FIDE Registration

[John Philpott]

The following has appeared today on the FIDE website:

FIDE has decided to delay the date the new regulations for registration and licensing come to effect. The new date is July 1st, 2015.

There are two main reasons for this decision:
a) Many Federations have requested this delay in order to take necessary steps and adopt to the new requirements for registration of new players.
b) The three month period until the 1st of July provides FIDE enough time to complete and test the upgrade of the FIDE Rating Server with the new tools for the rating officers, as well as the new web content for the chess community.

After April 1st, 2015, the new field of e-mail address will be added to the new players’ registration page in Fide Rating Server. Until July 1st, 2015 e-mail addresses are considered to be optional. This means that until July 1st 2015, the registration procedure returns a FIDE ID number even if the email field is empty. Still, we request Federations to provide the new players’ e-mail if this is possible.

[NickFaulks]

This climbdown is obviously very good news, but the threat has not gone away. If federations are serious about resisting the compulsion to hand over email addresses ( and we must assume that before long this will mean unique and functioning addresses ) they have only three months to get their acts together.

[Roger de Coverly]

This climbdown is obviously very good news, but the threat has not gone away.

FIDE boosts, probably rightly, of having an international membership in the sense of distinct countries or territories, exceeded only by the IOC or FIFA. I don't know the statistics for the percentage of the world population with email addresses, but out on the margins, you might expect it to be lower than in developed nations. So the policy is a fail on two accounts, firstly there are people who might be in a position to play in an internationally rated tournament who don't have email addresses and secondly those who have email addresses but are unwilling to disclose them to FIDE as a condition of playing in a FIDE rated event.

Whether the ECF put these points in its recent meeting with the FIDE President is another matter.

[NickFaulks]

Whether the ECF put these points in its recent meeting with the FIDE President is another matter.

It would have been pointless, since I don't suppose he would have had any idea what they were talking about. However, some federations did make their feelings known to the FIDE office, and evidently to some effect. I do not know whether the ECF was among these, but what matters now is that they must express their view well before 1st July. I would suggest that they liaise with their international friends, if they still have any.

[Roger de Coverly]

It would have been pointless, since I don't suppose he would have had any idea what they were talking about.

I would have thought that disqualifies him from office. It's the nuts and bolts of what FIDE should be doing, namely to organise and promote international chess. Why else should such an organisation exist?

[NickFaulks]

I would have thought that disqualifies him from office.

You're free to think that, but in that case the heads of an awful lot of big organisations would be similarly disqualified. Try HSBC. Closer to home, do you think that Dominic Lawson knows all the intricacies of the ECF membership scheme? Perhaps he does, but I wouldn't be sure.

[NickFaulks]

The following has appeared today on the FIDE website:

FIDE has decided to delay the date the new regulations for registration and licensing come to effect. The new date is July 1st, 2015.

There are two main reasons for this decision:
a) Many Federations have requested this delay in order to take necessary steps and adopt to the new requirements for registration of new players.
b) The three month period until the 1st of July provides FIDE enough time to complete and test the upgrade of the FIDE Rating Server with the new tools for the rating officers, as well as the new web content for the chess community.

After April 1st, 2015, the new field of e-mail address will be added to the new players’ registration page in Fide Rating Server. Until July 1st, 2015 e-mail addresses are considered to be optional. This means that until July 1st 2015, the registration procedure returns a FIDE ID number even if the email field is empty. Still, we request Federations to provide the new players’ e-mail if this is possible.

This suggests to me that email addresses will be compulsory from 1st July, and that is certainly how the regulations read. However, that may not be the case. I urge the British federations to write requesting clarification, as I believe other federations have already done.

[Roger de Coverly]

This suggest to me that email addresses will be compulsory from 1st July, and that is certainly how the regulations read.

I believe it to be the case that ratings cannot be (or is that will not be) processed unless every player has a FIDE Identification Number (FIN). The latest effective time for creating these for "home" players is just before the rating report is submitted. The implication is that from 1st July 2015, there will be a compulsory field in the input process for creating a FIN which will require input in the format of an email address. As to whether that has to be a valid personal address for the individual, a default address for the organiser or Federation or even something in the form of [email protected] remains to be seen.

I would have thought the problems of obtaining valid contact email addresses for those who don't have one or who don't want to disclose one to their national federation or FIDE were insurmountable. You can bar such players from the FIDE Arena online server, but is it FIDE's ambition to bar them from over the board play as well?

[MartinCarpenter]

Come to think of it, I wouldn't be that shocked if requiring an e-mail address (where there isn't a genuinely strong need for one of course) didn't infringe some of the equal opportunities style legislation in the UK/Europe. Definitely disproportionately low levels of internet access in various groups in society.

Imagine there must have been a case about this sort of thing at some point? They really can't be the first organisation to do something like this.

[NickFaulks]

I believe it to be the case that ratings cannot be (or is that will not be) processed unless every player has a FIDE Identification Number (FIN).

The regulations are a shambles. I'm suggesting that instead of guessing what they might be intended to mean, federations should ask some pointed questions.

[E Michael White]

This climbdown is obviously very good news, but the threat has not gone away. If federations are serious about resisting the compulsion to hand over email addresses ( and we must assume that before long this will mean unique and functioning addresses ) they have only three months to get their acts together.

Hello Nick,
Is it not the case that FIDE store ratings and other player information on servers in Moscow ? (My info on this may be out of date.) The ECF and their data controller would be advised to check the DPA implications of transferring personal data abroad to any country not on one of the 3 EU lists as providing minimal adequacy for data protection.

[Brian Towers]

The ECF and their data controller would be advised to check the DPA implications of transferring personal data abroad to any country not on one of the 3 EU lists as providing minimal adequacy for data protection.

From experience (which could very well be out of date) of working on this kind of software project explicit permission is required for such data transfer. It would not be something an individual federation could give on behalf of its members.

[NickFaulks]

I don't know, but I would presume that the servers are in Elista rather than Moscow, so still Russia. It's not a secret and yes, the ECF should ask.
I would presume there is a difference between players providing email addresses voluntarily and doing so because otherwise they can't play chess but again, I don't know.
The Presidential Board evidently believes that there is no time for such details, but I think that is very dangerous.

[Roger de Coverly]

FIDE are changing the rules again with little advance notification.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... 5-frl.html
http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html? ... ew=article

Also a blackmail attempt to get people to register with their on-line server.

Statistical and historical data on more than 3 months back on Ratings wesbite (https://ratings.fide.com) will require account to be creaed via FIDE Arena website:

I would have thought historic rating information of interest to non-chess players and not something that should be hidden behind a website set up for a different purpose.

So the usual questions. Does the ECF even know about this, let alone approve of the kidnap of historic data in this manner?

[NickFaulks]

So the usual questions. Does the ECF even know about this, let alone approve of the kidnap of historic data in this manner?

I doubt that more than a handful of people in FIDE knew about it before today.