ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dear arbiters,
FIDE Arbiters commission would like to express its thanks for their support of the New Guinness World Records. Over seven million chess games played in one day. We are especially proud of all those 350 arbiters, who participated in the events all over the world and thanks to them more than 75000 games were played OTB (over the board). One can say it is just 1% of all games played on that specific day, but it is not. Behind each game played over the board is the work of organizer, arbiter, their effort to make chess accessible to everyone. Without OTB games July 20th would not be the celebration of chess.
75,132 games in one day is a huge number. Arbiters did a great job and helped not just to supervise a smooth running of each event but attracted the attention of many new chess players, players without FIDE ID with no previous experience with chess. Chess showed its beautiful face to the outside world.
We decided not to mention those arbiters with the highest number of games played in their events. The reason is simple, we feel that even the smallest chess tournament with few participants contributed to the goal.
IA Ivan SYROVY
Chairman FIDE Arbiters’ Commission
IA Nebojsa BARALIC
Secretary FIDE Arbiters’ Commission