HARD TALK WITH THE ARBITER – IA IVAN SYROVY

Hard Talk with the Arbiter will now be a fortnightly article sharing experiences with arbiters. In this article, we will feature IA Ivan Syrovy, the Chairman of the ARB Commission. The next article to be published on 22 December, 2023 will feature IA Takis Nikolopoulos and opening the year will feature a female IA.

1. Who is Ivan Syrovy?

Ivan Syrovy is a 42 years old guy from Slovakia, has a nice family with his wife Michaela and three children Tomas, Lucia and Anna. In his profession he is a lawyer – attorney, a leader of a smaller team of lawyers. To keep all activities in balance he performs martial arts in his free time – Taekwon-do.

2. You can look back on a wonderful career. Having officiated as a Chief Arbiter in the FIDE Women`s Grand Prix 2022-2023 Leg 4, 2022 FIDE Grand Prix 1. Pools A to D, European Youth Chess Championship 2019, 19th IPCA World Individual Chess Championships in 2019 and 2018 and World Youth Chess Olympiad.

a) How do you look back on your career?

    I do not want to look back, I try to look forward, thanks to chess I met many nice people, and I am always happy to see them again. I believe in my career as a chess arbiter I will be a part of many nice chess events in next few years.

    b) Describe a situation/s where you had to make a difficult call on the mentioned tournaments and how did you handle it/them?

    Especially on bigger events as a chief arbiter and a leader of a team of arbiters you should feel how arbiters act together, if they work as one team or not. Sometimes you can feel it is not ok, so you consider how to improve it. I never want to hurt someone, but also from my experience I can say that doing nothing is not a good solution. If an arbiter asks you for help, she or he trusts you and expects you can deal with it. Maybe just replace the arbiter in another sector where she/he feels better can improve the situation, sometimes it is enough to listen. This way I acted on European Championship, where two arbiters had some personal struggle from past and could not work together, I listened to both and together we find a way, one of them  moved to other sector. Till the end of the event there was no more any problem. For both the most important thing was that I had time to listen to them, their opinion was important for me.

    as a chief arbiter and a leader of a team of arbiters you should feel how arbiters act together, if they work as one team or not.

    Chief Arbiter = Team Leader!

    3. What, in your opinion, are the qualities and competencies an Arbiter requires in order to grow and rise to the top?

    Every good arbiter should love chess and players. And it is not easy, but if you take it just as a job, it won´t work. A good arbiter is happy when players enjoy the event. So, arbiter acts not as a boss of chess tournament, on other hand arbiter must be present ( I mean not just physically but mentally). I hate seeing arbiters who love to be on cameras, but when there is a real problem and players need their assistance, help, no one can find that arbiter.

    4. Are you comfortable using technology, such as Seventy-five-move rule, threefold-repetition or the 50-move draw rule etc. to assist in making decisions during a game?

    Technology helps and helps us a lot, but somehow you should combine it with human abilities. I remember one chess event, a claim for three times repetition, both top grandmasters agreed on draw before making 30 moves as they thought they had three times repetition on board. It looked simple from the scoresheet, I checked it with guy responsible for transmission who also operated the program, he confirmed me yes, three times repetition. After returning and before making decision another top grandmaster told me, that it was not 3 times repetition, as the first move was with rook and at that time with a possibility to castle, later no more available. Before making decision I checked the claim carefully, and asked both players to continue playing. After it I asked the guy how it is possible, that the program showed him 3 times repetition and he told me that he though there is something wrong with the program, as he could see 3 times repetition but the program does not signal it… So even a good technology is sometimes useless if we do not use it properly.

    Technology helps and helps us a lot, but somehow you should combine it with human abilities.

    IT in chess

    5. Describe a time when you had to work with a new or inexperienced arbiter. How did you help them improve their skills?

    It happens many times and we also started somehow, at the beginning with no experiences. These unexperienced arbiters are probably under stress, but that´s ok, in such cases advise them to be responsible, but if they are not sure about correct decision, better to ask than make a wrong decision. Also I advise Deputy chief arbiters, sector arbiters to be helpful, to be present in the playing hall so ready to help to their team members. Good meeting with all arbiters before the start of the event helps, arbiters feel they are ready for the event, their questions were answered, rules explained how to apply them.

