Arbiters Commission (ARB) meeting in Minsk (August 2019)

The new FIDE Arbiters Commission held their first Councillors Meeting at the Belarus Hotel in Minsk, August 14th to 17th, during the World Cadet Rapid and Blitz Championship 2019.

The ARB members present were Laurent Freyd (Chairman), Nebojsa Baralic (Secretary), Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (Honorary Chairman), Shohreh Bayat (Councillor), Irina Gevorgyan (Councillor), Jirina Prokopova (Member) and Natalija Popova (Member).

While several members of the commission were on duty at the championship, the meeting featured a general brainstorming session and discussions in smaller groups.

The team started by reviewing the activities covered in the first 7 months of the year, foundational actions on the way to the next level of maturity: arbiters and seminars database, upcoming KPI's, licensing and title application processes, assessment of FIDE arbiter exams, and update of the FIDE Arbiter Manual.

They also discussed proposals and requests, with a key focus on the appointment of arbiters in FIDE events and arbiters curriculum and classification.

To emphasise the synergy with other commissions and the FIDE management, which is a key factor of success, the 3rd day's session was dedicated to exchanges with other commissions, with special guests and open to visitors.

As an introduction, the chairman summarised the previous 2 days and shared his view about future developments for the commission to the audience.


We had the honour to welcome a few distinguished guests:

Anastasia Sorokina (FIDE Vice President) liked the productive atmosphere and was glad that this ARB meeting took place in beautiful Minsk..

Lukasz Turlej (FIDE Vice President) showed interest in the quality of the topics covered and shared encouragements to provide some visibility to the Presidential Board about the commission's achievements.

Ozgur Solakoglu (EVE Chairman) congratulated for the great collaboration so far between both commissions.

Geert Bailleul (ECU Arbiters Council Secretary) shared about the evaluation of arbiters to be implemented in Europe.

Marco Biagioli (FIDE GDPR) was consulted about data protection matters.

Maciej Cybulski (SPP Chairman) and Aleksandra Dimitrijevic (OLC Secretary) also took part in the discussions.

Other key commissions for ARB couldn't be represented this time, GSC, PDC, WOM, FPL and RC, however collaboration on a regular basis is effective with them.


Priorities for the short term are:

- Finalizing the appointment and evaluation process for FIDE events
- Reinforcing the training structure (including refreshment seminars)
- Clarifying regulations
- Connecting with federations and national arbiters councils