Arbiter Registration (Required To Be Arbiter In FIDE Tournaments)

[ER]

Remember a few months ago (It was actually 27-06-2012, 05:06 PM) where responding in an Igor Goldenberg post in regards to fair systems of FIDE delegates,

... Voting power in proportion to membership fee would be the fairest system.

I stated the following:

You 've seen nuthin' yet bro! Giv' em a couple of years and you 'll find that no tournament will be recognised unless

• it's FIDE approved and rated
• run by FIDE approved organisers.
• officiated by FIDE approved arbiters.
• Its participants are financial FIDE members.

Further developments will include

• Zone authorities to act as some kind of Polit bureau heavies
• National federations will play the role of kolhoz and sovhoz organisers
• State Associations will act like tax collectors with their treasurers as enforcing officers

(*)

Then the clubs wil come in and tell them all to go get stuffed and let's play chess!

Well that was a few months ago.

Then, earlier this morning I received on my mail the latest ACF News Letter by the acting Editor Dr Kevin Bonham.

The Arbiter Registration article reads as follows:

Arbiter Registration

FIDE are introducing a new Arbiter Licence system under which arbiters of rated tournaments must be licenced, so that if a FIDE tournament uses an unlicenced arbiter then the tournament will not be rated, from 1 Jan 2013 onwards.

The licences are notionally for life, but can be lost if an arbiter becomes inactive, requiring a further payment to reactivate. For details see http://arbiters.fide.com/
An untitled arbiter who wishes to be appointed for a FIDE-rated tournament will therefore need to be registered as a National Arbiter. An inactive arbiter who wishes to be appointed for a FIDE-rated tournament will need to reactivate.
I have proposed at this stage - but note that this is not binding and may change - that:

• the ACF will pay the licence fees for the existing active IAs and FAs (except if there is any special reason to believe a specific arbiter will not make further use of their title.) The ACF will also pay the licence fee when an arbiter qualifies for an FA or IA title in future.
• inactive titled arbiters will need to pay licence fees to the ACF for the level they wish to reactivate at.
• untitled arbiters will need to pay licence fees to the ACF in order to become FIDE National Arbiters. It doesn't matter whether these fees are paid by the arbiter or by an organiser seeking to use them.

The list of licence fees can be seen at item 6 of http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.ht...&view=category

The ACF needs to notify FIDE of who the initial registered arbiters will be by 5 December. So that the ACF can co-ordinate payments, all inactive titled arbiters wishing to become licenced in order to run a FIDE-rated tournament in the near future, and all untitled arbiters wishing to be arbiters in FIDE-rated tournaments in the near future, need to contact me by email by 21 November.Alternatively, an organiser wishing to use an inactive titled arbiter or untitled arbiter, and willing to pay the fee on their behalf, needs to contact me by the same time. We will get back to you to make payment arrangements after 21 Nov.
(After the current process concludes, new registrations will of course be possible, but it is not yet clear how long they will take to process, so I recommend any organiser who plans to use an untitled or inactive arbiter in a tournament soon to ensure they are registered now.)
I can be contacted at k_bonham@tassie.net.au or if that doesn't work drkjbonham@gmail.com

The current active titled arbiters - who do not need to contact me at this stage (I will contact any special cases) are:
Anastasia Sorokina, Gary Bekker, Charles Zworestine, Roland Eime, Graeme Gardiner, Garvin Gray, Peter Parr, Kevin Perrin, Cathy Rogers, Peter Tsai, Jamie Kenmure, Kerry Stead, Brian Jones (approval pending).

The current inactive titled arbiters according to FIDE are:
John Frew, Evelyn Koshnitsky, Jason Lyons, Susan Margan, Morris Needleman, Alan Thomas, Manuel Weeks.
- Kevin Bonham, ACF Delegate to FIDE

ER I have touched nothing in the original text. I 've only decreased the font size in order to save space. All emphasis, bolding, underlying etc are left as in Dr Bonham’s original. ER

Well, it looks as FIDE didn't wait that long to confirm my fears.

On the other hand it's encouraging to see ACF coming to the party and footing the bill of what looks like could be a financial burden for our arbiters.

It's also good that our tournaments would be arbitered by recognised officials!

The question now lays wih the practicality of implementing the new rule. It might be easy for the big states to have their tournaments FIDE rated. What about places like South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia though?

Well apart from a few minor (or not so minor) hiccups everything seems to be OK isn't it?

