world blitz

[amuir]

I saw our arbiters there. Why was the WR team allowed to be a World Ranking team and hogging all the best players? Also they seemed to take back bad moves and replay matches they lost . Also are arbiters allowed mobiles to check touch move offences ?

[Ianbrownlee]

I dont understand what you mean by hogging? Should they be playing elsewhere? Or "our" arbiters who did you see?

[Andy Howie]

Where to start....

You saw 1 Arbiter there, Alex, I was there as Chief Fair Play Officer, Karen was there as one of the fair play team (she is now qualified to do world events). Freddy and Keti were playing.

It is not national teams, there are rules about who can play in a team. If WR want to hoover up the top players, that is their choice, although it did not help them in the rapidplay where they failed to medal.

"At least six and not more than nine players, including at least: a. one female player, b. one player, another than in Article 2.1.A.a, who never achieved FIDE Standard, Rapid or Blitz rating of 2000 Elo points (or unrated) or equivalent national rating* up to and including the March 2025 rating lists (hereinafter referred to as recreational player). *GSC to decide what national rating is equivalent to FIDE rating of 2000 Elo"

Arbiters don't use mobiles, however if Chess Base India are there and have filmed the incident (they use mobiles which I have checked many many times for filming) then the arbiter may use them to help with making a decision

No idea what you refer to about taking back moves. I was focussed on ensuring fair play

The match being replayed when they lost, I don't know the full details but it appears the team were not notified of when the round was starting. Was impossible to set a schedule in the knock outs as there was up to 6 potential matches per round due to tie breaks. Somewhere the communication broke down and the team arrived late. They appealed this and won the appeal so the match was replayed. Was nothing to do with who they were, could have been anyone and the decision would have been the same

From my pov, close to 10,000 player scans done, 1 mistake made, no players defaults for fair play violations So I am very very happy