Arbiter Information

 

Minutes of a meeting of the Arbiters' Committee held at Coatbridge at 8pm on Sunday 18 February 2007.

Present: A Maxwell (chair); SR Gillam, AH McFarlane, K Stewart, D Wilson.

1. Minutes of Last Meeting and Matters Arising. The minutes of the meeting of February 2006 were approved.

There had been no further development of the Swiss pairing section of the grading software.

KS would look further into the possibility of identification badges for arbiters.

The Guide for Arbiters had been updated by KS with input from the committee. It was available for download from the website and would continue to be a text for the arbiters' course.

2. Arbiter Activity Reports. KS reported that there had been eighteen responses to the annual survey by qualified arbiters - the best response rate on record. An addition would be made to the report form to remind arbiters that running internal club events, although useful, did not count towards their quota of activity.

3. Courses for Arbiters. KS reported that there was interest from a number of people in the east which would be addressed by holding a one-day course in Dundee or Perth . KS would conduct the course which was being set up with local input from Jim Anderson and Donna Officer. This would be publicised once details were definite.

Meantime, KS would revise the exams for arbiters to be consistent with the 2005 Laws.

4. Quickplay finishes. There was a general discussion of issues relating to these. KS agreed that there would continue to be questions on the subject in the revised exams for arbiters. The committee would continue to try to promote consistency of application of Art 10 of the Laws while noting that related problems seemed to be occurring less frequently, at least at congresses.

5. Richardson and Spens Cups. The committee noted that these were now being run by Sam Collins and that a change of format was likely next season. No further comment was made meantime.

6. Other business.

(a) It was noted that time scrambles (in congresses especially) were now much less common. This (and a similar effect regarding Law 10) made it more difficult to observe how candidate arbiters would handle such situations.

(b) AMcF commented on a move in England to move towards counting clock presses rather than moves in determining whether the time control had been reached when using digital clocks. He also pointed out that incremental time limits were becoming more commonly used (and accepted by players).

(c) Disclosure checks. CS was likely soon to make these a requirement for continuation on the list of arbiters; the process is currently being phased in.

(d) There was discussion of whether we require more formal rules for the removal of an arbiter from the list. It was agreed that no action be taken at present but that this be kept in mind.

(e) The minutes would again be posted on the CS website after agreement by the committee.

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Dec 2006: Arbiter Guide

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Feb 2006: Chess Scotland - Arbiters' Committee

Minutes of a meeting of the Arbiters' Committee held at Coatbridge at 7.30pm on Sunday 5 February 2006.

Present: A Maxwell (chair); SR Gillam, AH McFarlane, K Stewart, D Wilson.

1. Minutes of Last Meeting and Matters Arising. The minutes of the meeting of March 2005 were approved. As planned, a new Rules Book had been published in September 2005.

2. Arbiter Activity Reports. KS reported that there had been eleven responses to the annual survey by qualified arbiters and that a number of candidate arbiters had also responded.

3. Reports on Candidate Arbiters. Sufficient reports had been obtained relating to four candidate arbiters. It was agreed that James Anderson, Trevor Davies, Andy Howie and Fiona Petrie all satisfy the requirements and should be appointed as CS Arbiters. Although this is encouraging, conversion rates from exam pass to qualification remain disappointing. KS had investigated whether there should be reports for any others of those who had passed the exam in Aberdeen in 2003, but with no positive result.

4. Courses for Arbiters. KS had received very few new expressions of interest from potential arbiters since the 2005 course. There was a possibility of some interest from the Dundee area. If this developed, it might be addressed by a one-day course in Dundee or by holding another four-evening course in Stirling .

5. Richardson and Spens Cups. The committee discussed possible alternative formats in the light of the unsatisfactory numbers of clubs entering the Spens. Possible ideas included having an all-in first round with losers then contesting the Spens (this would work with well with certain sizes of entry but could require more rounds in other cases), reducing the Richardson to eight clubs, use of central venue (probably not practical), etc. KS would canvass opinion via the website bulletin board. The decision on format should be taken by the Home Chess Board.

Rule 4 as relating to players resident outside Scotland was discussed. No change was recommended.

6. Visually impaired players. In the light of recent events, the committee considered guidance on this matter. It was agreed that the Laws (in particular Section F) cover the matter quite fully but that the following observations could be added.

If both players keep score, there is no time adjustment required; however, if practical, a small amount of additional time could be given to both players.

The visually impaired player may use an assistant to make and announce the moves (if this assistant records the moves, then a time adjustment (Law 8.1) could be made). If this does not happen, the sighted player may use an assistant.

The boards are better placed side-by-side rather than end-to-end.

We recommend that the home club provides assistance if there is likely to be a problem for both players (eg hearing impairment) and that both parties observe a spirit of tolerance.

7. Swiss pairing programs. It was noted that (for understandable reasons) little progress had been made recently on the Swiss part of the grading program and that this was not yet suitable for general use. It was clear that pairing programs are exceedingly difficult to write. Swiss Perfect remains useful but with major flaws, especially relating to colour sequence.

8. Other business.

(a) Guide and exam for Arbiters. KS would produce updated versions of these with input from other members.

(b) FIDE ratings. These are now calculated on individual games rather than by the average for a tournament. Title norms are still done on the latter basis. Notification of this from FIDE had been poor, if given at all. The process for becoming an International Arbiter has been changed. It is not currently possible to achieve qualification for this without working outside Scotland .

(c) MonRoi. This is a wireless electronic scoresheet device, approved by FIDE. Arbiters should be aware that (i) it is difficult to read the number of moves made and (ii) the device has a database facility which must not be accessible to the player during play.

(d) These minutes would be displayed on the CS website after email approval by the committee.

(e) Law 10 (draw claim in quickplay finish). The arbiter may ask the claimant whether the claim is on grounds of “not trying to win” or “cannot win by normal means”. It is then important to make a decision quickly.

(f) KS would look into the possibility of identification badges for arbiters.

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March 2005: Congratulations to: David Archibald, Stephen Balmer, Trevor Davies, Tom Donohue, Andy Howie, Murray Pollock, Fiona Petrie who have all attended the recent course for arbiters and been successful in passing the examination held at the end of it.

We hope they will all go on and complete the process of qualifying as Chess Scotland Arbiters. This now requires them to receive satisfactory reports on acting as arbiters at tournaments.

Anyone interested in taking part in a course should contact Ken Stewart - Technical Director.

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