While wandering into a lunch at The Ginseng at the Hellenic Club in Woden, my colleagues and I saw the remnants of what was clearly a very significant chess event in the Olympus Room.
After checking the boards and notes it seems Canberra again hosted one of Australia’s most significant weekend chess events – the Doeberl Cup.
Wikipedia vouchsafes to us that:
The Doeberl Cup is an annual chess tournament held in Canberra, Australia. It has been held every year since 1963 and is the longest running weekend chess event in Australia. Since its inception the event has grown both larger and stronger, and often attracts more players than the Australian Chess Championships.
The tournament is held each year over Easter. The tournament runs in 4 sections, with the top section known as the Doeberl Cup Premier. Grandmaster Ian Rogers holds the record for the most number of wins (either outright or on tie-break) with 12.
The Doeberl Cup was named after its primary sponsor, Erich Doeberl, and although it is no longer sponsored by his family, the name is still used to describe the tournament.
While I managed to comprehensively miss the action, the snap above is of a collection of rather charming chess clocks and here is a picture of chess demonstrably not taking place.
The event is a Swiss-system tournament Premier open, with close to a record number of participants for 2013 – I counted 244 paid up registrants in the four categories. This year’s winner of the Doeberl Cup Premier was Li Chao, a Grand Master from China.
I don’t know why, but I have always wanted to watch a really good game of chess played, so I am noting the Doeberl Cup in my Diary for 2014.
[ED – It should be noted two of the competitors died in a car crash on the way home. Thoughts are with their families.]
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