Friday 30 May 2014

Another month, another trip

Not really a trip every month, but I'm off travelling again, this time for a FIDE Rules Commission meeting, in Athens. We are still in the process of preparing changes to the FIDE Tournament Regulations, work that has been ongoing since the start of the year.
One of the 'meta' issues around the Commissions work is how far does our authority extend. We can of course regulate official FIDE competitions (Olympiads etc), and FIDE Title and FIDE Rated events are covered by our rules as well. Beyond that the assumption is that tournaments should follow FIDE regulations, to provide a commonality between all organised chess events. The related issue is how to deal with tournament situations that might be best covered by guidelines (and not rules). Examples include things like re-pairing players, or the provision of tournament fillers (players who only play so there is no bye). For this meeting there is even a suggestion to provide rules for Elimination events (where players drop out after losing a certain number of points). The issues are probably not serious enough  to warrant a formal set of regulations, but yet, common enough that guidance might be needed.
I'm heading of tomorrow afternoon, straight after Street Chess, but I will hopefully be able to blog at the various stops as I make my way to Greece.

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