Stateless Chess Player

[Ian Thompson]

I didn't realise it was possible to be a FIDE registered player without being registered to a federation or directly to FIDE - https://ratings.fide.com/profile/14200937. Presumably, the USCF has deregistered him as one of their players as a consequence of the ban they imposed on him about 2 years ago.

What implications does being stateless have for the player and any tournament he plays in? I don't know when he became stateless, but his rating record shows he's being playing in tournaments fairly regularly recently and I noticed him because I saw the results of a tournament he won yesterday.

[NickFaulks]

I didn't realise it was possible to be a FIDE registered player without being registered to a federation or directly to FIDE

Nor did the relevant FIDE officials until this was spotted a few weeks ago. Obviously there are no regulations to cover it, because the people whose job it would be to write those rules are not even informed when there is a change in policy. As if FID status were not a big enough shambles already!

In the tournament report he is still USA. Why wouldn't he be?

https://ratings.fide.com/report.phtml?event=359508&t=0

[Roger de Coverly]

In the tournament report he is still USA. Why wouldn't he be?

#

The ECF claimed the existence of a FIDE rule that says you have to be a "member" of a National Federation. They were making it up as that's just an ECF rule. The ECF even went through a phase of insisting that players became "members" in the strict Companies Act meaning of the term and would delist those who were not.

Seemingly the Russian Federation has no similar rule. The real necessity is to have a FIDE Identification Number (FIN). Like the domestic ECF rating code, you need it to process ratings. FINs are however allocated by national federations.

[Alex McFarlane]

Roger,
A Scot defending the ECF must be rare. FIDE did indeed have a regulation that said you had to be a member of a national federation. The ECF (and Chess Scotland) took this literally. However, it was only poor English from FIDE and didn't mean what it actually said.

You also state FINs are allocated by national federations. That is true, but only in so much as the national federation distributes FINs allocated to it by FIDE. When a player is registered with FIDE a FIN is automatically generated by its software.

[Ian Thompson]

In the tournament report he is still USA. Why wouldn't he be?

https://ratings.fide.com/report.phtml?event=359508&t=0

That tournament stated on 23 February 2024 and a download of the February rating list shows he was a USA player at the time.

He became a stateless player in the March rating list. There are only two players in the March and April rating lists with a federation of "NON" - Timur Gareyev and Alejandro Ramirez. That suggests to me that the USCF has initiated this and told FIDE it wants neither of these players registered to it.

[LawrenceCooper]

There are only two players in the March and April rating lists with a federation of "NON" - Timur Gareyev and Alejandro Ramirez. That suggests to me that the USCF has initiated this and told FIDE it wants neither of these players registered to it.

What's the easiest way to carry out such a search? I was aware of FID (Not a National Fed.) but as an organiser it would be useful to know how to check.

[Ian Thompson]

What's the easiest way to carry out such a search? I was aware of FID (Not a National Fed.) but as an organiser it would be useful to know how to check.

I couldn't see a way to do it online so I went to the rating list download page, downloaded the text files for the last 3 months and searched them for "NON".

[LawrenceCooper]

What's the easiest way to carry out such a search? I was aware of FID (Not a National Fed.) but as an organiser it would be useful to know how to check.

I couldn't see a way to do it online so I went to the rating list download page, downloaded the text files for the last 3 months and searched them for "NON".

Thanks!

[NickFaulks]

However, it was only poor English from FIDE and didn't mean what it actually said.

Oh, come on Alex - everyone knew perfectly well what it meant. Only the ECF decided that FIDE must have trawled through the entire bodies of legislation governing 140+ federations, in almost as many languages, to discover whether the word "member", or its translation, might have some specific technical definition.

Simple blockheaded idiocy.