David Craig Smerdon (born 17 September 1984) is an Australian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player and economist who holds the

FIDE title FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

of Grandmaster (GM). He is the seventh highest ranked chess player of Australia. Smerdon has played for the Australian team in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...

since 2004. He currently is working as a coach at

Anglican Church Grammar School The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for boys, located in East Brisbane, an inner suburb of Brisbane, ...

, his former school.

Chess career

Smerdon was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

in 2009. He achieved the

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

s required for the title at the

Australian championship The National Second Division (NSD) – also referred to under the working title The Championship – is a proposed Australian national second-tier men's, soccer league, to be run by Football Australia and the Association of Australian Football ...

in 2005, the 7th

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Chess Club Open, which he won in 2007 with a score of 7½/9 points, and the Czech Open in

Pardubice Pardubice (; german: Pardubitz) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 89,000 inhabitants. It is the capital city of the Pardubice Region and lies on the Elbe River. The historic centre is well preserved and is protected as an Cultural monu ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

in 2007. He fulfilled the last requirement for the title when his

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

passed 2500 in the FIDE rating list of July 2009. Smerdon is the fourth Australian to become a grandmaster, after Ian Rogers,

Darryl Johansen Darryl Keith Johansen (born 4 February 1959 in Melbourne) is an Australian chess grandmaster. He has won the Australian Chess Championship a record six times (in 1984, 1988, 1990, 2000, 2002, and 2012), and represented Australia at fourteen Che ...

and

Zhao Zong-Yuan Zhao Zong-Yuan (; born 26 June 1986) is an Australian chess Grandmaster. , he was the third-ranked active chess player in Australia. Early life Zhao was born in Beijing. He grew up in Coffs Harbour, Australia, a pharmacy graduate from the ...

. In 2009, he won the Queenstown Chess Classic tournament and the

Oceania Chess Championship Leading chess players from the FIDE Oceania Zone 3.6 are allowed to play in the Oceania Chess Championships. The tournament is conducted by the FIDE Oceania Zone President and Oceania Chess Confederation under the auspices of the world chess fede ...

with a score of 7½/9 points. The latter victory qualified him to play in the

Chess World Cup 2009 The Chess World Cup 2009 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship 2012. Boris ...

. In this event he was knocked out by

Leinier Domínguez Leinier Domínguez Pérez (born September 23, 1983) is a Cuban and American chess grandmaster. A five-time Cuban champion, Domínguez was the world champion in blitz chess in 2008. He competed in the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2002 and 2 ...

in the first round. 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

and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

, where he was a resident student at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

. Smerdon is the recipient of a 2011 John Monash Scholarship, awarded by the General Sir John Monash Foundation named after General Sir

John Monash General Sir John Monash, (; 27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the First World War. He commanded the 13th Infantry Brigade before the war and then, shortly after its outbreak, became co ...

. From 2013–2017, he earned a Ph.D. in economics at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

and

Tinbergen Institute The Tinbergen Institute is a joint institute for research and education in economics, econometrics and finance of the VU University Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The institute was founded in 1987 an ...

under Theo Offerman for a thesis: “Everybody’s doing it: Essays on trust, social norms and integration.” He currently works as a senior lecturer at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, with areas of research in Applied Economics; Economic Development and Growth; Experimental, Behavioural, and Evolutionary Methods.Dr David Smerdon, lecturer, profile, University of Queensland

Books

* *Smerdon, David (2020). The Complete Chess Swindler. New In Chess.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smerdon, David 1984 births Living people Chess grandmasters Australian chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Australian chess writers People from Brisbane People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne)