The Evelyn Koshnitsky Chess Foundation was launched in Adelaide on 11 July 2015 at the start of the Evelyn Koshnitsky Memorial Checkmate Weekender (Open and Challengers) which was followed two days later by the “Evelyn”, a three and a half day tournament for women and girls.

(George Howard with Stephanie Key)

South Australian MP Stephanie Key is a long time supporter of chess and an advocate for women rights as well as someone who has met and officiated in events organized by Evelyn on many occasions and so it was fitting she launched the Evelyn Koshnitsky Trust Fund with an initial contribution from the Kasparov Chess Foundation Asia-Pacific of USD 3,000 together with some additional monies from local sources.

This celebration of Evelyn’s life and massive contribution to chess in Australia and for women’s chess worldwide ended on a high as George Howard, President of the South Australia Chess Association , who has been instrumental in the organization of the Evelyn Koshnitsky Chess Festival and setting up the Evelyn Koshnitsky Chess Foundation and Trust Fund, hopes a tournament named Evelyn for women/girls chess is an annual affair and an important fixture of the Australian Chess calendar.

Anne Martin who got her start in chess in the late 70’s with support from Evelyn is the first Chair of the Evelyn Koshnitsky Chess Foundation and already has plans to revive the Australian Womens Championship!

(George Howard and International Organiser Bill Anderson Smith)

The Weekender was well supported by the entire Australian chess community, both past and present, and was very successfully held in a marvelous environment with two grandmasters, eight international masters, two FIDE masters and one international woman master and at its conclusion, a party in honour of Evelyn was held at the South Australian Chess Centre.

(Alan Goldsmith with the winner Hrant Melkumyan of the Weekender and George Howard)

(Elizabeth Ports, Saffron Archer and winner Emma Guo of the “Evelyn’ which attracted twenty entries.)