Coming up Classic Championship 2026 21 Jul 2026 Did you know Busiest year at the board: 2023 saw 1822 rated games played at WCC. Did you know Across all 6,654 rated games at WCC, White wins 48%, Black wins 46%, and 6% end in a draw. Winner 2026 Winter WonderBlitz Kumaresan, Aditya Did you know WCC has hosted 6,654 rated tournament games on file. Did you know Prefers White (≥50 games as each colour): Siyuan Wu, 63% as White vs 42% as Black (22-point edge). Coming up Blitz Championship 2026 8 Sep 2026 Did you know Most decisive WCC tournament: 2025 January Holiday Rapid, 1% of games drawn (1 of 84). Did you know No quarter given: Steve Ascic and Matthew Sweeney have played 25 times, never a draw. Winner 2026 June Swiss Soutter, Jake Did you know Drawing-circle tournament: 2023 Summer Classic, 19% of games drawn (11 of 59). Did you know Largest WCC tournament by field size: 2026 January Classic (39 entrants). Coming up 960 Classic 2026 15 Sep 2026 Did you know Marathon night: 158 rated games were played in a single evening at the 2025 Blitz Ladder on 9 September 2025, the club's busiest night at the board. Did you know In Round 1 at WCC, the lower-rated player has won 13% of decisive games (87 of 649). Winner Wollongong Rapid June Planiden, Chayne Did you know The Returner, biggest gap between two WCC tournaments by an active regular: Mehmed Ceylan sat out 31 months between the Wollongong 2023 Spring Holiday Rapid and the 2026 April Holiday Rapid. Did you know Highest ACF rating ever recorded at a WCC tournament: Jordan Morris at 2204, first at the 2024 Wollongong Blitz Championship. Coming up Classic Championship 2026 21 Jul 2026 Did you know Busiest year at the board: 2023 saw 1822 rated games played at WCC. Did you know Across all 6,654 rated games at WCC, White wins 48%, Black wins 46%, and 6% end in a draw. Winner 2026 Winter WonderBlitz Kumaresan, Aditya Did you know WCC has hosted 6,654 rated tournament games on file. Did you know Prefers White (≥50 games as each colour): Siyuan Wu, 63% as White vs 42% as Black (22-point edge). Coming up Blitz Championship 2026 8 Sep 2026 Did you know Most decisive WCC tournament: 2025 January Holiday Rapid, 1% of games drawn (1 of 84). Did you know No quarter given: Steve Ascic and Matthew Sweeney have played 25 times, never a draw. Winner 2026 June Swiss Soutter, Jake Did you know Drawing-circle tournament: 2023 Summer Classic, 19% of games drawn (11 of 59). Did you know Largest WCC tournament by field size: 2026 January Classic (39 entrants). Coming up 960 Classic 2026 15 Sep 2026 Did you know Marathon night: 158 rated games were played in a single evening at the 2025 Blitz Ladder on 9 September 2025, the club's busiest night at the board. Did you know In Round 1 at WCC, the lower-rated player has won 13% of decisive games (87 of 649). Winner Wollongong Rapid June Planiden, Chayne Did you know The Returner, biggest gap between two WCC tournaments by an active regular: Mehmed Ceylan sat out 31 months between the Wollongong 2023 Spring Holiday Rapid and the 2026 April Holiday Rapid. Did you know Highest ACF rating ever recorded at a WCC tournament: Jordan Morris at 2204, first at the 2024 Wollongong Blitz Championship.

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Deep Thinkers

7 July 2024 · Illawarra

newsletter

Find out all about what the Wollongong Chess Club is up to.

Wollongong Chess Club Committee

Our AGM last week ran smoothly and I a committee was voted in for the coming year.

Bevan Clouston was voted in a president unopposed. Returning to the committee for another year we have Ethan Carruthers, Martin Hill, Alan Morrow, Jordan Morris, and Matt Sweeney. I extend a very large welcome to our new committee member Koe Bowmaker who joins the committee for the first time.

Thank you for everyone who attended the AGM. Full minutes will be available shortly for anyone who missed out on the meeting.

Chess960

Following the AGM we held a Chess960 event. As a welcome to the role of president, Bevan won the tournament on 4.5/5

Other prize winners were Steve Ascic (2nd), Alan Morrow (Under 1700), Taras Wansborough (Under 1700), Mick Howard (Under 1400), Matt Sweeney (Under 1400), and Mebin Mathew (Unrated). A fun night was had by all.

This Coming Week - School Holiday Rapid

School is out. For the next two weeks we will be holding a rapid tournament with the time control of 15min + 5sec per move. This is the time control played by Juniors in the Illawarra and we invite some strong juniors along to play. Come along and welcome the juniors to the club. If you know of any juniors who would like to attend, please let them know about this tournament.

Please arrive by 6:45pm on Tuesday to register for the tournament. We will play four rounds each night so it is important that we start at 7pm.

Wollongong Online

Our online chess tournament was very small this month with only 5 players. Congratulations to Jordan (WollongongChess) who place first on a perfect score!! Remember to join our club. We will be setting up a new tournament for Monday 5th August. You can find other members and offer them games outside of tournaments.

Wollongong Online Chess Club

Meet Our President

Bevan learnt chess as a child from his father. After playing a few tournaments in Hastings, New Zealand his family moved cities and he stopped playing chess at 8 years old. As a uni student he was looking for a part time job and found one teaching chess. This encouraged him to start playing again and in 2012 he earned his first Australian chess rating of 845 (classic). This is below all classic ratings at the Wollongong Chess Club. On the most recent rating list, he now has a rating of 1812.

It doesn’t matter if your rating is low, that only means that it will grow.

He has ambitions of reaching 2000 on all rating lists. Bevan is a qualified chess coach and arbiter and is actively doing both (right now he is in Sydney arbiting the Sydney Championships). If you have any questions about the rules he will be able to answer them. He has run tournaments ranging from a 4 player school championship (double round robin) up to Australia’s premier tournament, the Doeberl Cup. He will be away for the next two weeks but he will usually be around. Bevan’s favourite opening is the Smith-Morra Gambit and his greatest classical win was against a player rated of 2195 (FIDE) at the North Island Champs (NZ) in 2016.