UNSW Niemannites plot World Domination! Starts Sunday, October 20
“No matter the obstacles that we face, no matter how much you try to blacklist us, no matter what you do to try to ruin our career or slander our reputation—these difficult times have only invigorated us even more to reach the top of chess. There will be a day when the UNSW Chess Club will be the best chess club in the world.” – Hans Niemann (quote altered slightly).
With these defiant words, the UNSW Chess Club has announced its mission: no less than the cold-hearted humiliation of every chess club on the planet! As fanatical disciples of Hans ‘The Man’ Niemann, their deluded ambitions know no bounds. Some say they dream of a world where no-one will allowed to play unless they have a PhD in Endgame Theory!
But they must start – and one can only pray, stop – somewhere. And their first target is us: the simple, humble chess clubs of the Harbour City. They challenge us to send forth twenty of our best to take on twenty of theirs, on Sunday October 20. Such is their disdain for our chances that they will play their games while blindfolded and suspended in tanks of ice water (tournament conditions altered slightly)!
If you have an ACF rating of 1600+, the future of civilisation lies in your hands. Sign-up here.
As in a big tennis tournament, the first round of a Swiss pits low and high ranked players against each other. Many low-ranked players nevertheless managed to overcome massive ranking differences to achieve a win or draw. The following players had victories against players at least 10 positions above them on the initial ranking list or a draw against a player 20 positions or more above (the number in parentheses shows the difference): Wins: Ryan Mangini (36); Tuvshintugs Khishigbataar (36); Aidan Cash (unrated; 31); Andres Perez (unrated; 31); Marshall Scott (unrated; 31); Draws: Joel Blake (unrated; 31); Trilok Shenoy (unrated; 30). The outcomes of all games can be found here and the highly provisional round 2 pairings here.
Ideally, the rankings would be based on the players’ rating, but many of the players do not yet have a rating; their ranking has been based guesstimated. The ratings we use are from the latest ACF list, and the club actually times the start of each of its major classical tourneys to coincide with the 3-monthly revisions of the ACF list. Club Registrar Tibor Lendvai has also just compiled a table showing the change or otherwise of the each club member’s September rating compared to that of the June revision. In doing so he has taken over a task that has for many years been done, most generously, by past club stalwart, Peter Johansson.