Chris writes in his column: “At the recent Begonia Open, Anthony Hain met a Heffalump in former Australian champion Stephen Solomon. As in the previous example (Robson vs Caruana, American Cup), the operation was a success but the patient died. Hain deserves credit for how he went about it.” Here is the game annotated by Chris – (see Diagram below labelled: “In the diagrammed position it is White to play his 15th move in today’s second game.”)
Back in the day, before computers and printers were readily accessible to all, the Director of Play in any sizeable chess tournament faced the intense challenge of producing and keeping records for each participant on their own specific pairing card. The overall results were displayed on a blackboard, updated after every round. The individual results could be cross-checked by referring to the two player cards in question.
Top seed, GM Ian Rogers, drew with fourth seed, IM Stephen Solomon, in Round 4 and accumulated 6.5 points to reach an equal first position after Round 7.
So, the Director of Play’s job was not an easy task: The results in the 1984 Begonia had to be filled in for each of seven rounds, player card by player card (92 of them that year), before racing to the blackboard to write up the completed round’s results, manually working out the next round’s pairings and writing them up as well! It must have been a nightmare!
The added task for the sole DOP in 1984 (for comparison there were 6 arbiters at the 2025 Begonia Open!) was to supervise the numerous clocks and multiple time controls. The modern DGT clocks and new time controls make for an arbiter’s dream as no intervention is required at all. There were only the good old wind up BHB analogue clocks (like the Teters Tournament clock shown above), which had to be reset after each time control. The first control was always 40 moves in 90 minutes then generally followed by 20 moves in 20 minutes and then 10 minutes to finish the game. Some years then went to adjudication and that was fortunately a short-lived nightmare. Kevin Perrin reminisced: “I can recall running between the boards in the time scrambles to see which clocks were about to fall before they had to be reset. I also desperately tried to record the moves for the top few games in the case there was a dispute. Some players stored up there moves and tried to blitz their opponents as no recording was required in the final 5 minutes. There were no second arbiters so I did occasionally have to ask for some help on the distant lower boards. Oh, those were the days!”
DoP Kevin Perrin: Ballarat Chess Club’s 1982 Begonia Open held over the Victorian Labour Day Weekend was played at the Old Ballarat Travel Inn Conference Centre. It attracted 100 entries from three states. Nineteen players, including nine juniors competed from the Ballarat Club which is a local record. Special mention should also be made of the strong and large contingent of players who travelled from South Australia. The tournament was jointly won by Victorians FM Ian Rogers and Darryl Johansen who each scored six points from their seven games. Both players were undefeated, after drawing their individual match and both conceded a draw to Guy West.
An accelerated Swiss draw was employed and a few upsets resulted. The principal one, however, was Australian Womens’ Champion Anne Slavotinek’s win over Chris Depasquale and two brevities, 7- and 11-move wins respectively by Richard Farleigh and Eddy Levi.
No major upsets, however, good play by local players, George Maksacheff and Mark Bruere produced draws against Doug Hamilton and Hadyn Barber respectively.
Rogers defeated Levi, Johansen defeated Jordan, West and Arvids Prods also won, to be tournament leader. Bruce Burns and Ricardo Fiusco had each also scored three points from the bottom half of the field. They found the going tougher from this point and could manage only one point from the remaining four rounds.
Johansen, the 1980 Begonia Open winner became the clear leader with his fourth straight win, this time over Prods. West and Rogers played a draw. Hamilton and Charlie Walton moved into contention with good wins. Progress scores: Johansen 4.0 Rogers & Hamilton 3.5 West & Walton 3.0
Johansen and Rogers drew their encounter as did Hamilton and Walton. Prods, Stephen Lewinsky and Arthurs Teters move up to within half-a-point of the leader. Progress scores: Johansen 4.5 Rogers, Hamilton, Prods, Lewinsky, Walton & Teters 4.0
Hamilton met Johansen, his first opportunity against the top players, but was unable to obtain the win he needed to take the lead. Rogers defeated Lewinsky, Prods defeated Walton, whilst a win by West over Teters gave the latter a chance of sharing in the prizemoney if he defeated Johansen in the final round. Progress scores: Johansen 5.5 Rogers & Prods 5.0
Johansen played West and was unable to secure outright first and was forced to share $700 first and second prizes with Rogers, who proved too strong for Prods. Rogers’ equal first was his best effort at Ballarat. Barber and Bill Jordan each won their last round games to ensure a share of $100 third prize. Hamilton played Anne Slavotinek in a clash of the champions and conceded a draw to the lady.
