List of arbiters for green, blue, red, and yellow panels in FIDE Events 2024-2025 published
Dear Chess Friends, Chess Arbiters, The FIDE Arbiters’ Commission is pleased to release the List of arbiters for the green, blue, red, and yellow panels, which will be used for making appointments to FIDE events during the 2024-2025 cycle. We would like to thank the hundreds of Arbiters from around the world who responded to the Call of Interest for Arbiters in World Events 2024-2025 (almost 600 colleagues from 116 Federations). The panel system is described in the FIDE Handbook, B06.4 – FIDE Regulations for the Appointment of Arbiters in World Events, including Appendix B06.4.B – Arbiter Selection Procedural Rules. There are four panels named by colour: A Green Panel , containing 25 International Arbiters of category A A Blue Panel, containing 45 International Arbiters of category A or B A Red Panel, containing 60 International Arbiters of category A or B A Yellow Panel, containing the remaining International Arbiters or FIDE Arbiters of any category The Arbiters’ Commission started the procedure by releasing a Call of Interest for all International Arbiters and FIDE Arbiters who hold a valid FIDE arbiters’ license. The Call of Interest was open for more than a month, from July 25th to August 24th, 2023, and was then extended until August 28th, 2023. In total, 143 Arbiters with IA-A and IA-B categories responded to the Call for Interest. During the meeting on September 2nd 2023, the voting members (FIDE Arbiters Commission councilors, ARB Chairman, ARB Secretary), discussed the criteria for selecting arbiters for panels. The meeting was also attended by the Team of Consultants (FIDE Council, FIDE Management Board, Global Strategy Commission, and Events Commission representatives). The following criteria were used to select arbiters: gender (the total number of arbiters must be at least 25% female and at least 25% male), experience and level of arbiters’ category, undergone preparation for the appropriate arbiter position, software skills, language (English), leadership skills, teamwork skills, activity as an arbiter in the last few years, previous behaviour or misbehaviour during chess events. These selection criteria were applied by a team of voting members who used consensus as a decision-making method. The panels were formed following the FIDE Regulations, particularly B.06.4 FIDE Regulations for the Appointment of Arbiters in World Events (effective July 20th, 2023) and selection criteria. Each voting member received a list of 143 arbiters (arbiters Category A and B who participated in the Call of Interest for World Events 2024-2025) and voted for every other arbiter on it (on a scale of 143 points to 1 point). For the initial draft, the lowest score was dismissed as none of the voting members could vote for themself. Voting members discussed the draft with the Team of Consultants so as to be able to present you the final version of the List of arbiters for the green, blue, red, and yellow panels. The Arbiters’ Commission believes that this list was made in the best interests of FIDE and arbiters worldwide. Moreover, we expect that its content and integrity will be proved over the following two years when these arbiters complete their duties at FIDE World Events. Ivan Syrovy, ARB Chairman Nebojsa Baralic, ARB Secretary According to the FIDE Regulations for the Appointment of Arbiters in World Events (B.06.4), arbiters selected for the Green Panel are eligible to be appointed as: 1) Chief Arbiter of category A tournaments 2) Any role that members of the Blue Panel, Red Panel or Yellow Panel may be appointed to The Green Panel will be composed of 25 arbiters, all of whom must be Category A. The Green Panel will be used to appoint: 1) The Chief Arbiters of all Category A tournaments 2) The equivalent number of positions as Chief Arbiters in Category B tournaments LIST OF ARBITERS / GREEN PANEL (alphabetical order): Name Federation Title Category Continent Abd Hamid Bin Abd Majid MAS IA A Asia Abdulrahim, Mahdi UAE IA A Asia