win for us would catapult us into the lead with one round to play. Alas, we fell just short with a 2-2 draw, but remain unbeaten and could still win, depending on last round results. Board results were as follows :

    Board 1 : Michael Sugrue 1798 (Gee.)   v  Bas van Riel 1829 (Bal.)      1-0
    Board 2 : Rob Loveband 1581 (Bal.)      v  Steven Fletcher 1771 (Gee.) 1-0
    Board 3 : Owen Courtis 1572 (Gee.)     v  Kevin Perrin 1501 (Bal.)        1-0
    Board 4 : Joel Beggs 1575 (Bal.)          v  Terry Feduniw 1485 (Gee.)    1-0

Round 7, the last round had all teams from both competitions playing together at Box Hill Chess Club on Sunday 21st November. Sadly, we struggled to put together a team of our regular players and so Geoff Davis was dragooned in to fill out the team.
Our final round pairing was against Chess Kids and we arrived at the venue to discover that they had only mustered 2 players! It was decided to give Geoff a game on board 3 and give Joel Beggs a game on board 4 since he was in the running for a board prize.
With 2 forfeits on the scoreboard it seemed a match win was going to be an easy task, but Geoff soon lost his game leaving Joel to work hard at overcoming his opponent, which he duly did to finish with a splendid 5/5 result and secure the prize for board 4 : a $50 book voucher.
Other results didn’t go our way, so the team finished 3rd of 14 teams, behind Geelong and Melbourne Chess Club 5, a great result for the Club nonetheless!
Last round results were as follows :

    Board 1 : Kevin Perrin (Bal.)     v   …… (Chess Kids)                   1-0f
    Board 2 : ……..  (Chess Kids)   v     Patrick Cook (Bal.)               0-1f
    Board 3 : Geoff Davis (Bal.)       v     Anthony Hain (Chess Kids)    0-1
    Board 4 : Charlotte Dilnutt (C.K.’s) v     Joel Beggs  (Bal.)              0-1

Please send games to include in our game database for this event.