1996 NSWCA Interclub

Report by Lee Jones

1996 Sydney Interclub Competition

The Sydney Interclub Competition kicked off on the 13th of
May for another action-packed season. This year sees 20 of
the best Sydney chess clubs playing in 6 separate division:
Open, U1900, U1700, U1500, U1400 and U1200.

The Open has 6 teams including all the big names such as:
St George, Canterbury, North Sydney, Koala, North Rocks and
Rooty Hill. The favourites this year has to be the St George
dragons. With superstars such as GM Ian Rogers, Matthew Drummond,
Sam Piscopo and Johnny 'Beachbum' Bolens they look a hard team
to beat on paper. Canterbury also look formidable with the likes
of FM Fred Flatow, Abraham 'Wizard' Sztern, Lloyd Fell and Ron Kite.
Canterbury hold some experienced players who seem to rise to the
big occasions.

Okay, Game 1 was at Rooty Hill. The venue proved too tricky for
some - especially those who had never driven more than 5km from
Central. Anyway, the match of the night was between St George and
Rooty Hill. The final score was 3-1 to St George. The 1996 WSCP
(Western Sydney Chess Premiership) Champions Rooty Hill had the
awesome combination of Ry Curtis, Tony Abouchaaya, Adam 'the Shark'
Grezlak and Mohammed Afek. However, the dragons were simply too
strong. The tea and biscuits provided by the home side was a nice
touch.

Round 2 was at Canterbury. There was no excuse for not finding this
venue. No biscuits, but a spacious room. Who's idea was it to play
round 3 on Monday? Hmm, big mistake. The match coincided with the
'State of Origin', a popular Rugby League event. Canterbury RSL was
buzzing with hyped-up supporters. Even while playing, famous TV
commentators Ray 'Rabbits' Warren and Peter 'Yeah, yeah' Sterlo
could be heard in the background. The play of the round was between
North Rocks import Peter Cotton and St George's Matthew Drummond, an
exciting board 1 clash. It was a tense time scramble with Cotton
winning with a decisive attack. Cotton, an ex-Australian Junior
champion, has recently come out of retirement after giving the game
away over the last few years. 

Onto Round 3. The clash between North Rocks and 1995 WSCP Champions,
Koala was a close one. The Rocks' Jeremy Hirschhorn pipped Koala star
Brian Jones in a KID. North Rocks won boards 2 and 3 with Koala's
young gun Tim Switzer managing a draw against Vasil Tulevski. The
North Sydney team with Simon 	Easterbrook-Smith, John Purdy, Phil
Viner and NSW President, Alex Safarian scored a good 2.5-1.5 victory.
Unfortunately, Rooty Hill were unable to repeat their WSCP-winning
form.

Okay, the standing so far sees North Rocks forging ahead. North
Rocks are very much the surprise leaders, although their large squad
is strong with Cotton, Hirschhorn, Branislav, Chambers and Tulevski,
etc. They have plenty of class players to choose from so they should be
hard to beat. St George follow with North Sydney, Canterbury and Rooty
Hill close behind. Koala is dissapointing coming a miserable bottom.
Many of their players are badly out of form and will surely pick up
towards the business end of the season.

Here are the progress scores so far after the first three rounds:
North Rocks 	9.5/12
St George 	7
North Sydney 	5.5
Canterbury 	5
Rooty Hill 	5
Koala 		4