New Regulations for the Titles of Arbiter

Dear chess friends,

The new Regulations for the Titles of Arbiter, that had been approved by the FIDE General Assembly in Dresden and confirmed by the FIDE Presidential Board in Istanbul, are already published on the FIDE website.

For your further information I send you these regulations in the attached file.

As you can understand, apart from the change of the name “Arbiters’ Council” to “Arbiters’ Commission”,the main change is article 3.5, and article 3.9. According to these articles, in the requirements for the title of FA has been included the attendance of one FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar and the successful passing (at least 80) of an examination test set by the Arbiters’ Commission.

This article will be in effect from 1 July 2009.

So after 1 July 2009 an Arbiter, in order to be awarded the title of FA, will need at least three (3) norms from tournaments and one (1) norm from a Seminar. Some clarifications regarding the format of the tournaments have been included, while World and Continental Rapid Championships are considered as valid for norms for FA title (art. 3.8). Some additions like articles 4.9, 4.10 and 4.11 are already in effect, as they have been already approved by the FIDE General Assemblies and Executive Boards in 2006 and 2007.

I would like to draw your attention to the correct filling of the applications forms that are needed for the titles of Arbiters (articles 5 and 6 of the Regulations). IT3 form (Tournament Report Form) is a very important form that confirms the participation of the Arbiter in the specific event. So it is necessary to write the names of all the Arbiters of the tournament (and not only the name of the Chief and the Deputy Chief Arbiter) and Elista Office must also include all the names of the Arbiters in the TRF of the tournament on the FIDE website.

IA1 (FA1) and IA2 (FA2) forms must be signed by the authorized for this persons and IA2 (FA2) form must be stamped by the applicant’s Federation. In case that the forms are not correctly filled, the Commission may reject the application (and then the Federation has to submit it again), or may accept it conditionally (and then the Federation has to send additional information).

Article 7 includes Annex1 (Regulations for the training of the chess arbiters) and Annex 1a (List of Lecturers for the FIDE Arbiters’ Seminars). So any Federation that wishes to organize a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar can find the relevant information and requirements.

Article 8 includes Annex 2 (Regulations for the classification of the arbiters).

Next to the previous circular letter of the Arbiters’ Commission, I would kindly remind you to send to the Arbiters’ Commission (Chairman Pan. Nikolopoulos, takisnik@yahoo.com, Secretary Dirk De Ridder, fide_dirkderidder@skynet.be , Councilor W. Stubenvoll, Werner.stubenvoll@liwest.at ) your proposals regarding the classification of your International (IA) and FIDE Arbiters (FA), according to the regulations of Annex2.

As the next FIDE Congress is scheduled for the end of September, you are kindly requested to send your proposals until 15 July 2009.

With best regards
IA Panagiotis Nikolopoulos
Chairman
FIDE Arbiters’ Commission