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by Ian Rogers Armenia’s Hrant Melkumyan has been a regular visitor to Australia’s shores since an Olympiad romance turned into a decade-long relationship with multiple Australian Olympian Emma Guo. Since 2013 Melkumyan has won many tournaments in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide but until this week the biggest prize had eluded him. However, in 2019 Melkumyan was determined to make amends and finally take out Australia’s largest and most prestigious Grand Prix tournament at the Southern Cross Club in Woden. He started slowly, drawing two of his first three games, but then began a five game winning streak which took him into the outright lead. A final round draw with tournament surprise packet Raymond Song – who made his first Grandmaster norm with a round to spare – secured Melkumyan the $4,000 first prize. The penultimate day was key for Melkumyan, who beat the second and third seeds, GMs Anton Smirnov and Deep Sengupta, in consecutive games.
The win over Smirnov was Melkumyan’s finest moment: a queen sacrifice turning a messy position into a successful king hunt. Melkumyan at first said that he was unlikely to defend his title, but on hearing that no Doeberl Cup winner had managed to win a second time for more than a decade, he mused, ‘Maybe I’ll have to come back then…’ Canberra Doeberl Cup 2019 White: H Melkumyan Black: A Smirnov Opening: English 1.c4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.g3 g6 4.Qa4!? A curious idea, utilised by Kramnik earlier this year in the final game of his career. 4...d4 5.d3 Bg7 6.Bg2 e5 7.0-0 Ne7 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.b4 Qc7 10.Rb1 Nd7 11.Ba3 Rd8 12.Rfe1 h6 13.Rec1 ‘It is hard for either of us to find a plan,’ admitted Melkumyan. 13...Kh7 14.Ne1 f5 15.Rb2 Bf6 16.Rcb1 Nf8? A miscalculation. After any waiting move, Black is fine. 17.b5! c5 18.b6! Qb8 19.Qb5! Ne6 If 19...axb6, 20.Qxb6! attacks too many pieces. 20.Bxc5 Bd7 21.bxa7! Qc8 Suddenly White has both his bishop and queen attacked. However, Melkumyan has a hammer blow in mind… 22.Bxe7!! Bxb5 23.Bxf6 Bc6 24.Bxc6 Qxc6 25.Rxb7+ Rd7 26.R7b6! The final point, winning another piece. 26... Qa4 27.Rxe6 Qxa2 28.Nef3 g5 29.Bxe5 g4 30.Rbb6! Commencing the concluding attack. 30...Qa1+ 31.Nf1 gxf3 32.Rxh6+ Kg8 33.Rbg6+ Kf8 34.Rh8+ Kf7 35.Rg7+ Ke6 36.Rh6+ Kxe5 37.Rxd7 1-0
Have you ever dreamt of saying to your kids, ‘No more toys! There are sticks and stones and mud – they will just have to do,’ in response to the overwhelming clutter of children’s toys that take over your oncemanageable household? I do – regularly! As any parent would know there is always a balance between getting your kids enough toys to play with so you don’t feel like an irresponsible parent and not drowning in them. But there is another way! That’s right, you don’t have to buy all these toys you can’t afford (and they seem to tire of so quickly); you can borrow them from the Byron Shire Toy Library.
Borrow toys: save the environment The toy library has over 500 different toys that you can borrow – and more importantly take back. ‘We have a wide range of toys of all kinds: bikes, scooters, slides, duplo, train
Electrifying choice It’s as good as impossible to find a daytime park in Mullumbimby. In Germany they call it Verkehrsinfarkt, based on the concept of a cardiac arrest. Town planners in Munich, Berlin, Madrid, London, or New York are closing off their inner cities to individual traffic for similar reasons. There’s a simple solution – electrify our individual transport needs.
Byron Shire Council invites you to
Our housing challenge: local communities: local solutions: a Byron perspective Explore new urban housing models with our expert panel:
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Byron Community Centre Friday 10 May 2019 2pm - 4.30pm Register to attend: https://byron-housing.eventbrite.com.au Enquiries: 6626 7129
16 The Byron Shire Echo lëƷ Ǩǽ ǩǧǨǰ
sets, doll houses, trucks and cars, puzzles, games, and more,’ said Mary Norton, who volunteers to help run the service. ‘Children quickly tire of their toys and discarded toys are wasteful and end up cluttering people’s homes and going to landfill, so a toy library is environmentally friendly and supportive of the many young families in the Shire,’ she said.
Volunteer It is not just the experience of borrowing toys that the library can give you; you can also get a connection with young children and the broader community as a volunteer. Mary says they desperately My mechanic suggested I look to replace my car owing to its age. I reflected on my car use and realised more than 50 per cent of my driving was done within 20km of home. Our business in the Mullum Industrial Estate includes deliveries to local cafes and food stores. We are part of a growing trend of regional food production. That also entails more daily car and truck movements. With that in mind I decided to buy an electric bike rather than a car (keeping my car for long trips). With two spacious saddlebags I can do my shopping, cycle to the beach, and get daily exercise (it’s a pedal assist). Leaving from home I beat most cars through town owing to traffic congestion. I have checked on riding times from outlying areas: from Sherrys Bridge Main Arm into Mullum it’s 12 minutes by bike and eight minutes by car. Similar ratios apply from other local areas. Extra time cycling will be saved against the time it takes to park. The downside to e-bikes is missing road infrastructure. By law motor vehicles must allow a one-metre distance when passing bikes. Yet when there is a truck and a car heading in opposite directions there often isn’t
need more volunteers to keep the service going. ‘I volunteered at the toy library when I was feeling bereft of grandchildren as it’s good to be around young people and little children,’ she says. ‘It is a joy to see the little ones get excited when they walk in and see the array of toys on the shelves. ‘Now I have grandchildren and they love to visit the library to play and select toys to bring home.’
Get connected The toy library is currently providing their service out of the Suffolk Park Children’s Centre, 3–5 Coogera Circuit, Suffolk Park, and are open on Tuesdays and Thursdays enough space to spare. There’s a great bicycle track from Ewingsdale to Byron. Why don’t we have a similar track from Mullum to Brunswick/Ocean Shores? Council, do some costing and get the ball rolling. Horst Tietze Mullumbimby
Byron phallocracy Now that the Byron roundabout sculpture appears finished, I still find myself asking why the flock would birds of a feather phallus together? Anton Vanderbyl Mullumbimby
Understanding In the early stages of democracy there was not such a great gap between the understanding of the intelligent common man and that of the elite. In the meantime this gap has widened enormously to the point that our leaders and politicians have a superior understanding of economies and market forces but appear to have little understanding of the forces of nature that they are making decisions about. The time has come when potential politicians should be examined on their understanding of the systems that govern our continued
from 9am till 12 during the school term. ‘We are servicing some 50 young families and are open two mornings a week, but we only have three volunteers to run it,’ says Mary. ‘We have found that linking with the Suffolk Park playgroup has increased our patronage, so we hope to develop more links with playgroups in the Shire. This makes it convenient for busy young families to visit two services on the same morning. ‘Now the playgroup where we are is only able to happen once a month we would like to find another playgroup possibly in the north of the Shire to link in with.’ The toy library has been running in Byron Shire for 25 years and has serviced families with preschool children and their grandparents as well as young adults with a disability. So if you need some toys for your kids, want to connect with other families, or just give a little of your time to a great cause then contact Mary on 0409 241 626 or drop into the toy library soon. existence rather than their understanding of the strategies of the political games. Currently many politicians argue against scientific wisdom without knowing why. Jim Nutter Main Arm
A little sin The concept of sin is one of the most dishonest concepts ever foisted on humankind. The human mind is capable of comprehending a concept of perfection but the critical-thinking part of the mind recognises that this is rarely achievable. Yet many religions characterise this gulf between possibility and probability as ‘sin’, particularly in terms of behaviour. This is particularly dishonest as most religions also support the idea that we are as God intended us to be. Christianity would be quite a reasonable and functional religion if it concentrated on Jesus and forgot all about St Paul. St Paul was a misanthropic, misogynistic, homophobic, body-loathing authoritarian old grump whose beliefs grate badly as an overlay to a religion whose core beliefs are peace, love, and forgiveness. David Gilet Byron Bay
▶ More letters on page 21
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