The 2005 Victorian Country Chess Championship was held in Castlemaine (renamed Rookmaine during the weekend) on the 15th & 16th of October in the Castlemaine community centre. A group of 16 players attended for the 6 round swiss with 60 minutes plus 30 seconds increment. Amony the attending was 17 time champion Stewart Booth.

In the end the winner was yet again Stewart Booth securing his 18th title with a perfect score of 6 out of 6, Alaistair Anderson came in second, local host John Lavery, Patrick Cook and Nigel Barrow came third while Max Mollard won the reserves. Many thanks to the organisers and all the competitors for the friendly environment that made it such a nice chess tournament.

Top scorer of the Ballarat brigade was Patrick Cook on 3½.

This years John Holmes Memorial has some new players on the scene, with a 7 round swiss and the results being submitted to the ACF for grading its sure to be an interesting tournament.

The John Holmes Memorial is in honour of a young Ballarat chess enthusiast who tragically died in a motor vechicle accident.

The 40th Ballarat Club Championship is over! The winner is Patrick Cook and the reserves champion is John Frangkis.

Congratulation to Patrick and John and many thanks to all of those who competed in a close and hard fought tournament.

The 40th Ballarat Club Championship is now fully underway! Because numbers are lower than previous years both A-grade and B-grade are combined to make a 14 player single round robin tournament. The B-Grade champion will be decided by the highest finisher of the lower half of the draw based on player rankings at the beginning of the tournament.

The Ballarat Chess Club opened its doors for 2005 and Thursday nights are again as they should be with chess available for all. This year the Lightning Tournaments have been incorporated into a Championship to determine the Ballarat Club Lightning Champion for 2005. The first of five events was held this week. The best three results of the five tournaments will count towards the final tally and determine the years winner.

2005 Lightning # 1 - 9 Round Swiss 5 Minutes per side
Tonight the event was a 9 round round robin event contested between 10 players. The event was undecided going into the final round, and a four way tie was looking iminent with Pat building a dominating position against tournament leader Scott but unfortunately for Pat, Judd and Jamie he dropped his queen at the final hurdle. Giving the Event to Scott Stewart 8-9, Coming in second was Jamie Brotheridge 7-9 and third was shared between Judd Madden and Patrick Cook. Judd was unable to win his final round game. The next lightning event will be held on the 4th of April.