First Congress Meeting for the new ARB Commission

That may sound a bit odd after almost 2 years in office, but the new ARB Commission had their first official Congress meeting on December 3rd, 2020. Due to the pandemic, the meeting happened online, as does the whole 91st FIDE Congress 2020.

So, for this first opportunity to meet with a wide audience, the high attendance boosted the troops! 80 participants from 50 federations: FIDE Council Members, Delegates, Commission Members, Representatives of National and Continental Arbiters’ Councils.

The team was introduced to the audience, then an overview of the vision and achievements over 23 months in office was followed by the report 2020, sector by sector. After a short break, the updated regulations for titles, training and classification of arbiters were presented.

For the first time, leaders of the arbiter sector from Continental Chess Associations were formally invited to the meeting and intervened at the end of the meeting in an informal discussion with the Chairman. However, the commission intends to make it a tradition and continue, step by step, to increase collaboration with continents.

Energized by the active interactions and global support from the audience, including the FIDE President and Deputy President sharing encouraging words, the Commission is ready to face new challenges in 2021!

Big thanks to all ARB Commission members who are working all year long and were present yesterday, and especially to those who helped to prepare and/or presented a topic, by order of “appearance”: Nebojsa Baralic, Takis Nikolopoulos, Alex McFarlane, Shohreh Bayat, Jirina Prokopova, Jens Wolter, Omar Salama.

Let’s keep up the good work! I’m proud of the way our sector is progressing … step by step!

Gens una sumus

IA Laurent Freyd
Chairman
FIDE Arbiters’ Commission