English Chess Forum

Regarding the three fold rep discussion. This from Helen Milligan on Face Book 30th September.

Helen Milligan -Sarai Carolina Sanchez Castillo, Batumi Olympiad 2018 round 6


1kbr4/1p6/3q3p/2R3p1/1P6/2P1Q2P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 9 41


Arbiter tales (sigh).


So today I correctly claimed threefold repetition by writing Ra5 on my score sheet etc etc.

Guess what the first thing the arbiter said to me was, when I told him I was claiming....

"It depends on her move".


Reactions to this have varied! Anyway, I managed to get him to take us and the score sheets to the edge of the room
to a sector arbiter position, where we went through the game and I pointed out the 2 previous positions and the repetition.

My opponent was understandably trying not to agree - that's OK! The arbiter said 'I don't see it'. Clearly he is not aware
of threefold repetition rules...at a bare minimum... So I got the sector arbiter and asked for my captain to be present too.

Sector arbiter went through the whole game (again) and agreed instantly that it was threefold. Draw scored.

But only because I persisted with my claim in the face of incompetence.

How many young inexperienced players give up, and play on?

---
Here is the game:

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bd7 6. Be2 f6 7. O-O Qc7 8. Re1 O-O-O 9. Bf4 h6 10. Na3 g5 11. Nb5 Qb6 12. Be3 fe5 13. dc5 Bc5 14. Bc5 Qc5 15. b4 Qe7 16. Bf1 a6 17. a4 e4 18. Nfd4 ab5 19. ab5 Nb8 20. Ra8 e5 21. Nb3 Nf6 22. Nc5 Bg4 23. Qa4 Qc7 24. Ra1 Nd7 25. Nd7 Rd7 26. b6 Qb6 27. Rb8 Kb8 28. Qa8 Kc7 29. Qh8 Qd6 30. Ra5 Rd8 31. Qg7 Kb8 32. h3 Bc8 33. Qh7 d4 34. Qe4 d3 35. Bd3 Qd3 36. Qe5 Qd6 37. Qe3 Qd1 38. Kh2 Qd6 39. Kg1 Kc7 40. Rc5 Kb8

I've heard the standard of arbiting at the Olympiad was in general pretty poor. Would be interested to know if that's true, or just certain incidents with certain arbiters.

benedgell wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:28 am

I've heard the standard of arbiting at the Olympiad was in general pretty poor.

It was suggested by one or more of the campaigns for FIDE President that some Olympiad arbiter appointments were made for political reasons as part of the web of patronage built up by the FIDE establishment over the years. Even so, it says that the whole structure of licensing and arbiter norms isn't working if something basic like what constitutes repetition, known by most experienced players, is a mystery to an Olympiad arbiter.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:37 am

benedgell wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:28 am

I've heard the standard of arbiting at the Olympiad was in general pretty poor.

It was suggested by one or more of the campaigns for FIDE President that some Olympiad arbiter appointments were made for political reasons as part of the web of patronage built up by the FIDE establishment over the years. Even so, it says that the whole structure of licensing and arbiter norms isn't working if something basic like what constitutes repetition, known by most experienced players, is a mystery to an Olympiad arbiter.

For the last three Olympiads, the list of match arbiters was published at least a month before the event. This time it has still not been published.

Unless and until it is, I find it very difficult to draw any general conclusions.

Good arbiters are perhaps needed most on the very lowest boards, and I think that the standard of arbiting there and on the higher boards was in general okay.

However, there are a fair number of horror stories relating to boards in percentiles 50 to 90. The prize goes to the arbiter who thought that the "75 move rule" required him to declare a draw if a game reached move 75.

"The prize goes to the arbiter who thought that the "75 move rule" required hiim to declare a draw if a game reached move 75."

I did once encounter a player in a Minor section who played on a queen, rook and bishop down then claimed a draw as he had reached move 50, but quickly apologised and resigned when I explained the Law. For an arbiter to get it wrong is appalling.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 3:21 am

Regarding the three fold rep discussion. This from Helen Milligan on Face Book 30th September.

Helen Milligan -Sarai Carolina Sanchez Castillo, Batumi Olympiad 2018 round 6


1kbr4/1p6/3q3p/2R3p1/1P6/2P1Q2P/5PP1/6K1 w - - 9 41


Arbiter tales (sigh).


So today I correctly claimed threefold repetition by writing Ra5 on my score sheet etc etc.

Guess what the first thing the arbiter said to me was, when I told him I was claiming....

"It depends on her move".

This kind of thing kills me and was the reason I originally decided to become an arbiter.

Of course the first thing the arbiter should say should be to ask the opponent "Do you want to agree a draw in this position?" If the opponent is happy to agree a draw then there is no need for the arbiter to consider the claim.

FIDE Laws of Chess wrote:9.1.2.3 A claim of a draw under Article 9.2 or 9.3 shall be considered to be an offer of a draw.

Without these fine people, the Batumi Olympiad would not have taken place. Is there a collective term for Arbiters?

According to this thread its an "incompetence"

Or is it a Nexus? Well done.

Can we have a vote or the players at least have a vote ranking of arbiters.

Excellent for referees in football association matches at a levels of the game.

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:26 pm

Can we have a vote or the players at least have a vote ranking of arbiters.

At the British Championships, we gave the players forms they could optionally fill in to "mark" the arbiters out of 5 in certain criteria. I didn't see the marks (deliberately), but I'm informed they all scored very well, and the most common question we got was "They do a great job, why have you asked us to do this?" Which was very nice, and the positive feedback was, in my opinion, a good reason to do it.

Clearly Wesley's got a lot to be thankful for as he says on FB:

"Thank you Lord for giving us the Silver Medal at the 2018 Batumi Olympiad. A great blessing because I personally know I should have played better than I did. Total Congratulations to China for Gold! You guys really deserved that. And Russia for the Bronze! Congratulations also to the Polish team who just missed the podium but played really excellently. Thank you to Go2Life bottled water for keeping me energized and hydrated wherever I go. Thank you to our Fide hosts and the wonderful city of Batumi Georgia which is beautiful and hospitable. A very memorable Olympiad also because we now have a new Fide President, Arkady Dvorkovich. Hopefully great things are just ahead for the world of chess. God has been so good to me."

Ummmm...did he really thank Go2Life for bottled water?

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 08, 2018 6:58 pm

Ummmm...did he really thank Go2Life for bottled water?

Post on 17 June

I want to thank the Norwegian makers of Go2Life water for sending me to Belgium with the gift of a suitcase filled with their bottled water - just because I told them how much I liked it!!! I really do! Who knows, maybe it helped me win! At the very least I was never dehydrated.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/wesleyso/posts/

Nick Burrows wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:13 pm

According to this thread its an "incompetence"

Harsh!

(from the Incompetent, second main row up, second in from the left.)

But there were the usual tales of some arbiters being useless/asleep/absent/etc.
Sad really, for the vast majority will have done a good job in quite challenging conditions.

20 minute recap of the Batumi Olympiad, many funny and shocking moments.

John Foley wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 07, 2018 6:58 pm

Without these fine people, the Batumi Olympiad would not have taken place. Is there a collective term for Arbiters?

John, where can I find this photo?