Bansod Swapnil IND IA A Asia Baralic, Nebojsa SRB IA A Europe Bertagnolli, Gerhard ITA IA A Europe Brokko, Margit EST IA A Europe de San Vicente, Sabrina URU IA A America Delega, Tomasz POL IA A Europe Escafre, Stephane FRA IA A Europe Freyd, Laurent FRA IA A Europe Gopakumar M S IND IA A Asia Holowczak, Alex R ENG IA A Europe Japaridze, Marika GEO IA A Europe Mena Sarasola, Jesus ESP IA A Europe Munoz Solis, Carolina CRC IA A America Nikolopoulos, Panagiotis GRE IA A Europe Pahlevanzadeh, Mehrdad IRI IA A Asia Sorokina, Anastasia AUS IA A Asia Srebrnic, Ana SLO IA A Europe Syrovy, Ivan SVK IA A Europe van den Bergh, Gunther RSA IA A Africa Vardapetyan, Ashot ARM IA A Europe Wolter, Jens GER IA A Europe Zhu, Jiaqi CHN IA A Asia Note: one spot is not occupied and during the cycle one arbiter can be added to green panel According to the FIDE Regulations for the Appointment of Arbiters in World Events (B.06.4), arbiters selected for the Blue Panel are eligible to be appointed as:1) Deputy Chief Arbiter of category A tournaments2) Chief Arbiter of category B tournaments3) Any role that members of the Red Panel or Yellow Panel may be appointed to The Blue Panel will be composed of 45 arbiters, all of whom must be Category A or B. The Blue Panel will be used to appoint:1) The Chief Arbiters of all Category B tournaments not assigned to the Green Panel2) The Deputy Chief Arbitersa) in all Category A tournamentsb) of twice the equivalent number of positions from a) in Category B tournaments LIST OF ARBITERS / BLUE PANEL (alphabetical order): Name Federation Title Category Continent Alhammadi, Faisal UAE IA B Asia Andrikopoulou, Efstathia GRE IA B Europe Bailleul, Geert BEL IA A Europe Bayat, Shohreh ENG IA A Europe Biagioli, Marco ITA IA A Europe Bird, Christopher USA IA B America Boyd, Stephen FRA IA B Europe Brustman, Agnieszka POL IA B Europe Caliskan, Ismail TUR IA B Europe Cimina, Andra LAT IA A Europe Dapiran, Franca
Four slow Slavs in Round 4 of FIDE Grand Swiss
Former prodigy Andrey Esipenko overcame the reigning World Junior Champion Marc’andria Maurizzi for a third win in four games and emerged as the sole leader in the open section. There was excitement everywhere, from Erigaisi’s king walk to b4 to the theoretical duels in the Slav and Volokitin’s touch-move rule violation. In the women’s section, Anna Muzychuk missed a huge chance to win a fourth game after spoiling her excellent opening preparation e against former World Champion Tan Zhongyi. Bibisara Assaubayeva and Rameshbabu joined the leaders with convincing wins The Slav Defence is one of the most popular openings. Its popularity comes from its versatility, as it allows Black to choose from several set-ups according to their tastes. However, White also has a say when it comes to the Slav. The Exchange Variation, for example, is not as dull as it may sound, but there is also the so-called slow Slav, where White intentionally slows the thigns down, thus avoiding the sharp options like the Semi-Slav, the Botvinnik Variation or the Anti-Moscow gambit. In round four of the FIDE Grand Swiss, there was an unexpected occurrence of the slow Slav on the top boards. On board eight, Radoslaw Wojtaszek chose the slow Slav against Anish Giri. Then, curious things started to happen early on. In the position after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3, Black has three main moves, and these are 4…Bg4, 4…Bf5 and 4…e6. Giri chose the first one. Interestingly, Wojtaszek was on Team Anand in 2008 when Anand played the World Championship match against Kramnik. The Slav Defence was Anand’s main weapon in that match, which he won thanks to excellent preparation in the sharpest lines of the Meran. While preparing the Slav in general, the team considered the slow Slav as well, and their intention was to play the line with 4…Bg4! Fast-forward to 2023, and here we see Wojtaszek on the white side of the line he prepared as Black in 2008! He continued with 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.Ne5 and they followed mainstream theory for a while. Suddenly, White