Welcome to the Perth Chess Club

Some photos of the Club Championship are now on the Photos page.

Before the start of the final round, tournament director Dylan Gough gave special recognition to our longest-standing member, Wolfgang Leonhardt, for his continued dedication to both the game of chess and the Perth Chess Club.

Wolfgang first joined the club in 1951 as a 22-year-old newly arrived in Australia. He wasted no time - winning the Club Championship in his very first year, and going on to claim the title many more times in the years since. Now 75 years later, at 97 years of age, he continues to join us each week, and this year once again competed for that same title, finishing with the very respectable score of 5.0/9.

Thank you Wolfgang, for everything you have contributed to our club and to chess in Western Australia. Your unwavering commitment and passion for the game are an inspiration to us all.

(Update 2026-05-19: Games from the final round are now on the Tournament page.)

Report from Rob Maris:

Congratulations to our 2026 Club Champion Jacob Gibson who won the title with an impressive 7.5/9! Jacob was a point ahead of equal-second-placed Drew, Gabriele, Jet and Rob on 6.5/9. This means that our 2026 Reserves Champion (top scorer U1800) is Jet Mahanidis; as can be seen from the cross-table, he played a very strong range of opponents. Equal 6th on 6 points were five players: Dylan, Kingsley, Mark (Hagendoorn), Ned and Saminda.

It has been terrific to have so many of you competing with a great attitude, to make this an interesting and enjoyable 9-round swiss. A special thank you to Gyula for generously organising and rewarding the most interesting game of each round. Also a big thanks to Dylan for his effort in organising this tournament, plus Daniel and Ashley for spending time to enter the PGNs, which David Barry puts onto the club website. This tournament will be included in the June ACF & FIDE ratings.

Next Wednesday (20th May) we have the Handicap Lightning 7 round swiss tournament. For each game the Lower Rated Player has 5 mins plus 3 secs per move and the Higher Rated Player has 3 mins plus 2 secs per move. If you wish to play but have not yet entered then please let me know - the sooner the better!

The entry sheets for other forthcoming tournaments (details on club calendar) will be near the notice-board. It is appreciated if you can please write Yes or No next to your name when you know your intentions.

Games are available for viewing and download (PGN) on the Tournament page, along with the cross table.

Most interesting game prizes:
Round 1: Hannah Lamb v Kingsley Kofi Ketor
Round 2: Ashley Michael v Derek Elkington
Round 3: Jacob Gibson v Eric Deng
Round 4: Sebastian Gough v Geoff Owen
Round 5: Amila Hapugala v Rob Maris
Round 6: Eric Deng v Mark Hagendoorn
Round 7: Alan Wolstencroft v Ernest Boswarva
Round 8: Dave O'Shaughnessy v Ashley Michael

The Ratings page has been updated with the May FIDE ratings.

On an initiative from Daniel Clarke, the Results page has a new look with a lot more information. We’ve spent much of the last six weeks going through archived PCC materials, along with old CAWA and Clubs newsletters, to add dates, time controls, and contemporary reports to as many PCC events as possible. Some “new” old tournaments now have pages, and every Club Championship since 2003 now has a cross table.

Where Swiss Perfect or Vega tournament files are available, round-by-round board pairings and results have been added to the individual tournament pages, and SP starting-rank cross tables have been converted to score-order.

If you can fill in any remaining gaps, then please get in touch! We hope to eventually add some results and reports from earlier in the club’s history.

Many thanks to Joe Klimczak and Rob Maris for sharing their archives of PCC files for this effort, and to Mike McGregor for the archive of newsletters now on the CAWA website.

Gabriele Fokaite and Leon Taylor are the joint winners of this year's Club Blitz Championship, on a score of 6.0/7. The cross table is on the Tournament page.

The Ratings page has been updated with the March ACF and FIDE ratings.

