An arbiter’s work is to apply rules laid down by the World Chess Federation.
AT the end of the day, we have to realise that chess is nothing more than a game between two individuals. The game is about two persons sitting across each other and trading moves, alternating from one person to the other, until a conclusion is reached.
The only outside party who may be marginally involved in this game is the arbiter. Even so, he operates very much from the sideline and only comes into the frame when the situation demands it.
A good tournament is when little intervention is required from the arbiter. True, there is work like running the tournament, setting the pairings and seeing that each round starts off without incident. He doesn’t actively intervene in games.
You may think that the job of an arbiter is easy but actually, it is thankless. Nobody appreciates the arbiter when a tournament runs smoothly. On the other hand, the arbiter opens himself to disparaging remarks when he has to make a decision, especially in high-stake events.
When an unpopular decision is made, of course there’ll be some who will be dissatisfied. But isn’t it the job of the arbiter to make an on-the-spot decision based on the facts or evidence before him but more importantly, based on the international laws of chess? That’s what arbiters are for.
The chess game is not played in a lawless jungle. There are rules laid down by the World Chess Federation and players are expected to observe them in their play. On the other hand, arbiters – whether they be international arbiters or local arbiters – are simply the interpreters of these rules, applying them whenever disputes happen.
But even though they may generally be considered as better interpreters of the laws of chess than the players, it doesn’t always mean that their decisions can be 100% accepted. Arbiters are also human and in events like our national-level tournaments, it is normally possible to appeal against their decisions.
That’s the avenue open to genuinely aggrieved players. That should be the correct thing to do: appeal against the arbiter’s decision if we feel strongly that we are right. Instead, we should not be doing things like going around making disparaging remarks.
Maybe I should add here that a formal appeal is usually accompanied by a substantial fee to discourage people from making all sorts of frivolous appeals. This fee is returned if the appeal is upheld. (If a person is reluctant to pay the fee, I can only think of two possible reasons. One, he doesn’t have the money to make his appeal and two, he knows that his appeal is weak and he doesn’t have a chance of overturning it.)
I mentioned earlier that chess is merely a game between two individuals. The interested parties to a game are the players themselves and nobody else. However, parents do not seem to understand or want to understand this concept.
Take, for example, the recent national age group chess championships. Last week, I had purposely avoided mention of the parents who accompanied their kids to the tournament but let me assure you, there were many of them.
Of course, it was good that we have the parents who showed so much interest in their kids’ activities. Unfortunately, some of the parents showed too much interest until they were openly seeking clarification from the arbiters for everything, be it the pairing list or the decisions made by the arbiters. As one who has been the chief arbiter at one of the national age group championships in the past, I know that it can be a very intimidating experience at times.
I’ve met parents who questioned the pairing system and I’ve met parents who demanded to know why one of the section arbiters had made this or that decision. I’ve also met parents who interfered as if they were playing the game instead of their kids.
All these are typical problems faced by the arbiters every year. These are not new and every year, there’ll always be new sets of parents who add to the unwanted stress level of the arbiters.
Chess should be fun for both arbiters and players. I should add that chess should also be fun for the parents. However, parents should realise that it is their children themselves who are playing the game, not the parents. So just let them go on with their own games. Let them enjoy their own success as well as suffer their own defeats. In the process, they’ll learn independence and turn out to be a much better persons.