I was wondering about how often FIDE holds seminars in the United States, as well as online seminars. From what I can tell on the website, they host them rather often (2-3 per month?), but these are located internationally. There are a few Internet-based seminars that are starting in the next few months, however, they are all from Southern American federations.
Related to my above question, would I be allowed to attend such a seminar as a underage Local TD? I know I cannot apply for FA until I am 21, but I would like to learn about FIDE rules in depth for future work. My area holds a lot of FIDE-rated events, and I want to prepare for my National Arbiter test (which I am of age for) when I achieve Senior TD sometime in the future. Would these events still potentially give me a FA norm if I pass the exam?
My reasoning for this question is the FIDE Regulations for the Titles of Arbiters states, “2.1.4 Applicants for the title of IA/FA must be at least 21 years old.”, and does not mention that seminars also hold this age requirement.
Apologies if this is the incorrect place to ask, I do not know of any FIDE forums for arbiters. Thanks for the help!
Holding an in-person FIDE arbiter training session is fairly expensive, which is why you won’t see a lot of them in the USA., because there’s not huge demand for them here There was one at the US Open in August, there may be another one at the US Open next year.
My understanding is there is no age limitation on attending the FIDE Arbiter seminars but the regulations state that norms from Seminars are valid for a period of four (4) years. In that respect it seems pointless to do one prior to your 17th birthday.
It does not matter (except for the time difference) where an internet FIDE Arbiters seminar is held. What is important is what language it is in. The online seminar I took was in English, but given by an instructor from Greece. There was as a result some issues with the times of the seminar, except that the final review was on Saturday and the final test on Sunday. I also many years ago attended the FIDE Arbiter seminar that was given at the Canadian Open in Toronto.
Most important is that just like FIDE tournaments that you direct at there is a limit to how long any given seminar is good/valid. If you check the listing for FIDE you will see that “tournament arbiter norms” are good for no more than 6 years, while “seminar arbiter norms” are good for no more than 4 years. Remember that if there happens to be a new FIDE rule book issued, then any “seminar arbiter norms” from previous years become invalid.
Unfortunately I do not trust my Spanish enough to listen to a lecture. I thought the federation had to nominate and/or approve the seminar listeners, which is why I brought that up instead of the language barrier.
I would imagine there is some process/payment required to attend, correct?
*EDIT
Payment is 20 euros, but I wasn’t able to find anything on how to request entry.
WE do not have a huge demand for FIDE arbiters seminars since we have our own TD certification process and since a large majority of US events are not FIDE rated. US Chess has held a seminar, in English, during the week of the US Open at the US Open site for the last several years.