CHESS T'MINIT

The 2023 chess year at The Gap Chess Club is underway, with the annual Lightening tournament being completed over two nights in February. Following the completion of this tournament there will be social chess and some informal tournaments before the major club tournament, the Flood Cup, gets underway in mid-March. Anybody interested in playing in club tournaments should contact the club through its webpage. Game night starts 7.30 pm on Friday nights at Room B6, The Gap State High School. The club has a web page, https://www. thegapchessclub.org.au/ with updates on club play, local chess news and puzzles.

This month’s puzzle is a famous endgame study by world champion Emmanuel Lasker. White to play and win. Solution to last month’s puzzle: Solution 1. d3 (which keeps the symmetry and stops the king moving. After any pawn moves a rook can deliver checkmate, and if a knight moves, a pawn move will checkmate.

Thomas Quine was selected in the Queensland Maroon side to contest the Australian Under 15 Championships in Darwin in May.

After umpiring at the World Cup and Commonwealth Games, Aleisha Neumann was named the Officiator of the Year award at the Queensland Sport Awards.