FIDE ARBITERS’ COMMISSION ARBITERS’ MANUAL 2020 ii FIDE President’s welcome Dear chess friends, The FIDE Arbiters’ Commission represents one of the most numerous commissions in the FIDE family, counting over 14,000 licensed arbiters, and plays an essential role in the development of chess all over the world. In addition to the organization of seminars and workshops and to the regular publication on its website of guidelines and new contents for all chess arbiters, an important achievement of the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission is represented by the Arbiters' Manual, which was created several years ago in the belief that it was important to have policies and procedures which could be easily accessible and of great assistance to the arbiters, the National Chess Federations, the players and everyone who is involved in the organization of chess tournaments all over the world. The Arbiters' Manual has now been updated, and the readers will find in this book the new regulations and all necessary documents for chess arbiters to be guided in their daily activities by a team of the most experienced experts of this field. I sincerely hope that this book will be an essential tool for the training of future arbiters and will contribute to increase the number of qualified professional chess arbiters in the world and to further enrich their skills in order to allow them to exercise their duties in the best possible way. I am proud to express my deepest gratitude to the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission and to everyone who contributed to the creation of this new issue of the Arbiters' Manual. Arkady Dvorkovich FIDE President iii iv INTRODUCTION Dear fellow arbiters, dear friends, This manual is yours! Since the first edition published in 2013, the Arbiters' Manual has been a reference for thousands of chess arbiters worldwide. It has been evolving over time, adding regulations, sharing examples or comments, removing obsolete parts ... Year after year, it has been aggregating the experience of colleagues passionately investing their energy in making the manual better! More than a teamwork, our manual is a concrete illustration of the FIDE motto: Gens Una Sumus – we are one family. One family with other commissions who produce regulations that we have to apply in tournaments; and especially with arbiters sharing various views or feedback. Thank you all for your contribution in helping our sector to grow! This edition is a reorganised version of the Arbiters' Manual. Apart from updating regulations, the sequence of chapters is intended to better fit with the job of an arbiter, from practical subjects related to the playing sessions to more technical or administrative topics. Although a wider audience than the arbiters' community appreciates our manual, the primary goal is to provide a good tool to our colleagues. In this view, the role and duties of an arbiter were moved to Chapter 1, even before the Laws of Chess, as the first move of our strategy to foster the growth of chess arbiters! Our team also took some time to review comments and interpretations, so that you benefit from better added value when studying the subjects. For all these reasons, the FIDE Arbiters' Commission is proud to release the Arbiter's Manual 2020! Wishing you good reads and even better tournaments! Laurent FREYD Chairman FIDE Arbiters’ Commission v Revisions list Version Number Date Changes 00 01 Oct 2017 Initial Version 01 31 Dec 2017 2018 version, FIDE laws changes taking effect from January 2018 (Articles 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, A.4.2, A.4.3, A.4.5) Addition: Guidelines for the organisers FIDE Swiss Rules C.04.2.A: the whole section has been rewritten, C.04.2.B.3: a clarification 02 01 Sep 2018 Some minor grammatical corrections, New Anti-cheating guidelines for Arbiters, Title norms example correction 03 01 July 2019 Some minor grammatical corrections General Rules and Technical Recommendations for Tournaments New General Regulations for Competitions Addition: Regulations for the classification of the Chess Arbiters 04 April 2020 Some minor grammatical corrections Reorder chapters Revise some of interpretations FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations New Standards of Chess Equipment, Venue, for FIDE Tournaments, Rate of Play and Tie- break Regulations New General Rules and Technical Recommendations for Tournaments Table of contents CHAPTER 1: THE ROLE OF THE ARBITERS AND THEIR DUTIES ................................................................................. 1 Summary of the general duties of an Arbiter ....................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: THE FIDE LAWS OF CHESS (E01) ................................................................................................... 5 A Brief History of the Laws of Chess ..................................................................................................... 5 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 7 PREFACE .................................................................................................................................................. 7 BASIC RULES OF PLAY ................................................................................................................................. 8 Article 1: The nature and objectives of the game of chess .............................................................. 8 Article 2: The initial position of the pieces on the chessboard......................................................... 9 Article 3: The moves of the pieces .................................................................................................. 11 Article 4: The act of moving the pieces........................................................................................... 16 Article 5: The completion of the game ........................................................................................... 18 COMPETITION RULES ............................................................................................................................... 19 Article 6: The Chessclock ................................................................................................................ 19 Article 7: Irregularities .................................................................................................................... 25 Article 8: The recording of the moves ............................................................................................ 28 Article 9: The drawn game .............................................................................................................. 30 Article 10: Points ............................................................................................................................. 33 Article 11: The conduct of the players ............................................................................................ 34 Article 12: The role of the Arbiter (see Preface) ............................................................................. 37 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................................... 39 Appendix A. Rapid chess ................................................................................................................. 39 Appendix B. Blitz ............................................................................................................................. 41 Appendix C. Algebraic notation ...................................................................................................... 42 Appendix D. Rules for play with blind and visually disabled players .............................................. 45 Guidelines ........................................................................................................................................... 48 Guidelines I. Adjourned games ....................................................................................................... 48 Guidelines II. Chess960 Rules ......................................................................................................... 50 Guidelines III. Games without increment including Quickplay Finishes ......................................... 52 Glossary of terms in the Laws of Chess .............................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER 3: ANTI-CHEATING GUIDELINES (B06 ANNEX 6) ................................................................................ 59 Recommendations for Arbiters .......................................................................................................... 59 ix 1. How breaches of AC regulations may occur during the game: ................................................ 60 2. Applicable precautions: ............................................................................................................ 60 3. Screening games for precaution and information: .................................................................. 61 4. How to deal with suspicious behavior: .................................................................................... 61 5. How to deal with the new Article 11. 3 of the Laws of Chess: ................................................. 62 6. How to deal with accusations: ................................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER 4: TYPES OF TOURNAMENTS ..........................................................................................................