Garybekker

IA Gary Bekker
IA Gary Bekker
	Gary Bekker, Melbourne, Nov 2009
Country	Australia
Born	May 16, 1968 (age 55); Melbourne, Australia
Title	International Arbiter
FIDE rating	1718 (Aug 2022)
Peak rating	1904 (April 2007)

Gary Bekker (born 16 May 1968 in Melbourne, Australia) is a chess Candidate Master and the former FIDE Oceania Chess Zone President (2002-2010).^[1] He is a FIDE International Arbiter, FIDE Instructor, and the organiser of several international chess tournaments in Australia and the Pacific islands.^[2] He gained the Candidate Master title at the Oceania Chess Championship in Fiji 2013.^[3]^[4]

Chess Career edit

Bekker was the chief arbiter of the Australian Masters international chess tournament in Melbourne for several years during the 1990s, has been the organiser and arbiter of the Australian Chess Championship on several occasions, and was the co-organiser and arbiter for the annual Australian Women's Masters chess tournament. He was an arbiter at the Oceania Zonal Chess Championships in Gold Coast 1999, Gold Coast 2001, Coral Coast, Fiji 2002, Auckland 2005, Denarau 2007, Gold Coast 2009, and the Oceania Open Chess Championship in Ballarat 2014.^[5]

He was an arbiter at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 in New Delhi, and has been an arbiter at six Chess Olympiads in Elista 1998, Calviá 2004, Turin 2006, Dresden 2008, Istanbul 2012, Tromsø 2014, and a Fair Play Officer at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai 2022. He was the Deputy Arbiter of the World Junior Chess Championship in Mexico City 2023.

Bekker was the FIDE Oceania Chess Zone President from 2002 to 2010, and actively encouraged the expansion of the FIDE Oceania Zone to include new member chess Federations. His efforts resulted in Papua New Guinea, Palau, and the Solomon Islands rejoining or becoming new federations of FIDE. His efforts to join New Caledonia and East Timor as member federations of the FIDE Oceania Zone failed due to political tensions in both locations during the early 1990s and mid 2000s respectively. Later negotiations resulted in New Caledonia being accepted as an Affiliated Member of FIDE in 2023.^[6]

He has also organised and played in many international chess tournaments in the Pacific Islands and Europe, including Bali 2000, Papua New Guinea 2001, Fiji 2003, Calviá 2004, Palau 2006, Solomon Islands 2009, New Caledonia 2011, Guam 2012, the Oceania Chess Championship in Fiji 2013, New Caledonia 2013, Barberà del Vallès 2014, and the Oceania Chess Championship in Melbourne 2023.