David Smerdon

David Smerdon
Full nameDavid Craig Smerdon
CountryAustralia
Born (1984-09-17) 17 September 1984 (age 40)
Brisbane, Australia
TitleGrandmaster (2009)
FIDE rating2468 (November 2024)
Peak rating2533 (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]

Chess career

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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

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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 worked 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

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  • Smerdon, David (2015). Smerdon's Scandinavian. Everyman Chess. ISBN 9781781942949.
  • Smerdon, David (2020). The Complete Chess Swindler. New In Chess. ISBN 9789056919115

References

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  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. ^ a b Shaun Press (8 June 2009). "Smerdon wins NSW Open". Chessexpress.blogspot.com. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
  6. ^ a b "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.
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