On this column we have mentioned many times what is needed to be a good arbiter. We have focused on experience, as a key to success. We have spoken about best judgement, as an essential capability to run a smooth tournament. Today, we will focus on education and permanent learning.
We all know that to perform as a good Chess Arbiter we need to improve constantly our knowledge about the various rules and regulations and the best way to achieve this goal is attendance at seminars: there is a great need of education and training of all arbiters, at any levels, from the newly promoted FA to the long-standing experienced IA.
This is, in fact, one of the main goals of the Arbiters’ Council, to provide many more opportunities to learn and train, share information, provide education and through these activities, help every colleague to grow and improve.
As a Council, we put a significant effort in this area because we do believe that it is paramount in our mission to provide as many chances as possible to our colleagues to get the education and the training that will be necessary in their careers as arbiters. And we do believe that it is our mission to open it to everyone, not only to the Europeans, but to all colleagues from any Federations: the seminars, in fact, will be open to any licensed arbiters.
Pursuing this purpose, the ECU Arbiters’ Council has launched a comprehensive programme of seminars over the year 2025 to grand every arbiter the possibility of learning, improving, and finally growing as a professional.
We have carefully selected a wide range of top-level lecturers, mostly IA A’ with large and recognised experience, who will provide a quality training in several languages.
Undoubtably, the programme is extremely ambitious and includes various topics, with several seminars for each topic and many
lecturers involved, to make them available in multiple languages. Let’s see them in detail!
We have launched monthly Swiss Manager seminars, we will have in total eight different seminars, one per month from April to December, except for August.
And we wish to highlight that the Council also offers a seminar in Italian, scheduled for June, one in German on July, one in French on October and one in Spanish on November.
The course consists of two 3-hours sessions (basic/advanced) and follows former Secretary Tania Karali’s user-guide, based on the one already run in January which sold out in a few days.
The main goal is to allow new Swiss Manager users to quickly become proficient: this course is designed for people having even no previous knowledge about the software.
The seminar will give a certificate in the end, managed in cooperation with Heinz Herzog, Swiss Manager creator, and a discount code to buy the licence.
We will also hold eight monthly Anti-cheating seminars, currently scheduled for every month from April to December, except for August. These seminars will only be held in English, but
in the future, they will be made available in
other languages too.
Through this format, the attendants will learn basic operations and more advanced skills to be able to operate in ECU championships as an Anti-Cheating Arbiter. The course is designed for people who already have an arbiter’s title (NA,
FA or IA), but no previous knowledge about anti-cheating, and is supported with videos and demonstrations.
As education has many steps and different levels, we will hold also Advanced Education seminars, which are addressed to arbiters
whose ambition is to become in the future Chief Arbiters of European events, to give them some deeper knowledge and better understanding of
the regulations. These seminars will be led by our Chairman Mr Nikolopoulos with high-level co lecturers. Currently, we have scheduled two of such seminars in April and November. It will include case studies and analysis from real tournaments, deep review of the Laws of Chess, experience exchange.
Another task who is often required to the arbiters, and may be useful for them in tournaments, is about the live boards.
And here we go! We will hold two live boards seminars on June and October.
The attendants will learn basic operations and more advanced skills to operate DGT live
boards, from small installations to bigger plants. We have designed this course for people with no previous knowledge about DGT live boards, so it’s open to everyone!
We all hope that in tournaments everything goes well and nothing happens, but unfortunately, sometimes bad things happen. Then, it is better to be prepared to face unexpected situations and hence we plan one CPR-BLS informative workshop, in July, and another one about safe play and harassment case handling in September.
These courses offer a new perspective of severe incidents that may happen in tournaments and gives a basic training on how to handle them. They are designed for arbiters and with an international title (FA or IA) who wish to get a basic knowledge how to manage unpredictable situations happening in the events: do not forget that the unexpected and the unforeseen never inform you they are happening. Be prepared to face every situation with proper training.
As you can see the programme is quite large and offers a wide range of topics, and, of course, each seminar offers points for the next calls of interest.
Now it’s up to you: follow the ECU training hub and our website to register to the seminars!
Text by Marco Biagioli
IA Attorney at Law – ITA Calendar Commission, MITROPA President, ECU Arbiters’ Council, FIDE Rules Commission