Australian Womens Championship

[Recherché]

I think you have to look at what the tournament is and when it comes to Rapid and Blitz the smaller they are,the better,is my rule of thumb. So while Saly might be weaker than the other 2 girls in long time controls, she is equal or better the faster the time control gets. Shannon had no desire to play the Rapid, becasue she doesn't like fast time controls. She didn't mind playing the Blitz because it is fun. All credit to Sally for giving it a go and I think she deserves her trophy and "title" from the Rapid.

^ Well, the title(s) are specifically for the faster time controls, and "weakness" or lack thereof should therefore be judged on performance under those time controls rather than at longer ones.

General comment:

People can debate the merits of blitz and rapid (personally I dislike short time controls), but there's nothing "only" about them - they're hard. The younger juniors aren't just good at blitz by accident; they practise at it more than most people do, and accordingly reap the benefits.

(Of course, you can argue that it gets in the way of development at standard time controls, but that's a separate issue, and one I don't consider myself qualified to offer an opinion on.)

[auriga]

I wonder whether the perception is that Sally Yu is just to weak to award her the title and it would devalue the title.

if we don't award the title we value it at just that - zero
whereas the sole participant actually gives it some actual value in 2004.

imho, not awarding because of the 'too weak' argument is a by-law cop out.

hypothically, if none of our 6 women over 2000 played in the next 5-10 years
would we still send an olympiad team or award any title?! of course we would.
the strength (ratings) are irrelevant - participation is more important.

i think the acf should try to build up some momentum with womens chess
(rather than ignore it or cancel it every second year or so!)

award a better trophy, better prize in womens grand prix,
activity requirement to represent country overseas, press release showing actually pictures of winners to journalists/webmasters, motivators to particpate eg. free entry, more women as arbiters/organisers, etc.

[jenni]

more women as arbiters/organisers, etc.

I think this is an important point. In the ACT we run girls' dev days and we try and have all female coaches where possible. It has a dual role - it develops the stronger girls as coaches, gives them an incentive to remain involved and provides a role model for the less experienced girls. We are not talking about mega-expertise here. Tamzin worked as a coach at a Dev Day last year. She was more than competent to coach a small beginner group.

[auriga]

I think this is an important point. In the ACT we run girls' dev days and we try and have all female coaches where possible. It has a dual role - it develops the stronger girls as coaches, gives them an incentive to remain involved and provides a role model for the less experienced girls. We are not talking about mega-expertise here. Tamzin worked as a coach at a Dev Day last year. She was more than competent to coach a small beginner group.

up at the excellent coffs harbour tournament this year
there was a darts competition running next door.
somebody pointed out the difference in the tournaments.

the darts had their own bar open (drunk more).
they had alot more women playing (admittedly on the sat was the teams and women seem to prefer team games - don't they?!)
the person reading out the pairings was also a woman.

any passers by had a quite a good impression with a woman as the main organiser. if you check out the darts website you'll see they have 30% women playing! you see it on foxtel too and there's alot of women watching.
i don't know what chess can take from this.

[jenni]

they had alot more women playing (admittedly on the sat was the teams and women seem to prefer team games - don't they?!)
.

I think they just enjoy the company. Shannon joined the Uni of NSW team for the Aus Teams championships and had a wonderful time. She was really looking forward to Mt Buller - her first Aus Open and to be quite honest she has had a miserable time socially and I don't think will play again. One wonders if the same was not true of Sylvia Shields? She played the teams in 2003, had a great social time and played in the Reserves at the Aus Champs in Adelaide, but has not been seen since.

[WhiteElephant]

I think they just enjoy the company. Shannon joined the Uni of NSW team for the Aus Teams championships and had a wonderful time. She was really looking forward to Mt Buller - her first Aus Open and to be quite honest she has had a miserable time socially and I don't think will play again. One wonders if the same was not true of Sylvia Shields? She played the teams in 2003, had a great social time and played in the Reserves at the Aus Champs in Adelaide, but has not been seen since.

It would be a shame if Shannon made the decision not to play in future Aus Championships based on her social experience at Buller. Due to the isolation and cost of the place, I would say it would attract the die hard chess nuts rather than the more social crowd that would be around in major capital cities. Maybe she should try another one in a major city and then make the decision - I always used to love playing in Aus Juniors / Aus Championships because I got to meet new people, got invited over to their place, the locals would show me around the new city, etc. This unfortunately isn't possible at Buller.

W.E.

[jenni]

It would be a shame if Shannon made the decision not to play in future Aus Championships based on her social experience at Buller. Due to the isolation and cost of the place, I would say it would attract the die hard chess nuts rather than the more social crowd that would be around in major capital cities. Maybe she should try another one in a major city and then make the decision - I always used to love playing in Aus Juniors / Aus Championships because I got to meet new people, got invited over to their place, the locals would show me around the new city, etc. This unfortunately isn't possible at Buller.

W.E.

She is actually a bit of a chess fanatic, so I am hoping she will want to carry on playing. The juniors and the Aus Champs will be combined (or rather on at the same time ), next year, so I think it will be easy to talk her into going with us. After that I am hopeful Gareth (her brother) will want to play the Aus Open and that will make it more fun for her.

[Bill Gletsos]

^ So much for "just too weak".

I never mentioned anything about the strength of the player.
I raised the qiestion about awarding it when there is only one competitor.

[arosar]

Of course it should not be awarded! How stupid is that? How much brainpower does this take to figure out for cryin' out loud? FMD!!

AR

[Oepty]

I think they just enjoy the company. Shannon joined the Uni of NSW team for the Aus Teams championships and had a wonderful time. She was really looking forward to Mt Buller - her first Aus Open and to be quite honest she has had a miserable time socially and I don't think will play again. One wonders if the same was not true of Sylvia Shields? She played the teams in 2003, had a great social time and played in the Reserves at the Aus Champs in Adelaide, but has not been seen since.

I felt quite sorry for Sylvia Pleskot, as I believe her name now is, as she was the only female in the tournament and I to think it is no coincidence she has not played since.
Scott

[Brian_Jones]

Some years ago it was very common to see female arbiters in Sydney.
I remember Narelle Kellner, Susan Margan and Nancy Jones all as arbiters in the late 1980's. It is now time to put more emphasis on female participation in all aspects of chess.