Vanuatu Chess Federation

🇻🇺Happy independence Vanuatu from all at VCF🇻🇺

🏆♟️ Independence Chess Tournament 2026 ♟️🏆

Last week, we proudly held our Independence Chess Tournament at L’Houstel Restaurant, bringing together over 40 enthusiastic participants for a fantastic week of competition, sportsmanship, and community spirit!

🎉 Tournament Winners

Top Males
🥇 CM Jeremy Ellison🥈 Jayson Tasso🥉 Pierre Delrieu

Top Females
🥇 Lou-Anne Delrieu🥈 Eliza Dennis🥉 Mathilde Enoch

🌟 Outstanding Male Player - Gabriel Nasse
🌟 Outstanding Female Player - Matu Kalfabun

A huge congratulations to all our winners and players for making the tournament such a success. We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to our dedicated club organisers and volunteers, L’Houstel Restaurant for generously hosting the event, Wan Smol bag for the support, the team at the Vanuatu Chess Federation and our wonderful special guests whose presence helped make the tournament even more memorable. This event would not have been possible without enthusiasm of each and every one of you. Thank you and happy Independence to you all! ♟️🏆🇻🇺

Tonight to close out our independence tournament we had not one, but two speacil guests. We had the he managing director of UNELCO, Frédéric Petit and human rights activist & nurse educator, Anne Pakoa make ceromonial first moves!

Thank you both for your words of encouragement to our players and welcome to the chess family!

We hope everyone enjoyed the tournament and stay tuned to found out the winners!

For round 7 we had the pleasure of Nik Soni, long time advisor to government and supporter of chess development in Vanuatu, making the ceremonial first move!

Nik encouraged our players and entertained us with his stories of playing chess in his school team at the national championships. He was also brave enough to challenge our president to game!

Last night for the start of round 5, we had the pleasure of deputy Australian high commissioner, Emily Fisher, to make the ceromonial first move.

VCF is pound to partner with the Australian High Commission in Vanuatu and last year we were trilled to be part of their Play for Equity fund through Team Up! Thank you for your support AHC vanuatu!

Round 2 Kicked off with the amazing, Allan Kalfabun, from Vanuatu Aquatics Federation, making the ceremonial first move! Thanks Allan for taking the time to come down and your words of encouragement!

And we’re off! Thank you to the wonderful Clement at L'Houstalet for hosting us. It was a great first round of our independence tournament. See you all at 6pm for the start of round 2!

♟️❤️♟️❤️♟️

Our independence tournament is back. Register via the QR code or turn up early on Friday 17th to register in person.

See you all there!!!

**The Vanuatu Chess Federation Committee responds to recent claims about its legitimacy — and sets out the path forward to an Annual General Meeting where every member will have a voice.**

—

A word of clarity for the chess community, since we know not everyone has heard our side.

A number of claims have been made about the legitimacy and conduct of the Federation's committee.

First, that there are only three “valid” members left because some members did not attend every meeting. There is no provision that a committee member loses their position by missing meetings.

Second, the claim that the committee is "illegitimate" and its “term has ended” because an Annual General Meeting was not held by May. There are no term limits in our Constitution, which states that committee members hold office until the next Annual General Meeting. The committee’s mandate does not simply expire on a date.

Third, that because the Federation has no register of paid members, all of the committee members must be automatically disqualified. If that were true, the Federation could never have been incorporated in the first place — and every competition, result and title earned under its banner since 2023 would be void. Plainly, that is not the case.

This Federation was incorporated by a small group of people that came together to promote and develop chess in Vanuatu. Since then we have got a great deal done, including organising competitions in Port Vila, school and community outreach in and around Port Vila and Luganville, and supporting players to take part in overseas competitions. We also support a chess program in the low and medium risk prison to great success, held girls only trainings and provided opportunities for people with disabilities to learn and play chess.

The committee has overseen the development and implementation of these achievements while also attending to the reporting and governance matters, including submitting annual reports and financial statements to the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission.

The committee openly acknowledges that as our programs expanded, there were gaps in ensuring strict compliance with formal registration rules. Historically, our focus was entirely on getting people playing—running competitions and outreach programs without enforcing a formal, paid membership register. While operating this casually was an administrative oversight, it only became an issue in April this year during the Olympiad selection dispute. Prior to that, there were no calls for an AGM; in fact, when the committee put out a formal call for an AGM in November 2025, only sitting committee members turned up.

In May the committee met in an attempt to resolve the disagreement over Olympiad selection and to fix the governance issues. The committee reached out to VASANOC to attend this meeting and to help put in place an independent selection panel for the Olympiad team. Since then the committee has been implementing the resolutions of that meeting, which include undertaking a membership drive and registration ahead of an AGM in October.

We have kept VASANOC, FIDE and VFSC updated on our progress. In addition we have been busy preparing for the Independence competition in July and to arrange travel, funding and other arrangements for the national team to compete in the Olympiad in September. We undertake the work of the committee voluntarily.

Unfortunately, since the disagreement over team selection arose in April, one of our founding committee members, Mr Jeremy Ellison, has not supported the committee’s approach to strengthen its governance. He is entitled to disagree with the way forward, but as a founding committee member and the Federation's Secretary for the entire period, he shares responsibility for the committee’s past shortcomings.

The Committee took its decision to remove him with regret, having made repeated attempts to resolve the matter cooperatively. The Committee acknowledges Mr Ellison’s contribution to chess in Vanuatu and thanks him for his service to the Federation. We also welcome his ongoing participation in chess in Vanuatu and remain open to reconciling our differences.

The Committee appreciates the concerns of some within the chess community and has welcomed the constructive ideas that have been put forward to strengthen its Constitution and policies for the membership to decide at the AGM in October. We also appreciate the support within the chess community for the path we are on to a democratic Annual General Meeting where every member will have a voice and a vote.

♟️Social Saturday - 11 July The Tree House Port Vila!!!♟️

Ol Welkam!