Introduction - Regulations - Courses

 

The Jamaica Chess federation currently awards two types of Arbiter titles which are Certified Assistant Arbiter and Certified senior Arbiter

.Persons wishing to register for upcoming Arbiter Courses must be paid up members of the JCF. The registration fee is J$1,000 which will cover all materials.

Completed entry forms with valid email addresses together with any fees or dues must be submitted to the undersigned . Once persons have registered and a course date has been set, material will be sent via email for purposes of study, following which a number of dates will be announced for seminars on the various topics detailed in the attached regulations.

The date of the certification examination will be announced once the seminars are completed. Persons who wish to take the examination for the title of Certified Assistant Arbiter will have to pay a fee of J$500.

Arbiter Training Regulations

Current International Chess Arbiters in Jamaica

IA Donald Miller

 

 

Path to achieving International Arbiter Title
The IA title can only be achieved after being awarded the FA title. As such, no one can currently undertake this option at the moment. However, the path to the title will be described below. The IA title requires 4 norms.
Under regulation 4.6 of the same area of the Handbook, 2 National Championships (Absolute and Female) can be utilized which would leave 2 remaining norms to be earned. Since a local arbiter goes to the Olympiad most times, this would be another opportunity for an IA norm to be earned. An international FIDE rated swiss event or another FIDE event could suffice as the fourth norm for the title. This path is usually longer and can take at least 2 years, but can be done.

FIDE Arbiter Seminar
Before the change in the composition of the Arbiter’s Commission, IA Aris Marghetis was willing to assist us in organizing an Internet Seminar so that interested individuals would have the opportunity to be exposed to the FA material and have the option to take the exam. This seminar would have also been the perfect opportunity for regional arbiters to get the chance to take the exam as well. As Mr. Marghetis is no longer the Secretary, we must undertake a new route of future planning for hosting an Internet Seminar.
To conclude, our local NA’s need to garner more experience at the local tournaments and undertake personal study if they wish to become FA’s themselves. The path and options aren’t as vast as other countries, but we need to utilize what we have at home in order to develop our cadre of FA’s and IA’s as we plan to grow chess in the country.

As described in the FIDE Handbook, B. Permanent Commissions, 06. Regulations for the Title of Arbiters, Section 3. Requirements for the title of FIDE Arbiter, 3 norms (at least 1 round robin and 1 swiss) along with successfully passing the FIDE Arbiter’s exam with an 80% score along with the application to FIDE are the key requisites for awarding of the FA title.

As prescribed in section 3.5, tournaments must be national or international in order for them to be valid norms.

Regulation 2.1.3 would not be significant to the FA norm process. Thus, here is the current path for the FA for myelf and NI IO Lindo.

Path to Fide Arbiter Title
1. Tournaments such as National Absolute Championship and Humphrey Gayle Memorial Invitational can suffice as FA norms once everything goes well as prescribed. Three Norms are required.

2.The final remaining step would be for the FIDE Arbiter Seminar and successful passing of the exam the seminar can be held in physical location or on an Internet Seminars instead. If another tournament would be required, any event that has 20 players and 6 rounds for a swiss event could suffice. To avoid scrutiny of the norms, select events should be utilized to ensure a smooth application.

Chess Internatonal Organizers (IO) Titles

Past President of the Jamaica Chess Federation (JCF) Ian Wilkinson QC and Terence Lindo, Chairman of the JCF Tournaments Committee,made history for Jamaica when they became the country’s first Chess international Organizers (IO) in 2018.

Both men represented Jamaica in different capacities at the 43rd World Chess Olympiad held in Batumi, Georgia between September and October, 2018. Wilkinson was Jamaica’s delegate to the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Congress (“the United Nations of Chess”) while Lindo debuted at an Olympiad, serving as the head of Jamaica’s seventeen-member delegation.Inspite of their various obligations they found the time to register for, and attend, the relevant seminars in order to achieve the important IO title. They sat the examination and were successful. Their IO titles were approved by FIDE’s Presidential Board at its sitting in London, England on November 9. They are currently designated “IO Wilkinson” and “IO Lindo”.