(796) FIDE ARBITERS' SEMINAR DURING THE 2014 WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD IN NORWAY

MR. DIRK DE RIDDER - LECTURER OF FIDE ARBITERS' SEMINAR 2014
    Roberto Hernandez, Board 1 player of Palau Open Team in 2014 World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, attended FIDE Arbiters' Seminar during the Olympiad on its 3rd day--his rest day.


                     FIDE PRESIDENT'S WELCOME

Dear Friends,

Let me congratulate you on the publication of the Arbiters' Manual.
I am aware of the huge amount of work put into the preparation of this important document, which includes all the necessary documents for the Arbiters to be guided by, by a team of excellent and most experienced experts in this field, led by the Arbiters' Commission's dynamic and efficient Chairman T. Nikolopoulos, and comprising such renowned personalities as G. Gijssen, F. Dapiran, W. Stubenvoll, D. De Ridder, A. Vardapetyan inter alia.

I am confident that this Manual will be instrumental in each Arbiter's work and will facilitate and enrich his/her skills in order to exercise arbiter's duties in the best way.

Commissions' daily work and brilliant organization of seminars, webinars and workshops has substantially increased the number and quality of chess arbiters throughout the world, including new Federations.

I support and welcome the work and future plans of the Arbiters' 
Commission and wish all of its members and all the arbiters in the world success and good guidance to players in the tournaments of FIDE in all our 181-member Federations!

                                         Gens Una Sumus


                                         Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
                                              President

                                     Moscow, 7 July 2014  

 

(169) AN INTRODUCTION TO CHESS

CHESS HAS become one of the most challenging sports in the world and learning it may take only a few minutes but the tactics and strategies of the game will take some time.

Practice and natural talent will help you to improve your game rapidly. For those who don't know the game yet, here are the rules of the game:

CHESS BOARD AND MEN (Starting position of the game with letters abcdefgh at the bottom of each square and numbers 12345678 at the left side).

The board is always placed so that the players have a light-colored square on their lower right. Each player has 16 men: one King, one Queen, two Bishops, two Knights, two Rooks and 8 pawns.

The player with the white pieces always begins the game. The players alternate in moving a man from one square to another. The algebraic notation is best suited to describe these moves in a simple, concise manner and it is being used internationally. Only the first letter of he pieces is given -- K for King, Q for Queen, R for Rook, B for Bishop and N for Knight.

HOW THE MEN MOVE AND CAPTURE:

Each chessmen has his own individual way of moving, and with the exception of the pawn, the pieces capture the same way as they move. The Bishop moves diagonally, the Rook, horizontally and vertically and the Knight moves like the letter L. When a knight is in light color, he always move to the opposite color. And it is the only piece that can "jump over" the other men.

The queen combines the power of Rook and Bishop. She has the choice of moving diagonally, vertically and horizontally. She is the most powerful piece of all.

The pawn can go only straight forward. He can move only one square at a time, except on his first move, when he can advance either one or two squares. The pawn is the only man who does not capture the same way as he moves. His capture that is called "en passant" (ep) or in passing, needs specific example.

Let say there is a black pawn on a4 square and white moves his b pawn 2 squares. The black "a" pawn can capture the "b" pawn on b3 square.

It was adopted by the European chess players when they introduced the double step of the pawn some 486 years ago.

After reaching the opposite edge of the board, a Pawn would be unable to move. To avoid this, a rule provides that a player who advances a Pawn to the opposite side must exchange him for a Queen or Rook or Bishop or Knight. This is called promoting a Pawn, or queening him, as in most cases a player would choose a Queen. However, there are some cases in which promotion to a Queen would be inadvisable, or could even lose a game!

If a player still has a Queen, he can still promote his Pawn to a Queen and can have as many as 9 queens. There are only 2 serious games on record in which 5 queens were in action, one played in 1896 and the other in 1915.

The King, the most important of them all, can move in any direction like the Queen, but only one step at a time. When the King is checked and there is no other way to get him out of check, he is said to be checkmated. This ends the game, the King is never actually captured.

HOW GAMES ARE RECORDED:

It is advisable to use the Algebraic instead of English or descriptive notation. Pawn moves are letters abcdefgh. So if white starts 1. e4 it means that the pawn on e square moved to the 4th square. Instead of writing in 1. P-K4, e4 is easier and space saving. 0-0 is castling on kingside and 0-0-0 is castling on queenside.

The symbol x denotes captures. Check is abbreviated +, double check is ++.

So let's try if you can play this game on the chessboard by following these notations: (It was played in London, 1913) 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. g3 Qg5 5. Nf3? Qxg3! 6. hxg3 Bxg3#.

MORE SYMBOLS: ? is mistake; ! is good move; # is mate.

ANOTHER SHORT GAME: (Rudolp vs. Kelin, 1912) 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d4 Qh4 5. Kf1 Bb6 6. Nf3 Qd8 7. Bf4 Ne7 8. Ng5 0-0 9. Qh5 h6 10. Bxf7+ Kh8 11. Qxh6+! gxh6 12. Be5#

Next issue, more games, International Chess Federation (FIDE) rules, more basic tactics and strategies, chess puzzles and more.

Keep practicing and remember, in chess, THE SLOWER YOU MOVE, THE FASTER YOU'LL LEARN!

Smile! And say "CHESS".