It's not!

Go back to my original prediction and read again:

You 've seen nuthin' yet bro! Giv' em a couple of years and you 'll find that no tournament will be recognised unless

• it's FIDE approved and rated
• run by FIDE approved organisers.
• officiated by FIDE approved arbiters.
• Its participants are financial FIDE members.

Well, I hope it remains a prediction and I will be proven wrong!

[Kevin Bonham]

On the other hand it's encouraging to see ACF coming to the party and footing the bill of what looks like could be a financial burden for our arbiters.

I did stress that bit's not official and may change. It's one of those things where I put a proposal to the Exec, indicate I need a decision but am busy, nobody objects or says anything at all so I have to take that as provisional agreement otherwise nothing gets done.

The question now lays wih the practicality of implementing the new rule. It might be easy for the big states to have their tournaments FIDE rated. What about places like South Australia, Tasmania, and Western Australia though?

It is no problem really. You can register anyone as a National Arbiter for the fee which is pretty modest and then they can be arbiter. No qualifications are required to be an NA.

In my view the arbiter registration system is a nuisance that wastes time for national administrators and that is mainly just a revenue-raiser for FIDE, irrespective of the pretexts advanced for its establishment.

No doubt it's not the last such scheme that manages to get approved.

[ER]

I did stress that bit's not official and may change. It's one of those things where I put a proposal to the Exec, indicate I need a decision but am busy, nobody objects or says anything at all so I have to take that as provisional agreement otherwise nothing gets done.

Yes, you did that very clearly and I should have referred to it. However, even as a thought / proposal, and regardless of the amount involved, the motion is commendable!

[Kevin Bonham]

There is a glitch in the last Newsletter with the link to my primary email address, k_bonham@tassie.net.au , not working. It is possibly caused by the underscore.

If people emailing me about registrations could do so to that address that would be good. Ta.

[Kevin Bonham]

Arbiters who will be registered subject to ACF approval

I will be updating this list as more names come in. This is the current list of names I have received by email. Note that names will only be added if sent to me by email either by the arbiter themselves or by someone else who indicates a willingness to pay the registration on behalf of a State Association, club or similar.

NSW

Bill Gletsos
Peter Cassettari
Norm Greenwood
Robert Watson
Shane Burgess
Brian Jones [May be registered directly as FA - Kevin]
Alana Chibnall
Arthur Huynh
Trent Parker
David Webster
Brett Tindall
Laura Moylan

QLD

Patrick Byrom

TAS

Kevin Bonham (who knows, we might run a FIDE event one of these centuries!)

Remember I need names by November 21 emailed to k_bonham@tassie.net.au

[Kevin Bonham]

Also

NSW

Ron Scott - believed not proceeding
Max Illingworth

Vic

Domagoj Dragicevic
John Nemeth
Svetozar Stojic
Scott Crowley

ACT

Emma Guo

-------------------------------------------------------

Those who have not yet contacted me are urged to get their acts together immediately. If there is not sufficient time to get payment details etc sorted out for anyone who has not contacted me by now, that will be their problem. This especially applies to anyone even thinking of leaving it til the few days before the FIDE deadline to send me notice that they wish to register as NA.

[Kevin Bonham]

Thread split because previous thread title was causing confusion.

+ SA

William Anderson-Smith

[Kevin Bonham]

+QLD

Andrew Fitzpatrick
Jim Ritchie
Mark Stokes
Norman Braybrooke
Allan Menham

[Kevin Bonham]

CV list received

Grant SZUVEGES
Malcolm PYKE
David BEAUMONT - referred to ACF Exec for possible veto
David STIMSON
Paul CAVEZZA
Carl GORKA

Leonid Sandler

Trevor Stanning

Gerrit Hartland

Chris Potter

Steve Hogan

Tony Davis

[Kevin Bonham]

Just reproducing the most recent instructions from the Newsletter:


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arbiter Registration

NOTE:
This notice has some changes from the one published in the
previous issue, so if interested in this issue please re-read.

FIDE are introducing a new Arbiter Licence system under which arbiters
of rated tournaments must be licensed, so that if a FIDE
tournament uses an unlicensed arbiter then the tournament will not
be rated, from 1 Jan 2013 onwards. The
licenses are notionally for life, but can be lost if an arbiter
becomes inactive, requiring a further payment to reactivate. For
details see http://arbiters.fide.com/

An untitled arbiter who wishes
to be appointed for a FIDE-rated tournament will therefore need to
be registered as a FIDE National Arbiter. An inactive arbiter who
wishes to be appointed for a FIDE-rated tournament will need to
reactivate.

