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Chess Life Online Walter Brown Reports from the 86th FIDE Congress
Chess Life Online Walter Brown Reports from the 86th FIDE Congress | Walter Brown Reports from the 86th FIDE Congress |
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| By Walter Brown | |
| September 8, 2015 | |
 The commission meetings of the 86th FIDE Congress have concluded. All that remains are the Continental meetings and the Executive Board meeting. However, since our FIDE Americas meeting was held in Cali, Columbia on July 2nd, during the Pan-American Youth Festival, there will not be a meeting here in Abu Dhabi. That report may be found in Annex 29 for the FIDE Congress. The reports of the Arbiters Commission and the Qualification Commission are now available, along with titles to be approved. As Zonal President Franc Guadalupe already mentioned, the QC recommended approval the tile applications of Jeffery Xiong for GM; Michael Bodek, Eric Rosen, Daniel Gurevich, and Ruifeng Li for IM; Steve Immitt for IA; and Anand Dommapalati, Luis Salinas, and Michael Kummer for FA, and now they will be submitted to the EB for final approval. Franc added the title application, here at the Congress, for Akshita Gorti for IM as he attained her last norm at the 2015 US Masters. Her application may be approved on a conditional basis until the tournament is rated by FIDE later this month. Congratulations to these individuals for their achievement. The first meeting I attended was the Arbiters Commission. Franc already discussed the proposal to lower the age requirement for FA’s and NA’s. A list of new lecturers was submitted as well as classification upgrades for some arbiters - some were approved, and some were not. It was recommended that the Chief Lecturer at a seminar have a form to be filled out “grading” the Assistant Lecturer, similar to the IA1 and FA1 forms. This would let the Arbiter’s Commission know if the Chief Lecturer thinks that the Assistant Lecturer is qualified or not. The Arbiters Commission also came out with the “FIDE Arbiters’ Magazine”. Copies were available at the Congress and it may also be found on-line. A second issue is scheduled for January. Discipline of arbiters was mentioned since there were some cases about arbiters making improper decisions. A proposal was made by Kevin O’Connell that the long form of chess notation be permissible. An example is e4 would be the short notation while e2 – e4 is long notation. The rules seem to indicate that long form is not allowed but it is ruled that it is permissible. The reason for this use is that this is widely taught to younger scholastic players. The next meeting for me was the Qualification Commission on which I am a Counselor. There have been request for 7-game norms. One such example is the European Club Cup which is a 7-round tournament. This has been approved in the past and will continue for now. Other tournaments are trying to have seven rounds allowed but it that was not approved. Rule 1.41c was brought up. This is where in a 9-round tournament a player misses a game because of a bye or a forfeit. It was clarified that if a player wins a game because an opponent did not show up, he can still receive and 8-game norm. This is similar for a bye. This means when the computer pairings assigned the bye and not when a player requests a half-point bye or a zero-point bye. Those cannot be allowed for an 8-game norm. It was brought up about players being listed as “FIDE” for their flag. Some of this comes from the on-line arena and others because a player was removed from his federation’s list by the federation itself. These players do not count as foreigners when determining if a player has met the proper mix of opponents for a norm. Direct titles were discussed. This applies for players who perform very well in certain tournaments and automatically qualify for titles. An example would be winning the World Senior where the GM title is given or a Zonal Championship where a score of 66% is an automatic FM title. It is being proposed for next year’s meeting in Baku that the player will have to have a certain rating minimum to achieve the title as well. An example is as follows: to receive a FM title by rating, a player needs a 2300 rating. If a player “earns” such a title in a Zonal with a 66% score or better, he might have to have a 2100 rating or 200 points below the rating requirement to receive the title. The 200-point level is being mentioned for this. However, it will be discussed in the coming year. In FIDE, regulations are changed every 4 years so next year in Baku, regulations affecting title requirements, rating requirements as well as other aspects of the system will be looked at, but changes that are approved at Baku will not go into effect until July 2017. Late submission of tournaments was discussed. Some tournaments submitted are not getting rated. The rule now is that if a tournament is more than two rating lists late, it will not be rated. This might drop to one month in the future. The rules commission’s agenda included several proposals that will be further discussed next year. However, this will be very minor and no major changes are expected. The Systems of Pairings and Programs Commission discussed the “Dutch Pairing System”. Certain pairing issues were brought up, specifically on what is a correct pairing. An example would be in the top point group the following two players are to meet. Player A has WBWWBWBW while player B has BWBBWBWW. Player A has 5 whites and 3 blacks while player B has 4 whites and 4 blacks but a double white at the end. Player B should be given the white. While it gives him three white’s in a row, his color imbalance is 5 to 4 white, same as player A. If you give the white to A, it gives him an imbalance of 6 to 3 white’s which is very disproportionate. Work is underway to check pairing programs and have them approved. Rated online chess appears to be coming. There will be a trial period of one year where leagues can register and play on-line and it will affect the over the board rating. More details will follow. The results will be reviewed at Baku. FIDE Delegate Michael Khodarkovsky will be submitting a report on the meetings he attended and Zonal President Franc Guadalupe will be wrapping it up with his report on the Executive Board. |
