ABC: Australia! Books! Chess! Oi-oi-oi!

Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!

Or should we say:

G’day! It’s the Chess Mates!

Why? Because in this blog post, we are featuring chess in Australia! We will talk about the Australian chess scene and chess books from The Land Down Under. Let’s get started!

Before we get to Benji’s book reviews, here’s a bit about chess in Australia. The first chess club in the Southern Hemisphere was the Melbourne Chess Club, founded in 1866. By comparison, the oldest chess club in the US, our favorite Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club, in San Francisco, was founded in 1854. 

Not just that, the grand State Library Victoria in Melbourne has one of the biggest chess book collections in the world! We hope someday our book will be part of it! Meanwhile, if you are in Melbourne, stop by the library for a game of chess (we read they have several boards inside and two giant chess sets outside)!

There are a couple openings that feature Australia, namely...

The Australian Defense for Black: 1. d4 Na6?!

The Australian Gambit for White: 1. e4 e5, 2. f4 exf4, 3. Nf3 g5, 4. Bc4 g4, 5. h4!

We are definitely not recommending these openings! They are both a bit dubious!

Australia has 10 players with the Grandmaster (GM) title, and 3 players with the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title. Five of them currently have a FIDE standard rating above 2500:

GM Bobby Cheng (b. 1997)

GM Anton Smirnov (b. 2001)

GM Ian Rogers (b. 1960)

GM Temur Kuybokarov (b. 2000)

GM Justin Tan (b. 1997)

The Australian National Championship is held every two years, and the last five were won by GM Bobby Cheng in 2016, GM Max Illingworth in 2018, GM Temur Kuybokarov in 2020 and 2022, and IM Rishi Sardana in 2024. We also want to give a shoutout to the top Australian Chess streamer, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Hannah Sayce. You can watch her Twitch channel here.

Now it’s time to start our review of books from Australian authors!

Chess Nuts by Julia Lawrinson (2011)

This middle grade fiction was published when I was born, and 13 years later I could not find the paper version, so I read e-book. This book stands the test of time! It’s always interesting to read about chess and school in another country: kangaroos foraging on the side of the road, sport carnivals, schoolhouses, and people comparing chess with driving across Australia, like it’s boring (not!)...

Chess Nuts features two characters: Jackson and Anna. Jackson is a sporty, popular kind of guy, but he secretly loves chess and plays online a lot! Why secretly? Because in his school, a chess person is called a chess nut, like Anna, who is the best player on her school chess team. One day Jackson drops all his other sports for chess. When he pokes his head into the chess room, you could see the shock on Anna’s face! But it’s good that he does, because their team needs another player for the upcoming match! The problem is that the school’s bullies are now making fun of him and calling him a chess nut, and Anna still doesn’t trust him, and it stresses her, and her chess suffers. How will Jackson stand up to the bullies, and how will Anna regain her confidence? No spoilers, but this book makes a compelling argument that chess is a sport!

I have one question though. In the book, when chess matches between schools happened, the games lasted exactly one hour. If after one hour the game was not done, an "invigilator," like a student supervisor, decided who won based on the position on the board. Is this common in scholastic chess in Australia, because we have never seen this here?

Chess Legends Alphabet by Beck Feiner (2024)

It’s been a while since I learned my ABCs but look at this cover! How can one pass this book without opening it? From the top chess players such as Magnus Carlsen, to historical chess giants such as José Raúl Capablanca, to chess prodigies such as Hou Yifan, this book has them all. Almost all. For letter F, they’re missing The Chess Friends! But no hard feelings, and we still recommend this book to any chess player, even those who already know their ABCs!

“This was great, but I would make one small change. In the book, the letter P is for Paul Morphy! I get it, he is The Man, The Myth, and The Legend, all in one, but let’s not forget about me! I am the Pawn. I am Peshka. The letter P is basically me!"

P is for Peshka!

What can we say… Our friend Peshka is eager to get attention!

Check out Alphabets Legends’ website for other cool topics in learning ABCs!

Going back to Australian GMs, GM Ian Rogers is the first Australian who was awarded the Grandmaster title. He doesn’t play competitively anymore but provides chess commentaries and writes chess books! He has two books with hilarious titles:

Oops! I Resigned Again! by Ian Rogers (2021)

Oops! I Resigned One More Time! by Ian Rogers (2023)

Ian Rogers' Oops! Chess Books

The books collect puzzles and personal stories from the actual tournament games when the players resigned too soon.

In our "Q&A Chess: Tournament Edition" book, we share our opinions about resignation when answering one common question “When should I resign?” Our short answer is basically: Never!

That’s all for today, Friends! Please share some fun facts you know about chess in Australia in the comments!

Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends! When in doubt, play it out!

The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivi