April 23 1978
April 24 1978
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Monday, April 24, 1978
International chess champion here to promote Olympiad
Miguel Quinteros, 30, who has been playing chess for 22 years, is an international Chess Grandmaster.
He is in Sydney to take part in the Dunhill Grandmaster Challenge in Martin Place on Friday, which will involve the State's top lightning chess players.
He will also be giving displays of simultaneous chess against members of the public today at The Corso, Manly, at noon and at the Manly-Warringah Leagues Club at 8 pm at the Griffin Centre, Canberra, at 4 pm tomorrow and at the Concordia Club, Stanmore, at noon on Wednesday.
The aim of his visit is to promote the next Chess Olympiad which will be held in his homeland, Argentina, at the end of October. About 100 countries will take part.
Mr. Quinteros said that confidence and study were essential for a good chess player. He studies strategies and moves eight hours a day.
Although he does not see Australia as real competition, Mr. Quinteros says that Australians are good attacking players and he will enjoy playing against them.
He said that the best way for Australia to raise its standard of chess was to hold annual international tournaments which would involve the world's best players.
His wife, Benjie Diaz, does not play chess. She said her husband believed that one chess player in the family was enough.
But that does not stop her giving him moral support during his tournaments.
Mrs. Quinteros, a former Filipino Maid of Cotton (a beauty title), said that even though she did not really understand chess, it was quite taxing on the nerves.
“I get more nervous than if I were playing myself,” she said.
April 28 1978
April 29 1978
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Saturday, April 29, 1978
Masterly winner of chess challenge in City
International grandmaster Miguel Quinteros, of Argentina, won the Dunhill Grandmaster Challenge tournament in Martin Place, City, yesterday afternoon.
Quinteros was surprisingly defeated in the first round by a former NSW champion, Abraham Sztern, but played powerful chess to win the last eight games.
International master Meershad Sharif, five times champion of Iran, lost only to Quinteros but drew with R. Travers and A. Flatow.
John Curtis, the Dunhill Lightning champion, was leading the event until he was outplayed by Quinteros and Sharif.
Final scores (10 players, nine rounds): Quinteros (Argentina) 8; Sharif (Iran) 7; Curtis and Flatow 6; M. Fuller 4½; Travers 4; S. Rubinraut and N. Selim 3; Sztern 2; M. Wettstein 1½.
The players had five minutes each to complete each game, so one game could take up to 10 minutes only.
The speed from the first move to the final handshake must have intrigued the ordinary chess player.
But most of the crowd in Martin Place were like Kevin Harrison, 30, of Hunter's Hill, who has played for NSW.
“It's like recognizing a pattern,” he said. “When you have just started playing, you can only see one piece at a time—you can't take in the whole game.”
