2023 Arthur Teters Memorial
2023 Champion:
This years Arthur Teters Memorial has a very encouraging starting list of 36 players, headed by Scott Stewart, with Jordan Furlong and Paul Dao as 2nd and 3rd seeds. The round 1 results went as expected, except for Vipin Jyani who crashed to defeat against our 'C' grade Champion, young Declan Mahar. The round 2 results were even more dramatic, with Peter Stickland taking down Jordan Furlong, Tom Oppenheim snatching a draw from Bas van Riel, Jasan Barnett scared Patrick Cook into offering a draw, which he accepted, and Anna Yates resisting Rob Loveband for another draw. The mayhem continued in round 3 with Bas van Riel falling to excellent play by Jasan Barnett, Declan Mahar finding a great final move to defeat Jamie Brotheridge, and Vipin Jyani being unable to overcome junior Kanishk Mahasuar for another upset draw. After 3 rounds, Paul Dao, Michael Leckie, and Peter Stickland lead with 3/3, with Patrick Cook and Jasan Barnett lurking just behind on 2.5/3.
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For the past decade or so, the period between the annual Club Championships, for the Andy Miitel shield and John Baynham shield, has been filled with non-descript rapid play tournaments. At the suggestion of some club members, a new annual 7 round Swiss, games to be rated, was devised. All that remained was to give it a name. After a great deal of discussion, it was finally agreed to honour a past Ballarat player who has faded, almost to obscurity, in our collective memories.
Arthur Teters was part of the great wave of post-war immigration to Australia of Baltic chess players. He arrived in Australia in 1950 and won the Australian Open in Melbourne in 1953, before settling in Ballarat in 1954.
It can be established that he won the Ballarat Club championship in 1954 and 1957, and possibly several other years as well. He was elected President of the Club shortly after arriving here and played successfully for the Club in numerous inter-city matches. His other OTB achievements included winning the Country Victorian championship in the 1950’s, and then the Victorian State championship in 1965, no doubt after he had returned to live in Melbourne.
Upon his arrival in Ballarat, he had told the “Courier” that a highlight of his youth was holding the World Champion to a draw in a simultaneous exhibition in Riga. The Champion could only have been Mikhail Botvinnik, a notable achievement indeed.
He was also a strong and active CC player, winning the Victorian Correspondence Chess championship in the 1950’s and representing Australia in a CC Olympiad.
By a curious coincidence, the current President of the Club, Patrick Cook, played against Mr. Teters a number of times in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, without ever knowing of his connection to Ballarat chess. So, it is important that he not be forgotten and this new tournament is an appropriate salute to a past Ballarat champion.