User:Garybekker

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

Chess Career
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.

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.

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.

He has won several local chess tournaments and the following FIDE-rated tournaments:
 * 2012 MCC Bob Brooking (Group 4), 1st (Score 5/5, TPR=2166)

Wikipedia
Gary Bekker contributes Wikipedia updates and articles concerning chess. The following articles were created by Gary Bekker:

Australian Women's Masters, Catalan Chess Championship, Coral Coast, Fiji, Mediterranean Chess Championship, Oceania Chess Championship, Russian Women's Chess Championship

Chess Players:

Katrin Aladjova

Irina Berezina, Igor Bjelobrk, Anna-Maria Botsari

Biljana Dekic, Russell Dive, Martin Dreyer

Stuart Fancy, Vladimir Feldman, Sabina-Francesca Foisor, Maxwell Fuller

Paul Garbett, Mikhail Gluzman, Emma Guo

Max Illingworth Rupert Jones

Anthony Ker, Stefan Kindermann, Maria Kouvatsou, Aleksei Kulashko

Carolina Luján

Jordi Magem Badals, Sue Maroroa, Benjamin Martin (chess player), Ana Matnadze, Helen Milligan (chess player), Eva Moser, Laura Moylan

Nguyen Anh Dung (chess player), Giang Nguyen, Daniela Nuțu-Gajić

Nazí Paikidze, Vasily Papin, Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky, Regina Pokorná, Shaun Press, Elmer Prudente

Eva Repková, Julia Ryjanova

Elena Sedina, Vernon Small, Robert W. Smith (chess player), Vivian Smith (chess player), Stephen Solomon, Anastasia Sorokina, Fiona Steil-Antoni, Irine Kharisma Sukandar,

Từ Hoàng Thông

Scott Wastney,

Others to be published:
 * User:Garybekker/James Morris (chess player),
 * User:Garybekker/Andrew Brown (chess player),
 * User:Garybekker/Abdulwahab Rashid,
 * User:Garybekker/Heather Richards,
 * User:Garybekker/Mirko Rujevic,
 * User:Garybekker/Narelle Szuveges
 * User:Garybekker/Sally Yu
 * User:Garybekker/Ekaterini Pavlidou