Australian Players Ranked

[Metro]

Australian Players Ranked

The Council of the Australian Chess Federation has announced the inaugural ranking of Australia's "first twenty" active players.
By Western Australia's motion, players who had not competed in a major event within 24 months of the ranking were excluded.This eliminated Lazare, Shoebridge, Harris, and Vaughan,who last played in the Sydney congress of September 1945.
On its own initiative the ranking committee also excluded the master players Watson and Pikler, on the ground of insufficient recent performances.Similar exclusions are made in other sports.
The committee consisted of the Council of the Australian Chess Federation plus the Australian champion, Lajos Steiner.The committee consulted the Victorian Chess Association.The Council of the Australian Chess Federation, with headquarters at present in Sydney, consists of the following delegates:-
A.R.De Coek for New South Wales, C.J.S.Purdy for Victoria, G.Koshnitsky for Queensland, M.E.Goldstein for South Australia, H.Falconer for Western Australia,and H.Mercer (honorary secretary) for Tasmania.
It was decided to give no special precedence to State champions, though it is recognised that each State,for its own purposes,will rank its champions first.Also, State champions will retain priority of acceptance for Australian championship tourneys.
No candidate for ranking remained present during any discussion bearing at all on his own ranking.
The ranking applies to over-the-board strength only.
The two years since the war have provided insufficient tournament data, and the committee found itself unable to pick out two players for the last two rungs.Instead they placed eight together, thus including 26 players in all.
The ranking is to be revised every January and July.
With all the above-mentioned provisos, the inaugural ranking is as follows:-

(1) L.Steiner (N.S.W.)
(2) C.J.S.Purdy (N.S.W.)
(3) G.Koshnitsky (N.S.W.)
(4) Dr.M.Gellis (Victoria)
(5-6) F.A.Crowl (Victoria) and M.E.Goldstein (N.S.W.)
(7) Martin Green (Victoria)
(8) B.Y.Mills (N.S.W.)
(9) G.H.Hastings (Western Australia)
(10) H.Klass (N.S.W.)
(11) G.Karoly (Victoria)
(12) G.Lindley (Western Australia)
(13) M.C.Salm (Queensland)
(14) A.L.Miller (South Australia)
(15) D.M.Armstrong (N.S.W.)
(16) J.N.Hanks (Victoria)
(17-18) L.S Fell (N.S.W.) and A.Fryda (N.S.W.)
(19-20) D.N.Bowman (S.A.), E.W.Brose (S.A.), Max Green (Vic.),W.J.Greenfield (N.S.W.)
D.McGrath (N.S.W.), L.L.Oliver (Vic.),V.Stannard (W.A.),and V.A.Walsh (N.S.W.).

The ranking is based on actual results,insufficient though they have been in most cases, and never on the personal opinions of any of the committee.Members regarded themselves as statisticians, not as judges.As time goes on, there should be more and more data, making possible a more and more accurate ranking.

"Chess World", December 1,1947 p.275. Ed. C.J.S.Purdy

[MichaelBaron]

"Chess World", December 1,1947 p.275. Ed. C.J.S.Purdy

Thx for sharing, fascinating read!

now that there are historic ratings available/can be calculated for those players - would be interesting to review the list.

[MichaelBaron]

I am old enough to have played/interacted with 3 players from this list .

[Metro]

Thx for sharing, fascinating read!

now that there are historic ratings available/can be calculated for those players - would be interesting to review the list.

There is another from circa 1958 and the first 3 players are the same (iirc).If I can find it I may post it.

[ER]

I am old enough to have played/interacted with 3 players from this list .

Could I be correct to assume that one of those three was the late Lloyd S. Fell?

[MichaelBaron]

Could I be correct to assume that one of those three was the late Lloyd S. Fell?

Fell, Hanks and Karoly ...or yes and also Kosh!

Karoly was an absolutely lovely person! It was always a pleasure to chat to him. Can recall our conversations at St.Kilda/Elwood. Many fond memories to share!
Hanks....we played against one another ...can recall the games...can not recall him saying one word.
Fell....a lot of things he was saying...given his age...I chose not to comment on his ''world views'' ...and that kept our conversations friendly .

P.S. In fact...for some reason I did not notice Koshnitsky on the list. We never played one another but we did meet a couple of times in Adelaide and chatted both in English and in Russian - another fantastic gentleman!

[FM_Bill]

From this list I met Purdy, Kosh, Karoly, Hanks and Fell.

I remember Lloyd once saying during an Australian Open "these Victorians are weak. Today I beat Jordan and tomorrow I will beat Rogers". And he did! in 17 moves if I remember correctly.
Mind you, we both finished ahead of him.

[ER]

I remember Lloyd once saying during an Australian Open "these Victorians are weak. Today I beat Jordan and tomorrow I will beat Rogers". And he did! in 17 moves if I remember correctly.
Mind you, we both finished ahead of him.

There's also another story about Lloyd's earsplitting stentorian voice announcing his victory over one of Victoria's well known IM's!
Rumour also has it that as a last resort the Victorian converted into a K+B+N vs K ending but alas! Lloyd knew the way to win!