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FM Brian Jones has
passed away in Sydney, at the age of 78. Born in the UK in 1947, Brian was
a significant figure on the Australian chess scene after moving to
Australia in 1987 with his wife Margaret and two children Lee and Nancy
(who both became Australian junior champions shortly after their arrival). Originally
working in the IT industry, Brian turned his passion for chess into a fulltime
business (Australian Chess Enterprises) as well as being a chess
administrator and tournament organiser.
Bringing his
experience from the UK chess scene to the somewhat less developed
Australian environment, Brian immediately began to make improvements. An
early adopter of technology, Brian helped introduce the use of electronic
clocks to the Australian chess scene, lending his stock of DGT clocks to
organisers, before clubs were in a position to purchase their own. When
the Australian National University began a series of matches between humans
and computers (Carbon v Silicon) he provided a number of strong programs
for the Silicon team. He also introduced a number of new tournament formats
to Australia, including knockout events, and single day rapid events, which
he had organised back in England. He was the Chief Organiser of the 2003
Australian Open Chess Championship in Penrith, and included a number of
format changes that remain till this day. He then created the Sydney
International Open in Parramatta, an important addition to the Australian
Chess tournament scene, and organised the event from 2007 until 2014.
On the
International stage, he was a great contributor to the development of chess
in the Oceania region. He was the FIDE Zone 3.6 President and founded the
Oceania Chess Confederation. Through his efforts he helped countries such
as Palau, Guam and the Solomon Islands join FIDE. He travelled to many
Pacific federations, both as a tournament participant, and as an
administrator. He was the Team Captain for Papua New Guinea at the 2008
Chess Olympiad (Dresden), and was a Councillor on the FIDE Development
Commission.
In 2003 he began
publishing Chess Australia (later Australasian Chess) which was the
national magazine for Australia and ran until 2013. A labour of love for
Brian, it remains the last printed national magazine for Australian
tournament chess. During this time, he also resurrected the Australian
Grand Prix series, obtaining sponsorship from both the Myer family and well-known
Malaysian chess sponsor, Dato Tan Chin Nam.
Later in life he
developed an interest in Correspondence Chess, and served as the
International Secretary for the Correspondence Chess League of Australia. Always
the innovator, Brian organised the 2014 International Correspondence Chess
Federation Congress in Sydney, as a way of highlighting the contribution
that Australia had made to international CC. He also pioneered the move
away from postal chess to server-based CC, introducing a number of new
events and formats, including the very popular Bicycle (non-engine) events.
He was also the publisher of the Australian Correspondence Chess Quarterly,
the official magazine of the CCLA.
In later years poor
health curtailed his participation in chess events, but he still visited
important events in Sydney and Canberra. H e became a Member of the Order
of Australia (AM) in 2022 for his services to chess. He will be fondly
remembered by both the Australian and international chess community and
will be missed by wife Margaret, son Lee, daughter Nancy and son in law
Gary Lane, and his grandchildren Jasmine and Ryan.
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