2023 Presentations
Having wrapped up all of the tournaments to be completed in 2023, it was time to celebrate the stars of the year. Last night, forty-eight trophies, across all the ratings divisions, made their way into the hands of their new owners. Club Champion for 2023 was Daniel Melamed, having won the Club Championship by a half-point from John-Stuart Plant. Daniel was kept busy during the night, coming up to receive awards for his many other accomplishments at the club throughout the year. John-Stuart Plant also had a fantastic year at St George, with two outright first places (both of the Lightnings) and two shared firsts (Summer Open and the Allegro). Other multiple visitors to the trophy table included William Liu, Sait Buzgan, Celina Wu, Aaron Hu and Darren Curtis. A full list of the awardees will be included here soon. The award for most improved player of the year went to Samuel Slingo, who has been logging a truly impressive number of over-the-board-games across the length and breath of the city.
One of the most social events of the year is the Internal Teams Tournament, and 2023 saw first place award go to Charles Checkmating Cherries, the team of Club Captain, Charles Zworestine.
Throughout the year, Charles never misses an opportunity to thank people for helping out at the club, but it’s really the club who owes Charles its thanks. There’s a lot of often-unappreciated work in running a chess club, for example, organising and ordering all of last night’s trophies! Charles does the lion’s share of the heavy lifting at St George, in addition to his work as a much-loved maths lecturer at Western Sydney University, his president’s position at the NSW Junior Chess League, and in his role as an International Chess Arbiter. But even more important than the amount of work Charles does at St George, it’s the ethos of inclusion he has cultivated at the club that is most impressive. No-one puts more value on making sure that every player, whatever their standard, gets to enjoy their Tuesday nights at Carlton. Charles commitment to this equality of opportunity means that St George, as well as having great players, is simply a great club.