The Mary Thomson Cup has now been completed, and cross tables are on the Tournament page, along with games for viewing and download (PGN). Top scorers in each group:

A: Michael Selby (4.5/5), Robert Stortz (3.5/5)
B: Drew Brand and Gabriele Fokaite (3.5/5)
C: Alex Janceski (4.0/5), Derek Roebuck (3.0/5)
D: Suhail Sheikh (4.0/5), Dylan Gough and Wolfgang Leonhardt (3.5/5)
E: Ashley Michael (4.5/5), Abhay Bhatia (4.0/5)
F: Jeremy Lowson (4.0/5), Sebastian Gough (3.5/5)
G: Mark Howard (4.0/5), Gavin Brophy and Jason Tyler (3.0/5)
H (Swiss): Seth Kereopa (5.0/6), Bruce Lanham (4.5/6), Darren Powell and David Frankland (4.0/6)

The cross table from January's Allegro Open tournament is now on its Tournament page. The winner: Ashvin Balavignan (7.5/8).

Some photos from the 2025 windup trophy presentations have been added to the Photos page.

The Perth Chess Club has re-opened for 2026, with the Allegro Open currently ongoing, and the Mary Thomson Cup (classical) starting on 21 January. The Calendar page has the club schedule for the year.

At the PCC Christmas wind-up, the Club Spirit Award was won by Wolfgang Leonhardt.

The club is now in recess until 7 January, the start of the Allegro Open. The Calendar page has the club schedule for 2026.

The Ratings page has been updated with the December ACF and FIDE ratings.

The Norbert Muller Cup has now been completed, and cross tables are on the Tournament page. Winners:

A: Ashvin Balavignan (4.5/5)
B: Robert Stortz (3.5/5)
C: Derek Roebuck, Dylan Gough, and Robin Shaw (3.0/5)
D: Amila Hapugala (4.0/5)
E: Zachary Fernandez (5.0/5)
F: Douglas Smith and Mohammed-Nabil Richi (4.0/5)
G: Sebastian Gough (6.0/6)

The Perth Club Allegro Championship was held over 8 and 15 October, and was won by Gyula Plaganyi on 6.5/8. Equal second were Leon Taylor and Gabriele Fokaite (6.0/8). The cross table is on the Tournament page.

Cross tables are on the Tournament page, along with games for viewing and download (PGN). Winners:

Wolfgang Leonhardt Cup: Michael Selby and Rob Maris (5.5/7)
John Brooke Cup: John Brooke and Colin Walker (6.0/7)

The first half of the Bernard Anton Shield match between Perth Chess Club and Metro Chess Club was played on 4th June at the Perth Chess Club. From these 36 games played in four rating groups, Perth led 21.5 to 14.5.

The second half of the match was played at Metro Chess Club on 11th September. Here the score was Metro 20 to Perth 16.

The total score over the two matches was therefore close with Perth 37.5 and Metro 34.5.

Details of the scores in each of the rating groups for all matches since 2007 is on the Metro Club website.

Details about Bernard Anton are on this website's Members page.

The Ratings page has been updated with the September ACF and FIDE ratings.

The club Rapid Championship was won by Ashvin Balavignan with a perfect 7/7. The cross table is on the Tournament page.

(Update 2025-08-09: Games from the final round are now on the tournament page.)

Cross tables for the Fred Maris Cup are available on the Tournament page, along with games for viewing and download (PGN). Winners:

A: Gyula Plaganyi (5.5/6)
B: Amila Hapugala (3.5/5)
C: Mark Howard (4.0/4)
D: Jeremy Lowson (5.0/5)
E: Ayun Batahena (5.0/5)
F: Brian Overste & Manfred Young (4.0/5)

The Ratings page has been updated with the June ACF and FIDE ratings.

(Update 2025-05-23: Games from the final round are now available on the Tournament page.)

The Club Championship has now completed. The Club Champion is Victor Spirin (7.5/9); congratulations to him and and to the U/1700 Reserves Champion, Amila Hapugala (6.0/9).

Games are available for viewing and download (PGN) on the Tournament page, along with the cross table.

Noor Rahmani won the Club Blitz Championship with a score of 6.0/7. The cross table is on the Tournament page.

The Ratings page has been updated with the March ACF and FIDE ratings.

Cross tables for the Mary Thomson Cup are now on the Tournament page. Winners:

A: Jacob Gibson & Daryoush Rafiei (4.0/5)
B: Abhinav Verma (4.0/5)
C: Raf Adel (4.0/5)
D: Joshua Williams (5.0/5)
E: Grant Porteus (4.0/5)
F: Ahmad Dawoud (4.5/5)