How Many Voices?

Hello Cherubs,

Back in the late 1990s there was only one place on the net where Australian chess enthusiasts could give voice to their concerns and raise questions. It was the official bulletin board run by Paul Bruekhousen for the ACF.

It was a rough part of town where the likes of Bill Gletsos, Kevin Bonham and myself would do battle. Filled mostly with flame wars and such nonsense, the board was still able to air and debate burning questions in Australian Chess. At the time it was the rating system and the existence of god. Some things never change.

The ACF was spooked by claims that it was liable for libel on the board and dutifully, gave the well run and established monopoly speakers corner of Australian chess to a privateer who ran Chess Chat ( http://www.chesschat.org/ ). At that point the formal legal responsibility for online discourse fell to the privateer. Oddly, that was an expensive exercise - approaching $1000 a year - for the privateer and for no commercial benefit. Speculations still abound as to who may be actually bankrolling the site. In any case, the ACF controls the Chess Chat board through the vigilance* of Bill Gletsos and Kevin Bonham - both big noise executives in the ACF.

Debate was often and is still stifled at Chess Chat. It is little wonder then, that other avenues for voices of decent began to appear on the net:
With me as midwife, Uber Chess Jehad was born and died of self inflicted wounds. Later, Australian Chess Club Forum ( http://p067.ezboard.com/baustralianchessclub ) was also born, but has been a runt - albeit a particularly hardy one with a style contrasting strongly with the toxic Chess Chat.

The blogsphere also has had one pod caster which has faded and several blogs. The standout daily must read blogs are The Closet Grandmaster ( http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/ ) and Chessexpress ( http://chessexpress.blogspot.com/ ). Two other bogs are The Chessnut and now, as in right now, is this here blog what you is reading.

Finally, yet another bulletin board is about to appear. Form the efforts of a Queenslander, within 48 hours, the as yet nameless board will arc up and be a third rival to the behemoth Chess Chat. Check back here regularly to find whereabouts of the new board as soon as it appears.

WARNING: If you have a Chess Chat account, you are not permitted by Chess Chat to post there, any text posted elsewhere by some individuals. You will be abused and banned. That is the nature of Chess Chat.

*A first misspelling of “vigilance” was picked up by my spell check as probably “virulence.”

Chess Admins Who Cannot Admin

At the recent (fabulous) Sydney International Open, an ad hoc meeting was arranged to determine if/when/where Australian chess would have a Championship this year. The emergency meeting was not advertised, but for a few black and white A5 notices placed on a table at the SIO, a day or two before the meeting. Several head honchos sat in a room and decided that a proposal by the Australian stalwart Peter Parr might have legs.

So what? I will tell you. We have official admins who cannot admin.

The championships are due to be played only 8 months from now. Usually a good 24 months are required to secure a sponsor and venue. Despite the looming deadline, the ACF and NSWCA practically ignored the lifeline that Parr threw to Australian chess late last year. Why has it taken half a year for our chess knobs to actually go with the Parr proposal?

Reason 1. The ACF and NSWCA are not being run in a professional manner. As important and appreciated volunteers are, their good will is not a substitute for competence.

Reason 2. The chess community is excluded from choosing the "best person(s) for the job(s)." The sooner there is a national membership provisions for the ACF, the sooner we have accountability.

The Sydney International Open was a great success - the strongest tournament ever held in Australia. Run by Brian Jones as a not-for-profit, I reckon it was good *because* the officials in this country had little to do with it.

Blogs with SIO entries :

http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/

http://thechessnut.blogspot.com/

De Novo Meme

In general usage, "de novo" is a Latin expression meaning 'afresh', 'anew', 'beginning again'. The term "meme" refers to 'a unit of cultural information' which can propagate from one mind to another.