From 29th November to 2nd December 2019, a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in Bamako, Mali, by the Malian Chess Federation, under the auspices of FIDE.

The Lecturer was IA/IO/FT Messaoudi, Bechir (TUN), FIDE Lecturer.

The language of the Seminar was French with translation into English.

Thirty one (31) arbiters from Mali and Mauritania participated in the Seminar and twenty four (24) of them participated in the examination test, held after the end of the lectures.

70th Internet Based FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was held from 24th to 29th November 2019.

It was organized by the FIDE Women’s Commission (WOM), under the auspices of FIDE.

The Lecturer was IA/IO Abdulrahim, Mahdi (UAE), FIDE Lecturer and Chairman of Rules Commission, the Assistant Lecturer was IA/IO El Husseiny, Mohamed (EGY), FIDE Arbiters Consular. The Organizer was Ilaha Kadimova (AZE), Secretary of FIDE Women Commission. Technical Organizer was IA Mihail Prevenios (GRE), and the observer was Mr. Hassan Khaled (EGY), Rules Commission Consular.

The Language of the Seminar was in Arabic.

Fifty (50) participants are registered from twelve (12) deferent Arab federations attend the seminar, there were from ALG, BRN, TUN, JOR, OMA, KSA, PLE, LBA, LBN, IRQ, MAR, and EGY. Thirty-eight (38) of them attended the exam. Seven (29) of them passed the examination test with 80%, which was held after the end of the lectures.

On the 9th of December, Commission's Chairman Laurent Freyd and Secretary Nebojsa Baralic visited the Chess Federation of Russia for a working meeting with Mark Glukhovsky, Executive Director, and Alexander Tkachev, Deputy of the Executive Director of CFR and member of our commission.

The main topics covered were:

- training arbiters for the coming Olympiads in Russia, including Paralympic games in Khanty Mansiysk, through preparation seminars addressed to selected arbiters

- language spoken by chess arbiters: measuring the current baseline in english to better understand the needs for progress 
- review of proposal by the Management Board on the training of arbiters

The meeting was productive and we thank the Chess Federation of Russia for their hospitality.

You can now access the FIDE Handbook in a dedicated section of the FIDE website https://handbook.fide.com

The structure is easier to browse with a dedicated page for each chapter.