For a FIDE rated tournament, is there a rule on how much the FIDE Arbiter has to be present at the playing site?
Do you mean FA or any arbiter?
Alex Relyea
There is a tournament coming up where the organizers want it to be FIDE rated. The only FIDE certified TD available for the event can only be there for like two of the five days. Can it be FIDE rated under this circumstance?
I don’t think so. Not even close.
Alex Relyea
Indeed. And the arbitrator should know better than to be associated with the event in that way. If such were attempted the arbitrator should be suspended.
No.
If an arbiter is putting his/her name to an event as the arbiter then that arbiter better be present throughout the whole event or suffer the consequences when it is found out he/she wasn’t.
Check out the FIDE Competition Rules at fide.com/FIDE/handbook/Competition_Rules.pdf specifically item 3. I’m not sure how an arbiter can fulfill those duties if they are not present for the whole tournament.
If the tournament is being submitted to US Chess for rating then there is also page 257 of the US Chess rulebook that includes the phrase “In general, the chief TD must be physically present during play”. The play is governed by the FIDE Laws of Chess, but that doesn’t remove the obligation to follow US Chess rules (no saying US Chess membership is not required for a FIDE-rated event).
Because of that, when I’m a solo TD at even a US Chess-rated event I try to minimize even the duration of any bathroom break occurring during a round (one unfortunate side effect of ASAP schedules with multiple sections is that there may be an eight hour day of tournament play but no moment when nobody is playing).
I played in a FIDE rated round robin in the 1980’s where the arbiter was not present. The event was run by competent local USCF TDs over a two weekend period. There were no incidents. The results were sent to the arbiter who then sent it on for rating. As I recall, he could not make both weekends of the event because of another commitment. It is my understanding that FIDE got a little testy about events run like this, and were put off also by manipulating of pairings in US events to help players get norms. Maybe at the time it seemed too obvious that an arbiter was to be present that there need not be formal language in requiring it. The bending of the rules by the US and other federations led to many changes in FIDE rules. That is perhaps why there are so many divergences between the rule sets.
And such practices also led to problems with rejected nirms and issues with the US reputation within FIDE. We’ve been trying to change that.
If we knew about such action by an arbitor today the event likely wouldn’t be sent to FIDE for rating.
Remember that FIDE has changed things over the years [i.e. since 1980]. Among those changes is that the chief arbiter is to be present for the entire event. Obviously there will be times when the chief arbiter won’t be present [bathroom, food, etc.], but as a general rule the arbiter is to be available in case any dispute(s) arise during the event. Another thing that has changed is that the arbiter must be certified with FIDE. Back in the 1980s a Senior TD was allowed to run FIDE rated events, with the USCF submitting the tournament to FIDE. Now even the STD must at least be a National Arbiter [NA] who is registered [it includes a paid fee] with FIDE. If you have multiple FIDE arbiters I do not know if the non-chief arbiter must be present throughout the event. Always check the list of rules that are to be applied and make certain to comply with them, as that is the best policy for running a tournament. As an example a players only bathroom is a good thing to have, but it is not uncommon for FIDE events in the US to not do this.
Larry Cohen