85th FIDE Congress Tromso FIDE Congress Arbiters’ Commission Meeting

7 August 2014, 09:00-13:00, Radisson Blu Hotel, Tromso, Norway

Chairman Pan. Nikolopoulos welcomes the participants of the Arbiters’ Commission Meeting at the occasion of the Tromso Olympiad. This is the last AC meeting before the coming elections and therefore the chairman thanks the members of the commission for their work during the last four years.

During the last year Jean-Paul Touzé (FRA), Hosseingholi Saloor (IRI), IA Robert Buniatyan (ARM) and Andrew Whitely (ENG) passed away and the chairman asks for a minute of silence in their memory.

• Arbiters’ Commission Councilors’ Meeting (Dubai, 6-8 June 2014) Minutes

Chairman thanked the UAE Chess Federation, the Arab Chess Federation and the Dubai Chess Club for the excellent organization of the meeting in Dubai. The Minutes of the meeting have been published on the website.

• IA and FA Title Applications
  • The recommendations for IA and FA title applications were presented. It was clarified that 7 round tournaments without a sufficient number of GMs or IMs do not offer the possibility for players to achieve norms and therefore were not accepted as a norm for IA title.
  • Roberto Rica’s case: initially the Italian Chess Federation did not accept one norm since the organizer was not an IO. After consultation with the Arbiters’ Commission the Italian Chess Federation agreed to accept the norm and the title application was submitted.
  • S. Polgar and P. Truong case: Possible norms for the FA title were not achieved because both names were not mentioned in the TRF of the tournaments. The FA title was directly awarded to P. Truong according to the article 3.10 of the regulations for the titles of Arbiters, since P. Truong now belongs to the Cambodia Chess Federation. There was an agreement with the US Chess Federation that S. Polgar will get norms from two more tournaments in order to obtain her FA title.
• FA Titles from FIDE Arbiters’ Seminars for approval.

The list of the FA titles that will directly be awarded, according to the article 3.10 of the regulations, to Arbiters belonging to federations which are unable to organize rated tournaments or tournaments for titles, after successful passing of an examination test of a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar, was presented.

• Workshops for the training of the International Arbiters.
  • Report for the Workshops: after the decision taken in Tallinn in 2013 seven (7) workshops [Amman (JOR, in Arabic language, with IA Mahdi Abdulrahim and IA Shaker Alafoo as Lecturers), Brussels (BEL, in English language, with IA Geurt Gijssen and IA Takis Nikolopoulos as Lecturers ), Moscow (RUS, in Russian language, with IA Andrzej Filipowicz and IA Alexander Tkachev as Lecturers), Chicago (USA, in English language, with IA Sevan Muradian and IA Hal Bond as Lecturers), Guayaquil (ECU, in Spanish language, with IA Jesus Mena and IA Serafin Chuit as Lecturers), Monastir (TUN, in French language, with IA Dirk De Ridder and IA Stephen Boyd as Lecturers) and New Delhi (IND, in English language, with Toti Abundo and Rathinam Anatharam as Lecturers)] for the training of IA were organized in the period from April until June 2014 in all continents. About 170 IA participated in the seven (7) workshops. The participants were reimbursed with 300 € as part of their travelling and accommodation costs.
  • Continuing training for IA and FA. Several FA asked to also organize workshops for FA. With respect to the costs, the Arbiter Commission intends to organize future workshops and refreshing courses through internet for both IAs and FAs.
• Amendments of the Regulations.
  • Regulations for the titles of Arbiters (Austrian Chess federation proposal). Only two national team championships are allowed. In any case such arbiter must be present in the tournament for the whole duration of the round and at least for five (5) rounds, in case that the championship is organized in different weekends in various cities. This information should be mentioned in the IT3 form of the application. In those federations where the team competition is organized at one place on consecutive days, the candidate arbiter has to be present during the whole competition.
  • Regulations for the classification of the Arbiters (Armenian Chess federation proposal): sector arbiter in the Olympiad counts as a tournament for classification in B Category, starting from the 2014 Olympiad.
• Update of the List of Lecturers.
  • After proposal of the Commission for Women’s Chess IA Barbara Lopez-Chavez (CUBA) is proposed to be included in the list of the FIDE Lecturers.
• Classification of the Arbiters.

