David Smerdon

Last updated

David Smerdon
DavidSmerdon.JPG
Full nameDavid Craig Smerdon
Country Australia
Born (1984-09-17) 17 September 1984 (age 39)
Brisbane, Australia
Title Grandmaster (2009)
FIDE   rating 2486 (May 2024)
Peak rating 2533 (November 2016)

David Craig [1] Smerdon (born 17 September 1984) is an Australian chess player and economist who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He is the seventh highest ranked chess player of Australia. Smerdon has played for the Australian team in the Chess Olympiad since 2004. He currently is working as a coach at Anglican Church Grammar School, his former school. [2]

Contents

Chess career

Smerdon was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 2009. He achieved the norms required for the title at the Australian championship in 2005, the 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open, which he won in 2007 with a score of 7½/9 points, [3] and the Czech Open in Pardubice, Czech Republic in 2007. [4] He fulfilled the last requirement for the title when his rating passed 2500 in the FIDE rating list of July 2009. [5] Smerdon is the fourth Australian to become a grandmaster, [6] after Ian Rogers, Darryl Johansen and Zhao Zong-Yuan. [5]

In 2009, he won the Queenstown Chess Classic tournament [7] and the Oceania Chess Championship with a score of 7½/9 points. [6] [8] [9] The latter victory qualified him to play in the Chess World Cup 2009. In this event he was knocked out by Leinier Domínguez in the first round. [10]

He has also introduced what he calls the Fighting Chess Index to provide a comparative metric for the amount of drawing top Chess players do.

Education and academic career

Smerdon was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School [11] and the University of Melbourne, [12] where he was a resident student at Trinity College. [13]

Smerdon is the recipient of a 2011 John Monash Scholarship, awarded by the General Sir John Monash Foundation named after General Sir John Monash. [14] From 2013–2017, he earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute under Theo Offerman for a thesis: “Everybody’s doing it: Essays on trust, social norms and integration.” [15] He currently works as a senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, with areas of research in Applied Economics; Economic Development and Growth; Experimental, Behavioural, and Evolutionary Methods. [16]

Books

Related Research Articles

Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the title can be revoked for cheating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darryl Johansen</span> Australian chess grandmaster (born 1959)

Darryl Keith Johansen is an Australian chess grandmaster. He has won the Australian Chess Championship a record six times, and represented Australia at fourteen Chess Olympiads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puchen Wang</span>

Puchen Wang is a New Zealand chess International Master. He became the New Zealand Champion, Rapid Champion and Lightning Champion in January 2007 when he was 17.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhao Zong-Yuan</span> Australian chess grandmaster (born 1986)

Zhao Zong-Yuan is an Australian chess Grandmaster. As of September 2019, he was the third-ranked active chess player in Australia.

Liang Chong is a Chinese chess Grandmaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess title</span> Title bestowed on a chessplayer

A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most prestigious of which is Grandmaster; many national chess federations also grant titles such as "National Master". More broadly, the term "master" can refer to any highly skilled chess player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FIDE titles</span> Title for chess players awarded by FIDE

FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms. Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating. Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess, chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep Sengupta</span> Indian chess grandmaster

Deep Sengupta is an Indian chess player. He is India's 22nd player to be awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE. Sengupta competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nelson Mariano</span> Filipino chess player

Nelson Isurina Mariano II is a Filipino chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2004, the fifth from the Philippines. Mariano won the Asian Junior Chess Championship in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorge Cori</span> Peruvian chess grandmaster (born 1995)

Jorge Moisés Cori Tello is a Peruvian chess grandmaster. A former chess prodigy, he was twice world champion and four-time Pan American champion in his age category. Cori competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2021. He has played for the Peruvian team in the Chess Olympiad since 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Hansen (chess player)</span> American-Canadian chess grandmaster (born 1992)

Eric Hansen is a Canadian chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title in 2013. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011 and 2013. Hansen has represented Canada in the Chess Olympiad since 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Solomon</span> Australian chess International Master (born 1963)

Stephen John Solomon is an Australian chess International Master (IM). He became a FIDE Master (FM) in 1986, and an International Master (IM) in 1990. He won the Australian Junior Chess Championship in 1980 and the Australian Chess Championship in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Moylan</span>

Laura Moylan is an Australian chess Woman International Master (WIM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Milligan</span>

Helen Milligan is a Scottish-New Zealand chess player holding the FIDE titles of Candidate Master (CM) and Woman FIDE Master (WFM), and three-time Asian senior women's champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Holt</span> American chess grandmaster (born 1993)

Conrad William Holt is an American chess grandmaster who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in September 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Illingworth</span> Australian chess grandmaster (born 1992)

Max Illingworth is an Australian former chess player, and current chess trainer and writer. In 2022 he started playing poker professionally. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2016, becoming the fifth Australian to achieve this. Illingworth won the Steiner Medal in 2011, 2012 and 2015. His current FIDE rating is 2493. He retired from competitive chess in March 2019, to concentrate on coaching and writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Maroroa</span> New Zealand-English chess player (1991–2023)

Sue Yuchan Maroroa Jones was a New Zealand-English chess player who held the FIDE title of Woman International Master (WIM). She represented New Zealand in five Chess Olympiads and England at the 2014 Chess Olympiad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Guo</span> Australian chess player

Emma Guo is an Australian chess player holding the FIDE title of Woman International Master (WIM). She won the Oceania Women's Chess Championship in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rinat Jumabayev</span> Kazakhstani chess grandmaster (born 1989)

Rinat Jumabayev is a Kazakhstani chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2009.

References

  1. "25th Asian Junior Chess Championship". Tripod. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  2. David Smerdon team chess record at Olimpbase.org
  3. Campi, William (21 April 2007). "Strong juniors in the 7th Bangkok Chess Club Open". Chess News. ChessBase. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  4. Title applications - 78th FIDE Congress, 11-16 November, 2007, Antalya, Turkey. FIDE.
  5. 1 2 Shaun Press (8 June 2009). "Smerdon wins NSW Open". Chessexpress.blogspot.com. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  6. 1 2 "2009 Oceania Zonal, final round bulletin" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 January 2012. Retrieved 2011-12-16.
  7. "Queenstown Chess Classic 2009 - Final Results". Newzealandchess.co.nz. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2010.
  8. Oceania Zone Champions Archived 26 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Oceania Chess Confederation
  9. 2009 Oceania Zonal, final rankings chess-results.com
  10. Crowther, Mark (15 December 2009). "The Week in Chess: FIDE World Cup Mini-Site 2009". Chess.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 October 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  11. Mason, James (2011). Churchie: The Centenary Register. Brisbane, Australia: The Anglican Church Grammar School. ISBN   978-0-646-55807-3.
  12. "Player Interviews: GM David Smerdon interviewed by FM Grant Szuveges". Melbourne Chess Club. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
  13. "Smerdon's Scholarships", Trinity e-news , Dec. 2010.
  14. "John Monash Scholars". Archived from the original on 25 April 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  15. David C. Smerdon, Curriculum vitae, University of Queensland Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine .
  16. Dr David Smerdon, lecturer, profile, University of Queensland Archived 10 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine .