by: Geert Bailleul
From Monday May 4th until Thursday May 7th, the ECU Arbiters’ Council organized an internet based FA Seminar, in cooperation with the Education Team of the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission.
The lecturer was IA Jirina Prokopova (CZE), FIDE lecturer, member of the ECU Arbiters’ Council and member of the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission.
The assistant lecturers were IA Marco Biagioli (ITA), member of the ECU Arbiters’ Council and IA Geert Bailleul (BEL), secretary of the ECU Arbiters’ Council.
The observer was IA Tomasz Delega (POL), chairman of the ECU Arbiters’ Council.
The language of the seminar was in English.
Prior to the FA seminar, on Sunday May 3rd , there was also a workshop for all ECU arbiters, organized by the ECU Arbiters’ Council with the same lecturers as for the FA seminar.
During this workshop the members of the ECU Arbiters’ Council explained what they have been doing during the years since they have been appointed.
The large number of participants (77!) shows that there was a need to organize such a workshop.
The attending arbiters received a clear overview of the system of appointment, the evaluation of arbiters during ECU Events, an extensive chapter about GDPR, the reporting procedure, all kind of reports etc…
Also the necessary information was given about the ECU Arbiters’ Council website; what can be found on the website and were this information can be found.
There was a possibility for the attendees the ask questions which they did in large numbers.
After the workshop the ECU Arbiters’ Council received many positive reactions.
The actual FA seminar started on Monday May 4th with 41 participants out of 27 federations.
On Monday and Tuesday the participants were extensively informed about the Laws of Chess and all the changes which has been made during the previous years.
Many questions were asked upon which a clear answer was given by the lecturer.
Also anti-cheating was discussed in detail.
Based on the number of questions, it can be concluded that anti-cheating is considered as being a very important subject for chess arbiters.
On Wednesday May 6th and Thursday May 7th the following topics were discussed:
standards of Chess equipment, general regulations for competitions, system of games, tie-break systems, Swiss pairings, pairing rules and electronic clocks.
At the end of the seminar a test was held.
For the first time the test which was used, was a standardized test which should be a norm in the future for other FA Seminars.
The attendees had just over 2 hours to answer all the questions.
A score of 80% is needed to pass the test and receive the FA norm.
9 participants passed the test.
2 participants had a score above 90%; the highest score was 95.5% (!).
| 1 | Andre Harding | USA | 2008335 |
| 2 | Claudia Muenstermann | GER | 12928240 |
| 3 | Dan Peinador | ESP | 2218895 |
| 4 | De Noose Daniel | BEL | 203998 |
| 5 | Douglas Vleeshhouwer | ENG | 439061 |
| 6 | Luc Cornet | BEL | 205494 |
| 7 | Ruben Gonzalez Diez | ESP | 2251213 |
| 8 | Scaillet Timothé | BEL | 220574 |
| 9 | Stjepan Gudelj | CRO | 14536994 |
On Monday May 18th in an additional Zoom call the right answers were discussed together with the participants.
Further information about the ECU Arbiters’ Council can be found on their website: https://arbiters.europechess.org
You can also contact the ECU Arbiters’ Council by sending a mail to the Secretary: Geert Bailleul: ecuarbiterscouncil@gmail.com or geertbailleul@skynet.be
Geert Bailleul
Secretary of the ECU Arbiters’ Council.