got a great chance. Black’s last move 15…h5? was positionally sound – stopping possible White expansion on the kingside, but it turned out to be too inconcrete. Possibly, Giri was lulled by the “slowness” of the Slav and didn’t expect any dynamic factors. Luckily for him, so did his opponent as he continued with the “slow” 16.Rhd1? missing a great chance to put his opponent under tremendous pressure with 16.Na5! Rb8 17.e4 Nc7 18.Bf4 Kd7 19.Nc4 and Black is on the brink of defeat as White threatens Rxa7 and Ne5. With this unexpected chance not taken, White couldn’t pose more problems, and the subsequent advance in the centre with e4 and d5 only led to simplifications and a draw. On the next board, board nine, Hans Niemann chose the slow Slav against Richard Rapport. Black deviated quickly from the board he could easily see next to him and chose 4…Bf5. After 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Qb3 Qc7, both players followed theory, and when it ended, a complex middlegame was on the board. This is a rather typical situation in the slow Slav, where White’s pair of bishops is compensated by Black’s solid position and better pawn structure. It was a true slow Slav until the final moves before the time-control. Instead of continuing to manoeuvre with 39…Rc8 or 38…Bb8, Rapport took the poisoned pawn on a5 and was swiftly punished after 39…Bxa5? 40.Qa4 Qc7 41.b4 Bb6 42.Bxa6! White transferred the rook to a2 and launched a decisive attack along the a-file. Two more slow Slavs were played on boards 14 and 15. On board 14, Santosh Gujrathi Vidit decided to try to tame Alexey Shirov by slowing things down. Shirov played his usual choice against this line, 4….Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4 (deviating from Rapport’s 6…Bg6) 7.f3 Bg6. The idea of the move …Be4 is to provoke a slight weakening in White’s position with the move f3. The game followed an earlier game by Vidit, played against Illya Nyzhnyk, and it was surprising to see Shirov not try to improve on that game and end up in the same inferior position as Nyzhnyk. Black should have played …Nb6 before taking …c5xd4, and now both Shirov and Nyzhnyk found themselves in an inferior position. Black’s main problem is the lack of safe shelter for the king – if it stays in the centre, then f4-f5 is coming, and if it goes to the kingside, then h4-h5 is dangerous. Shirov’s time management, spending almost an hour to reach a position that his opponent had played earlier, perhaps indicated that his preparation wasn’t of the highest quality. Shirov eventually deviated from the game Vidit-Nyzhnyk on move 22, but he was already in a very bad position. Vidit won without too many problems. On board 15 Nikita Vitiugov and Chithambaram Aravindh followed the game Niemann-Rapport for a few moves before deviating with 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Bd2 Nbd7. In this popular position, White chose the relatively rare 9.cxd5, transposing to a Carlsbad structure. His intentions were aggressive, as after 9…exd5 10.Qc2, he prepared long castling. Black wasn’t very precise, and White quickly built up an attack with f3 and g4. However, Vitiugov misplayed and rushed with g5, allowing Black to block the kingside with …Nh5, then it was Black who started to attack at the queenside! He achieved a winning position, but then… Instead of 32…Qf1 or 32…Qd1 or even the prophylactic 32…Kh7, Black rushed with 32…Re1? when after 33.Qb8 Kh7 34.Qg3! suddenly, it was White who was better! The threat of mate with Rc8 forced Black to go back with the rook when Black’s attack was gone, and White could go on to collect the c4-pawn and advance his central pawns. Vitiugov exchanged rooks and entered a queen endgame, but now it was his turn to be imprecise. White already gave checks on c8 and h3, but here he missed that after the immediate 44.Kxa6? Black has the excellent 44…f5! cutting off the white queen and advancing his own passed pawn. After this, the position is objectively a draw, and Black managed to reach it. The winning manoeuvre was 44.Qc8 Kh7 45.Qc6!