The following ACF decisions
have been reached:

* the ACF will pay the licence
fees for the existing active IAs and FAs except if there is any
special reason to believe a specific arbiter is very unlikely to
make use of their title in the near future. The ACF will also
pay the licence fee when an arbiter qualifies for an FA or IA
title in future.

*inactive titled arbiters will
need to pay licence fees to the ACF for the level they wish to
reactivate at.

*untitled arbiters will need to pay licence fees to the ACF in order to
become FIDE National Arbiters. It doesn't matter whether these
fees are paid by the arbiter or by an organiser seeking to use
them.

All applications are potentially
subject to ACF veto should the ACF wish any player not to be
listed as a FIDE National Arbiter for any reason.

The list of licence fees can be seen at item 6 of
http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.ht...&view=category

The ACF needs to notify FIDE of who the initial registered arbiters will be by 5 December. Untitled arbiters, and inactive arbiters seeking to reactivate,
need to contact me immediately advising of their desire to
register and informing me of who will pay their registration. As
the previously advertised deadline has passed I do not guarantee
to include new registrations in the Dec 5 list but will do my best
to include them. Those who have already emailed me will be
contacted very soon re payment.

All arbiters seeking licencing, including active IAs and FAs, should email me a scan of a good quality portrait-type photo of themselves (250x300 pixels) to be included on their licence card, and their postal address for
delivery.

(After the current process
concludes, new registrations will of course be possible, but it is
not yet clear how long they will take to process, so I recommend
any organiser who plans to use an untitled or inactive arbiter in
a tournament soon to immediately contact me)

I can be contacted at
k_bonham@tassie.net.au
or if that doesn't work drkjbonham@gmail.com

The current active titled
arbiters - who need only to send photos unless I've contacted them
separately - are:

Anastasia Sorokina, Gary
Bekker, Charles Zworestine, Roland Eime, Graeme Gardiner, Garvin
Gray, Peter Parr, Kevin Perrin, Cathy Rogers, Peter Tsai, Jamie
Kenmure, Kerry Stead, Brian Jones (approval pending).

The current inactive titled arbiters according to FIDE are:

John Frew, Evelyn Koshnitsky, Jason Lyons, Susan Margan, Morris
Needleman, Alan Thomas, Manuel Weeks.

[Kevin Bonham]

+SA

Alan Goldsmith
Giang Nguyen
William Wedding
Eric Staak

+QLD

Michael Corner

[Kevin Bonham]

Just making this clear for the slackers: if you haven't contacted me and followed all the required payment steps from my reply email by Dec 5, then you don't get included in the list I send off on Dec 5, and you'll have to take your chances as to how long it takes to get processed.

[Rhubarb]

FIDE are introducing a new Arbiter Licence system under which arbiters
of rated tournaments must be licensed, so that if a FIDE
tournament uses an unlicensed arbiter then the tournament will not
be rated, from 1 Jan 2013 onwards.

Kevin, what exactly do you suppose FIDE means by "from 1 Jan 2013 onwards".

Hopefully it means tournaments that are registered or completed from then onwards, because if it means tournaments rated from January 1, we've got a problem with some of the 17 Australian registrations for January 1 (the ones for February and March are okay).

[Kevin Bonham]

Kevin, what exactly do you suppose FIDE means by "from 1 Jan 2013 onwards".

At least tournaments starting from 1 Jan 2013: "Since the Federations need to have licensed Arbiters for their first events of 2013, [..]"

Possibly also tournaments in progress as at 1 Jan 2013.

Seems clear to me it doesn't affect tournaments finished in 2012 and rated in 2013.

[Rhubarb]

At least tournaments starting from 1 Jan 2013: "Since the Federations need to have licensed Arbiters for their first events of 2013, [..]"

Possibly also tournaments in progress as at 1 Jan 2013.

Seems clear to me it doesn't affect tournaments finished in 2012 and rated in 2013.

Yes okay, possibly a silly question by me. Since there are no more registrations to come this year that won't otherwise violate the 30-day pre-registration rule, I can safely start insisting that organisers appoint an approved arbiter from now on. Prediction: within the next few weeks, FIDE will program it into the server that registrations won't be allowed without an approved arbiter.