English Arbiters to suffer???

[Alex McFarlane]

The following is on both the FIDE website and the Olympiad one.

Dear Chess Family,
I was invited by FIDE to participate in the meeting in Athens to select the arbiters for the 40th Chess Olympiad. I went to the meeting on 3rd May 2012.

A list was drawn up, respecting the proposals of the Continental Presidents. However, on behalf of TCF, we have refused to accept some of the names on that list. These refusals are in no way personal, they are solely related to matters of chess and its well-being.

Some federations launched or supported court cases against FIDE and thus created financial problems for FIDE and a loss of distributable income for worldwide chess development. We believe that the damage that they thus inflicted on chess development around the world should be repaired by them reimbursing the lost funds, so that those funds can, as originally budgeted, be spent on chess development. We further believe that until that has been done, those federations should not be given any arbiter or Appeals Committee position by FIDE. As TCF we respect legal issues; all players will be protected, whatever the actions of their federation.

I want everybody to look at this from our point of view. Each year, my federation contributes to FIDE €50-100,000. The damage created by the Karpov versus FIDE case is around USD 1 million. The case was purely political. The plaintiffs lost that court case. They did not even offer an apology for the damage their action inflicted on a large majority of national chess federations!

The federations that supported that action have done nothing for chess but damage FIDE financially, forcibly diverting resources that would otherwise have been used for chess development (CACDEC, chess in schools, marketing, trainers, etc.).

Therefore, as TCF we react as a federation that has suffered from the actions of those 7 federations. We work hard, doing our best for chess, while some contribute only "bla, bla" and do nothing but damage our family.

Should we be quiet and cross our fingers that they will learn? Or should we act?

We prefer to act and fight for our chess family. That is our position and the reasoning behind our decision.

Gens Una Sumus

Ali Nihat YAZICI

President of Turkish Chess Federation

It looks as if English arbiters are going to miss out on Olympiad participation due to decisions of the ECF Board that were kept secret from its members.
I urge everyone to contact Andrew Farthing to ensure that the ECF Board take action on this matter.

Perhaps the 'body' that bank-rolled the original court action and the ECF Officials who pushed the motion through will now be seeking to take action to prevent this situation developing.

The European Chess Union had nominated Lara Barnes to be an arbiter at the event. Lara has been really looking forward to going to Istanbul. Lara has been through hell in the last 9 months. It now looks as if she is to suffer yet again due to the actions of certain ECF Officials.

I write this as Chief Arbiter of the CAA and not as her partner. There are knock-on effects for other CAA and English arbiters.

[Paul Cooksey]

Reprehensible politicking by Turkey.

Using a legal action as a basis for actions is against normal legal principles. I assume this will be established before the event.

If this was done with FIDE's knowledge, it has no shame.

EDIT: I updated my post, having realised that Turkey as organiser was making more than an empty threat, which was my initial thought. The sentence Roger quotes was included of course.

[Roger de Coverly]

/

t would be a bit surprising if FIDE could consider a legal action the basis for a further action. I know nothing about CAS, but I assume it respects the normal legal principles.

Whilst I don't think in general it's wise for chess organisations to hire expensive lawyers to settle disputes, I do however notice that a search for "chess cas" comes up with

http://www.chessdom.com/castas-decides- ... -to-appeal

So the Turkish Federation are not adverse to legal action, in this case against the European Chess Union.

I would have thought excluding individuals from officiating in an international event because of past disputes between their national body and the international body is just asking for legal challenge.

[Paul Cooksey]

To save anyone else checking, the five countries in the original case were France, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States. Plus Georgia from the new one.

I'd hope our CEO is able to coordinate a response with these other Federations. I'd hope it is suitably robust. Regardless of the circumstances under which the ECF took legal action, I find the action of the Turkish Federation unacceptable.

[Jonathan Rogers]

absolutely; gens una sumus indeed, Mr Yazici.

Although it should not need saying, this is exactly why the non-communication of the ECF decision to take legal action has been so contentious, and exactly why it is generally supposed that it was deliberate. Nothing could be more predictable than some form of retaliation, including unlawful/base political retaliation. Short would know this as well as anyone, having suffered when FIDE unlawfully stripped him of his Elo rating in 1993. So it was essential that the ECF as a whole approved of the action and thereby showed the will to deal with the consequences.

Anyway, is there any news of the CAS decision yet - I assume that Mr Yazici is referring to the previous decision on locus standi? (I start with some Latin and so I will finish...)

[Mick Norris]

Not sure - website is here:
http://www.tas-cas.org/general

[Roger de Coverly]

Not sure - website is here:
http://www.tas-cas.org/general

The decisions page is the place to look
http://www.tas-cas.org/recent-decision

Nothing involving FIDE since the 2010 case.
http://www.tas-cas.org/d2wfiles/documen ... ernet).pdf

[Sean Hewitt]

I guess that I too will get caught up in all of this as I have been nominated to arbit at the Olympiad by the ACP but we'll need to see how this all shakes out.

I wonder if it's too late to transfer federations to IRL?

[Matthew Turner]

I assume when you say ACP you mean
http://armyofcp.com/

It is just a wonderfully named site and the comment under the banner headline "I'm so very sorry it's gone on like this"

[Gerard Killoran]

I see Nigel Short's legendary diplomatic skills have paid off yet again. In the light of his low opinion of our arbiters, given here during his election campaign, perhaps it has been a cunning plan all along?

[Kevin Thurlow]

Isn't it against FIDE statutes to discriminate on racial grounds? Albania was expelled some years ago for refusing to play South Africa in an Olympiad, then a few years later FIDE expelled South Africa for being South Africa.

So I assume that Turkey will now be expelled, if this individual is indeed representing their wishes...

[Mick Norris]

How many arbiters do they have?

Is this the full list?
http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ipals.html

[Matt Mackenzie]

I thought the Albanians refused to play Israel? Or was that another occasion??

[Roger de Coverly]

How many arbiters do they have?

Is this the full list?
http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... ipals.html

They usually have one arbiter for every match of four boards, or every pair of matches. After all, they need someone to keep an eye on players, so as to default them if they are stood up at the start time. The list on the FIDE site is just the bosses.

[Roger de Coverly]

To save anyone else checking, the five countries in the original case were France, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States. Plus Georgia from the new one.

FIDE have never shown the slightest interest in using headcount as a voting method, but the "gang of seven" represents around 35% of the world's active FIDE rated players.