Councilor Werner Stubenvoll presented the updated new lists of Arbiters of all categories, after consideration of all proposals that were sent to the Commission by the Federations.

• 2014 Arbiters’ Manual.

The first edition was published in 2013 on the Arbiters’ Commission website. All comments and corrections that were received by several arbiters were taken into consideration for the 2014 printed version. In this edition all recent changes of the laws of Chess, title and ratings regulations have been included. 500 books were printed and distributed to all Match Arbiters of the Olympiad, to the members of the Arbiters’ Commission, to the participants in the Arbiters’ Commission meeting and the Tromso FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar and to all delegates of the Federations participating in the Tromso FIDE Congress. The 2014 Arbiters’ Manual has also been published on the Arbiters’ Commission website, available to everyone.

Federations can send a request to FIDE Secretariat to get copies for their licensed arbiters.

• 2014 Arbiters’ Awards.

The requirements for the nominees were that they should have obtained their IA title before 1979 and should have serviced at least in three important FIDE competitions. Eight IA were nominated: Hossein Gholi Saloor (IRI), Jonathan Berry (CAN), Alyosha Khachatryan (ARM), Almog Burstein (ISR), Casto Abundo (PHI), Stewart Reuben (ENG), Gerry Walsh (ENG) and Sadok Kadri (TUN).

• FIDE Arbiters’ Commission’s Budget for 2014-2015.

The final amount will be decided after discussions of the new Chairman of the Commission with the new FIDE Treasurer. Since continuous training for IA and FA has to be organized, the budget shall be increased, in comparison with the budget of the previous period.

• Disciplinary regulations for Arbiters.

IOC insisted to have such regulations. A subcommittee consisted of the Chairman, Sevan Muradian, Klaus Deventer and Shaker Alafoo, in order to bring a proposal for this Congress. According to the regulations a subcommittee consisted of five (5) members will handle all submitted cases and make proposals to FIDE for eventual sanctioning.

The text was finalized after consultation with the Chairman of the Ethics Commission Roberto Rivello and after thorough discussion between the participants during the meeting.

It is proposed that these regulations will come into effect on the 1^st of July 2015.

• Anti cheating recommendations for Arbiters.

The proposals of the Anti Cheating Committee will be approved in this Congress. The Arbiters’ Commission created Anti cheating recommendations for Arbiters based on the proposals of the Anti cheating Committee. This text will be included in the subjects of all Workshops, FIDE Arbiters’ Seminars and Refreshing courses for IA and FA, so that all Arbiters will be educated in the proposed regulations. The complete text will be published in the Arbiters’ Commission website and will be available to all Arbiters.

An extract was presented by the chairman Pan. Nikolopoulos. Attention was paid to the possibility to check games by a computer program developed by Prof. Regan (USA) and which procedure to follow for In-tournament and Post-tournament complaints. Examples of cheating are also given. Reporting forms are also included.

• Others.
  • Bahrain Chess Federation’s proposals: the Chess Academies will be discussed by the Central Board of Commission Chairman. By all means only one responsible per federation should have access to the FIDE Rating Server.

AC confirms that certificates should be produced and signed in first instance by the Chief Arbiter. Any change should be discussed in cooperation with the Qualification Commission.

• Binoy Shah’s proposals: AC discussed the issue in Dubai. An answer was published in the Minutes of the Dubai Meeting.
• Gunther van den Bergh proposal: The proposal an IA certificate only to be signed by an IA and not by a FA would make the obtaining of the norms and titles more difficult, especially for federations where there are not enough IA. in the regulations for the titles of the Arbiters has been included that the organizer may sign a norm certificate, in case that the candidate for the norm was himself the Chief Arbiters of the event. It is proposed that at least one IA certificate to be signed by an IA.
• David Sedgwick’s proposals: Continental Team and Club Championships are accepted as a norm. For Rapid World Championships the U18 might be accepted in the absence of the Juniors category.

In the case of a postponement of a Presidential Board the AC already takes into account the eventual delay so it should not be written in the regulations.

• GM Igor Glek was invited to present his case in the Meeting. A decision will be taken by the next Arbiters’ Commission.

THE CHAIRMAN                                                                                                THE SECRETARY

PAN. NIKOLOPOULOS                                                                                      DIRK DE RIDDER