    6. What is your process for reviewing and reflecting on your performance after a tournament?

    After a chess event I ask myself: “Was it a nice event?”  If the answer is yes, it means it was good. Second step – what to do better next time and start reviewing the tournament from the first day, should I mention this or that during the technical meeting, did we have enough time for preparing the arbiters, was there any delay and if so, why? So it goes step by step. But always I return to the point – did the organisers, players and arbiters enjoyed the event?

    7. How far do you think tournament organizers should go in terms of anti-cheating measures to prevent/discourage cheating for both OTB tournaments as well as online games?

    Fair play stuff is a part of chess. None can say nothing happened so FPO´ s are useless. This approach is a huge mistake. Thanks to fair play measures, nothing happened. There could be someone who hesitated – cheat or not to cheat, but realizing the tournament is under the best control from side of FPO´s the player realized it does not make sense to cheat. Arbiters should work in close cooperation with fair play stuff. But the same as with arbiters, if someone believes he/she is the boss and behaves like this, something is wrong. Try to imagine FPO chasing the player who hurries from toilette because he/she is running out of time and you stop this player for check…When I have a seminar I explain to arbiters – try to understand the players, so the same should apply for fair play stuff.

    8. What roles and duties do you have as Chairperson of ARB Commission?

    My responsibility is to lead a team, it means not to do all the stuff by myself but to open topics, to have a vision how to improve the position of arbiters  and to find good profiles dealing with these topics. I am here to advice, to correct to support. I am glad many members of ARB Commission want to be involved in our mission. I prefer to establish smaller teams (like 5 people in one team) and coordinate their work. Of course, there are some parts of our work where I am more involved than in others. Also I am glad in ARB Commission we have a great Secretary IA Nebojsa Baralic.

    9. What positives have you made as Chairperson of ARB Commission?

    First of all, I would like to emphasize I am not here to change the system established by my predecessors, Takis and Laurent. I know where I am strong and where are my weaknesses. I consider it essential to have a good cooperation with FIDE and other FIDE commissions as well,  organize meetings and open new topics. Arbiters, we are not isolated, but we are a part of great FIDE family. I am thankful for the support we get from FIDE and from FIDE President, Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich. As a lawyer I can help with regulations, so I spend a lot on preparing good regulations, now working on Stipends regulation for arbiters. I consider it important to continue in the process of a fair system with appointments of arbiters for World Events, we finished the process of panels of arbiters for 2024- 2025 built on clear criteria and fair voting system. Now with my colleagues we concentrate on new edition of Arbiters Manual and IA seminars. Education always was and will be a significant part of our work. My idea how to improve the knowledge of chess arbiters is to share experiences of Chief arbiters from World events with others, to write about real cases and explain their decisions, so we all can improve. I encourage arbiters to write articles about chess so we can publish interesting articles in Arbiters corner on our webpage. I prepare materials for Disciplinary subcommittee. I am proud we have a good and fair system of disciplinary procedure and experienced team of members of disciplinary subcommittee who deal with cases.

    10. Is the ARB Commission on track on one the Requirements for the title of International Arbiter starting 1st January 2024 that requires an attendance of one (1) International Arbiters’ Certification Seminar with a positive readiness evaluation?

    IA Seminars, good question. I believe it is correct time to start with these seminars, we have FA seminars but I agree, the education of arbiters should improve and IA seminars are a part of this system. We have a scenario how to start with it, under supervision of ARB. And yes, we do not want to postpone IA seminars to another year. But do not worry if you have to pass IA Seminar, evaluation from IA seminar differs from the exam during FA seminar. IA seminars will be more practical, lecturers will explain real cases and I am sure, participants will enjoy these seminars.

    11. In conclusion, where would you like the ARB Commission to be in the next three years?

    First of all, as a group of people from different parts of World I would like to have a team of experienced arbiters, who share their vision and ideas with others. I wish every member finds the place in ARB, where she/he can contribute to our work. Also, It would be nice if we can meet during many chess events, not just during these three years but also later and meet as friends. In next three years we will be opened to new ideas, and able to understand the needs of arbiters.  For all of us it would be nice to know we improved the system.

    I wish every member finds the place in ARB, where she/he can contribute to our work.

    Strong ARB!

    Prepared by IA Chanda Nsakanya