Sorry for the delay, but only now have I managed to find the time to write something and put up the results.. As per Met's request I am happy to provide a brief report on AGM, but only brief as I am sure people don't want to hear the whole story.. The main talking points were venue, fees, commitee.. It was decided that we will remain at the current venue, however we will need to raise membership fees.. The membership fees will be $120 full, $100 concession, and like last year people will have the option of paying in rates if they are unable to pay at once. Our president, Carl Gorka stepped down( and I do thank Carl for all his efforts last year) so there had to be new commitee formed.. Narelle Szuveges has gone from vice president to president and the vacant position of vice president was filled by Sarah Anton. I am happy to continue as secretary and treasurer( ideally we would like someone else to be treasurer).. Mehmedalija Dizdarevic is happy to continue as public officer while Svetozar Stojic and Eduardo Toro continue as commitee members... There were also few other issues, but this is a brief summary of the meeting... The tournament structure will be the pretty similar with 9 rounds for Club Championships, 9 for Open, Grades 11, and the other weeks will be filled with allegros and lightnings.

So this is a brief summary of AGM... If anyone has any questions about the club, please feel free to ask...

So now to lightning, we ended up with 18 players which I don't think is too bad for lightning, especially for the first lightning tournament.. The tournament was won by Mirko Rujevic, quite comprehensively with 9/9.. Domagoj Dragicevic was 2nd, while David Hacche ended up third... THe rating group, which consisted of bottom nine players was won by Narelle Szuveges.

Rules for Noble Park Chess Club's Swiss Tournaments

1. All pairings will be made Saturday night after all games are completed. No games will be allowed after the Saturday. In case a player cannot make it on a Saturday, they may play their game before the Saturday providing their opponent agrees to play the match.

2. In a case that a player knows they cannot make it on a certain Saturday, they can request a half point bye for that round. There will be 2 half point byes allowed for the tournament, while half point byes can't be taken in the last 2 rounds.

3. However, once the draw is published and a player cannot make it to the following round, that player cannot request half a point bye, but they have to contact their opponent in order to play their game beforehand. In case they can't arrange their game to be played beforehand, the player will loose on forfeit.

4. If a player is trying to rearrange their game, it is their responsibility to contact their opponent. They may call the arbiter to ask for their opponent's contact number, but the arbiter is not required to call around trying to reschedule games as that is the player's responsibility.

5. If a player doesn't turn up to a round and doesn't notify anyone, they will automatically forfeit that game, but also they will automatically be given 0 point bye for the following round. However, if a player lets us know that they can't make it on a certain Saturday, they will loose on forfeit, but will be paired for the following round.

6. For the tournaments that have free days, the draw won't be published until the Saturday when the free day is on. For example, if there is a round on 5/6, then there is a free day on 12/6, and the following round is on 19/6, the draw for the round on 19/6 will be published on the night on 12/6.