For those who care about such things, FIDE has published the 2016 revision of the arbiters’ manual here.
Those who don’t care are courteously invited to ignore this post.
Thank you. I understand there were updates in 2014 as well. I wonder is the arbiter course I took back in 2011 is still considered valid if I wanted to apply to upgrade my arbiter status from NA to FA?
Larry S. Cohen
NA, & ANTD
No, it is not. B.06.5.3 states that norms from seminars are valid for a period of four years. Additionally, non-seminar norms must have been earned within six years of the date of application for the title. (Strictly speaking, the exact quote is “All norms included in the applications must have been achieved in events with starting dates that fall within a six-year period.”)
Well, that was a monumental waste of time.
I have just compared the 2014 and 2016 arbiters’ manuals, page by page. They are identical with one exception: On page 17, under the commentary text following article 4.2 (equivalent of a TD TIP), add the following commentary text: “Except as provided in Article 4.2, any physical contact with a piece, except for clearly accidental contact, shall be considered to be intent.”
I am rather disappointed that the first example of player title norm calculation is still incorrect, even though I reported the errors not long after the 2014 manual was published.
It is also rather unfortunate that the Arbiters Commission has chosen to publish the manual every two years on even numbered years. The Laws of Chess are only updated every four years (coincidentally, in leap years) with changes taking effect July 1 of the following year. (So, for instance, the Laws of Chess are up for modification at the congress in Baku this year; changes will take effect July 1, 2017.) The Arbiters’ Manual is mostly reprints of the sections of the FIDE handbook applicable to arbiters. Instead of having a 2016 version that will be out of date for more than a year before the next update, it would seem to be much more useful to revise the manual in odd-numbered years. That way, a revised manual would be available shortly after the new regulations take effect.