Some key figures in Ballarat Chess Club's history.

Please send in any photos and information about chess in Ballarat for inclusion in this site!

Gary Bennewitz at the 2009 Ballarat Begonia.
Gary is a past Treasurer and member, one of the many important people who have kept the club going for its members and the Ballarat community.

Kevin Perrin at the 2009 Ballarat Begonia.
Kevin is the current Treasurer and a life member of the club. The article below was written by Patrick Cook in 2007, and includes a game link to one of their games.

Photo by Mathew Juszczynski

"Mr Ballarat Chess"
by Patrick Cook

Kevin Perrin, senior partner at Prowse, Perrin and Twomey, is a successful and respected accountant in the Ballarat community.

Mr.Perrin was born in Ballarat in 1949 and received his secondary education at St. Paul's Technical College, leaving at the end of year 10. He completed year 11 at SMB and later qualified as a Certified Practising Accountant.

However, like many other successful people, he has another string to his bow: he is a highly regarded and equally successful chess player.

He learned the moves of the Royal Game from his brother at age 11 and joined the newly revived Ballarat chess club in 1966, just in time to compete in the first Ballarat Chess Club championship of the modern era. This was to be the first of an astonishing 42 successive championship tournaments as of this year (2007). "I just keep coming back because I enjoy it so much" he said. Of those 42 tournaments, Kevin has won seven championship titles, the chess club record, despite his last victory being way back in 1989! He is still a highly dangerous opponent, regularly finishing in the top two or three places in the Ballarat Championship.

Reflecting upon the highlights of his chess playing career, he mentioned playing (and losing to) the doyen of Australian chess, the late C.J.S.Purdy, at the Geelong Open chess tournament in the early 1970's, and representing Ballarat Chess Club in a simultaneous exhibition at the Hiatt-on-Collins hotel against the former World Chess champion Boris Spassky when he visited Melbourne in 1989.

When asked about his best played games, Kevin felt that two victories, over Bas van Riel and Patrick Cook, both six times Ballarat champions, were probably his best games in the Ballarat championships. "Those two games were technically very difficult", he said. He also recalls a beautiful smothered checkmate, a rare manoeuvre in chess, against the late Paul Saver at the Country Victorian chess championships, an event he has also won seven times. "Such rare moves provide a lot of the pleasure in chess."

Kevin's achievements and contributions to chess extend beyond his prowess as a player, though. His major contribution has been in his capacity as an administrator.
He became an office-bearer of the Ballarat Chess Club for the first time in 1967 when he was elected to the position of assistant secretary. Within two years he was elected secretary and served the club in that role for 27 years! Also in 1967 he was appointed assistant Director-of-Play for the lst Begonia Open Chess Tournament and has remained a pivotal organizer of this tournament ever since. The annual event has grown under his stewardship into one of the most prestigious chess tournaments on the Australian circuit, attracting the cream of the nations chess players over the past 41 years. The tournament trophy, the K.J.Perrin shield, is appropriately named after him.

In 1981, Kevin initiated the School Chess competition for the Ballarat region and was a driving force in the running of the competition for well over 15 years. "Juniors are important; they're the future of the Club" he said.

In 1984, he was one of the main organizers and Director-of-Play for the Australian Open chess championship when it was held in Ballarat, one of the rare occasions that this major event has been held outsid e capital city. The following year he was awarded the title of International Arbiter by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

By 1988, his reputation as a knowledgeable and reliable Director-of-Play was such that he was invited by FIDE to be Chief Arbiter at the World Junior Chess
Championships held in Adelaide. This annual event was unusually strong that year, with many future stars of world chess competing.

The following year the members of Ballarat Chess Club made him a Life Member, only the second player to be so honoured.

To crown this stellar administrative career, in 2002, the Australian Chess Federation recognized Kevin's outstanding contributions to Australian chess by awarding him the Koshnitsky Medal. When asked how he felt when looking back on his administrative career, Kevin observed "I suppose the awards and recognition are fine, but it isn't why we do it, as you know! We like to play competitive chess against strong opposition and you need a wellorganized chess club for that."

In recent years, Kevin has been stepping into the background as a chess organizer and administrator, but still serves his local chess club as a very competent Treasurer and, of course, as a keen and strong player, an inspiration to new and younger members of the chess club, and a fine example of the quiet and understated contribution many people make to their community by pursuing what they love.

The following game well illustrates Kevin's strengths as a player: persistence combined with highly refined technique.

Ballarat Chess Club championship 1998 Round 5
Kevin Perrin versus Patrick Cook view game...