View other games from this tournament by downloading this pgn file…
The traditional and unique Ballarat Begonia Open Chess Tournament was this year’s first Grand Prix (Class 3) event in Victoria. Organising successful tournaments without making a financial loss has been very difficult in Victoria for the last few years. One may argue about the reasons for this. After a disappointing entry level in 1998, the tournament organisers were extremely lucky to secure substantial sponsorships last year, which undoubtedly increased the players’ interest. Having missed out on extra funds this year, the committee didn’t know what to expect. However, it turned out that it didn’t have to worry, as 90 players turned up, exactly the same number as last year.
The number of top players, headed by DARRYL JOHANSEN, was fairly small, but the record entry of juniors (18) was very pleasing. Worth mentioning is the group of players who seem to return to Ballarat year in, year out, many of them pensioners. This special composition of the tournament creates a unique atmosphere with a group which takes chess seriously, trying to win (prizes), a large group of ‘social’ players and thirdly the group of juniors with all their distractions and variable interests (not only in chess!). An interesting mix of chess players blended in one single Ballarat tournament.
To make all this happen each year again, is mainly due to the untiring efforts of Kevin Perrin (DOP). Mind you, he has been involved as the main organiser since the inception of the tournament.
The great support in different ways by players, clubs, VCA and ChessWorld is invaluable for the success of our tournament, and it is greatly appreciated by the committee. Visits by chess personalities such as Robert Jamieson, Guy West, Gary Wastell, David Flude etc., certainly add flavour and moral support to the event.
As far as I am aware the tournament went flawlessly, apart from a brief failure of a group of lights during one of the evening rounds: a minor hiccup compared to last year’s commotion when the arbiter was stuck in the elevator for more than an hour!
The social aspects of the event were improved by a sausage sizzle lunch; the Craigs Hotel offering meals and drink discounts, making it a focal meeting point for all between the rounds; and also by the drinks-and-nibbles provided after the final round up to the prize-giving ceremony.
In the top group GEORGE PRATSCH (1752, =newcomer?) had a good tournament, helped by a good draw. He finished with 5.5 points on equal 4th spot. STEWART BOOTH started with a strategic draw in the first round and this carried him safely through the next few rounds, thereby building up valuable match practice before meeting the bigger guns in the crucial last rounds. The B-group was jointly won by JANOS NEMETH who scored very well against four much higher rated players, and good old OLGERTS BERGMANIS with 5 points each. I would not be surprised to find that Olgerts and his friend GUNNAR LAMBERTS have played in virtually all (34) Ballarat Begonia Open tournaments.
The C-group was won equally by two juniors with 5 points each: AMIR NISSEN (Vic) and AARON GUTHRIE (SA). Amir drew with STEWART BOOTH, won against KEN HOLT and being the 51st seed, the average seeding of his opponents was 19! Similarly, Aaron being seeded 67 met with opponents averaging 29 and he polished off his effort with a win against DAVID CORDOVER (10) in the last round.
Group D was jointly won (3.5 points) by ERIC LINDBERG who squeezed three wins out of his last three opponents, and COLIN FINLAY from NSW, who played a solid tournament.
The event was won by MIRKO RUJEVIC with 6.5 / 7 points. Equal second were GM DARRYL JOHANSEN, who lost to RUJEVIC in round 5, and MARK CHAPMAN who drew with IM LEONID SANDLER and agreed a quick draw with Rujevic in the final round. Chapman did not have to play against Johansen, while Sandler finished outside of the prize list after a draw with Chapman, losing to Rujevic and then to Johansen in the final round. Leading final scores: M. RUJEVIC 6.5; D. JOHANSEN, M. CHAPMAN 6.0; S. BOOTH, S. LOW, J. PRATSCH 5.5; G. SZUVEGES, J. NEMETH, G. GILL, M. BARON, M. LOJANICA, O. BERGMANIS, D. PARTSI, A. NISSEN, A. GUTHRIE 5.0.
Many thanks to all involved in the tournament, especially to BAS VAN RIEL, KEVIN PERRIN and PATRICK COOK for organising the event and collecting duplicate scoresheets for publication.
Download the pgn game file here, containing 47 games from the tournament.
