2024 Arthur Teters Memorial
2024 Champion: Declan Smith
The 14th Arthur Teters Memorial, our 3rd
Classical tournament for the year, was held from 1st August to 8th
September, and attracted a fantastic entry of 46 players. More than half of them were juniors. Scott
Stewart and Declan Smith were the top seeds.
As usual in a Swiss tournament, there were no upset results in Round 1, but Round 2 produced a couple of
surprising results, with Tom Oppenheim holding strong veteran Bas van Riel to a draw, and feisty Jamie
Brotheridge unable to overcome Anna Yates for another draw.
Round 3 gave us the first real upsets, when Scott Stewart, from a winning position against Patrick Cook,
overlooked a subtle defensive move and fell to defeat. Strong junior Declan Mahar, on the attack against
Shanaya Guha, was himself checkmated by Shanaya's counterattack. Jamie Brotheridge was again held to
a draw, this time by fast improving Lucas Ware. After 3 rounds, Declan Smith and Patrick Cook lead with
3/3.
In Round 4 Declan Smith quickly dispatched Patrick Cook to seize the outright lead, but some juniors
starred! Shanaya Guha defeated Michael Leckie and Jimmy Zhang defeated experienced coach Nigel
Block. In Round 5, Bas van Riel could not hold a focused Declan Smith, Patrick Cook stayed in range
with a good win over Shanaya Guha, Jamie Brotheridge played a 3rd
straight draw against Kevin Perrin,
and juniors again produced outstanding upsets with Anna Yates falling to Zachariah Jacob, and Steve
Nimmo defeated by Suhas Devarapilli.
Round 6 saw Declan Smith convincingly defeat Jamie Brotheridge and thus win the tournament with a
round to spare, while Patrick Cook fell to his old rival Bas van Riel. And once again a junior stepped up,
with solid Vipin Jyani falling to defeat by Zacariah Jacob!
Going in to the last Round and our 'C' grade Champion Sam Song took on rampaging Declan Smith, but
would not bow, holding Declan to a draw in a very long game, thus denying the title winner a picket fence
score. Bas van Riel faced Scott Stewart, but was forfeited when his phone rang in the middle of
the game. This enabled Patrick Cook to grab 2nd
place with a nice win, playing Black,
against newcomer Vasantha Narayana. And again, a junior scored an upset, with Nigel Block falling to
Methuja Dissanayake.
So Declan Smith wins his first major Ballarat title with a score of 6.5/7, followed by Patrick Cook on 5/7,
and Bas van Riel, Scott Stewart, Paul Marko, Sam Song, Jamie Brotheridge, Declan Mahar, and
Zachariah Jacob on 4.5/7. Young Zachariah Jacob wins the Reserves title.
Declan Smith, overall winner, and Zach Jacob, reserves winner, receive their Teters Memorial medals from President Peter Stickland
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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.
The Arthur Teters Memorial Clock - tournament winners' names are appended to the back of the clock.