Fletcher Morrow Tournament 2023
Captain's Report: The 13th
annual match between Ballarat Chess Club and Geelong Chess Club for the
Fletcher-Morrow Shield was played on schedule on Sunday 13th August, 2023. Ballarat was the host this
year, and the games were played in the splendid Humffray Room at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute. In
the days prior to the match, the 2 Clubs agreed to 11 boards, with the top 10 only counting for the score,
but upon arrival, it transpired that Geelong could only muster 10 players. Just before play commenced,
that number dropped to 9 when the Geelong board 4 advised that he could not play. The 2 Captains
quickly agreed to stick with the team lists, with Ballarat receiving a forfeit on board 4, the only forfeit in
the history of the matches!
As has been usual in recent years, Geelong heavily out rated us, but despite this, Ballarat scored a
triumphant 6-3 victory! The overall score is now 8-4 with one tie in favour of Geelong. With Kevin Perrin
absent, the Ballarat team Captain, Patrick Cook, is now the only player to have played in all 13 matches!
Board 1. James Watson (Bal.) - Geoffrey Gill (Gee.) 0-1
Board 2. Reza Daneshvar (Gee.) - Paul Dao (Bal.) 0-1
Board 3. Bas van Riel (Bal.) - Jack Smith (Gee.) 1-0
Board 4. not played
Board 5. Patrick Cook (Bal.) - Geoff Barber (Gee.) draw
Board 6. Mio Ristic (Gee.) - Vipin Jyani (Bal.) 0-1
Board 7. Jamie Brotheridge (Bal.) - Jonathon Tanner (Gee.) draw
Board 8. Geoff Davis (Gee.) - Tom Oppenheim (Bal.) 1-0
Board 9. Declan Mahar (Bal.) - Michael Jewett (Gee.) 1-0
Board 10. Henry Musson (Gee.) - Jasan Barnett (Bal.) 0-1
Enter your games at Chessmicrobase
Ballarat Geelong Challenge
In 2011 we hosted Geelong Chess Club for Round 5 of the Victorian teams tournament, and at the suggestion of Geelong President Ben Kersten, a match of 10 boards, in the spirit of the famous 1925 and 1926 matches, was arranged, with the top 4 boards counting for the teams competition. Before play commenced, we were presented with a copy of Andrew Wemyss’ splendid history of Geelong Chess Club. The original Ballarat Geelong tournaments were held at the Mechanics' Institute. The revived tourney is being held annually and the teams vie for inscribing their name on the new Fletcher Morrow Shield, donated by Bill Stokie. A memorandum of understanding setting out guidelines for when and how the tournament will be run was signed in 2016 and is available for viewing here. To facilitate planning and room booking, it was decided that the second Sunday in August would be our regular tournament date.Photos