Source: An Introduction to chess by Roberto Hernandez
Island Times
March 15-21, 2007

(168) CHESS MISCELLA"NEWS"

CHESS MISCELLA"NEWS"

PALAU ROYAL RESORT
     Its resident musician, Roberto Hernandez, plays music from 6-9 pm at Waves Restaurant and from 9-11 pm at Breeze Bar, on the upper right of this photo.
                                                                            (Photo by Jaime Guevarra)

*FIDE LAWS OF CHESS*

*1889 Game by Marco in Vienna, Asutria*

*INVITATION TO PLAY IN 2009 QUEENSTOWN CLASSIC

AND OCEANIA ZONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP*

THE PALAU Chess Federation received the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Laws of Chess through its Secretary/Treasurer Roberto Hernandez. The 18-page documents cover over-the-board play.

The English text is the authentic version of the Laws of Chess, which was adopted at the 77th FIDE Congress in Dresden, Germany that coincided with the World Chess Olympiad in November 2008.

It will be coming into force on July 01, 2009. In these Laws, the words "he", "him", and "his" include "she" and "her".

In the preface of the document, it started with: The Laws of Chess cannot cover all possible situations that may arise during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions. Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Laws, it should be possible to reach decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the Laws. The Laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgment and absolute objectivity. Too detailed a rule might deprived the arbiter of his freedom of judgment and thus prevent him from finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and special factors. FIDE appeals to all chess players and federations to accept this view. A member federation is free to introduce more detailed rules provided they: (a) do not conflict in any way with the official FIDE Laws of Chess, and (b) are limited to the territory of the federation concerned, (c) are not valid for any FIDE match, championship or qualifying event, or for a FIDE title or rating tournament.

The BASIC RULES OF PLAY of the document will be published little by little next issues as some of them are already feaured in the "AN INTRODUCTION TO CHESS" last month.

In 1889, at Vienna, Austria, a strong chess player only known by the name of Marco, played an unknown player with the odd of a whole rook (on the a1 square) and the pawn on a2 moved to a3.

Here are the first 17 moves and the last 3 moves will be this week's puzzle: White to move and mates in 3. Marco had the white pieces:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb6 7. e5 Ne4 8. Bd5 f5 9. 0-0 Ne7 10. Ba2 d5 11. exd6 nxd6 12. Ne5 h5 13. Bg5 g6 14. Nc3 c6 15. Re1 Ne4 16. Rxe4 fxe4 17. Qb3 Rf8 ....

In his email to Roberto Hernandez and Gene Pastrana on December 02, 2008, Oceania Zone President Gary Bekker asked if either of the two chess players of Palau can participate in the Queenstown Classic in New Zealand in January 2009 and/or Oceania Zonal Championship in June 20-26, 2009.

Mr. Bekker is sponsoring the accomodation and an airfare subsidy of $500.00. Hernandez asked Pastrana if he can make it and he refused due to financial constraints.

At Palau Royal Resort, if a worker completed 2 years, he is entitled to at least 17 days of paid leave and free roundtrip ticket to his/her country of origin.

Hernandez will be 2 years at PRR on June 01, 2009 and he filed for a 17-day leave on June 17-July 03, 2009. A fitting date to participate in the Oceania Zonal.

He will ask for the help of Ambassador Marino for a discount on Philippine Airlines flight to Brisbane. Currently, the airfare for Palau-Manila-Melbourne (roundtrip) is $1,700.00.

Source: Chessmade by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper

Pages 13 and 15

Volume 18   Issue 12

March 22-29, 2009

(159) CONVERSATION WITH GENE (ILLEGAL MOVE)

"WE FOLLOW FIDE LAWS OF CHESS, NOT YOUR LAW"
Gene Pastrana, right, shakes hand with Palau Chess Federation Secretary/Treasurer Roberto Hernandez before their official game of the 2011 Palau National Chess Championship at his Beken's Store and General Merchandise premises. Gene have at least 3 controversial recorded games involving violation of FIDE Laws of Chess.                                                                                   (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



           CONVERSATION WITH GENE
                                           (ILLEGAL MOVE CONTROVERSY)

I HAVE a long conversation with Gene at 11:00 am today (Jan. 05, 2010). He described the position where he checked with his rook on 42. …Rf6+ and instead of capturing the rook, Cyril captured the bishop with 43. fxe8=Q+ and Gene captured Cyril’s king.

I showed to Gene the FIDE Laws of Chess, in Artilcle 7.4 a. & b. He’s still not convinced about that rule and said, “Cyril thought for a while before the illegal move. He should have seen it. Then I said, “Cyril is just human. Even a GM makes illegal moves sometimes. And he said that if he will lose that game, he will withdraw from the tournament and threatened not to use his previous games score so that others may gain international ranking.

He even said that I should be at the tournament site every time there is a game. I replied, “But I’m working. Do you want me to resign from my job just to be here every game?” He said, “It’s up to you”.

I gave Gene the 18-page FIDE Laws of Chess and ask him to study it especially the Article 7.4 a. & b. I also mentioned to him about his illegal move that he committed in our game on Jan. 15, 2006. I said to him that he won that game but he is the one who committed the illegal move. (See game score). He is about to be checkmated and there is no more solution even if he will give away his rook and queen. He moved his queen (in dark diagonal) to a different diagonal (white) and threatened mate. I trusted him that he will not do such thing intentionally and because I’m writing the moves despite the 30 minutes time control, I was able to identify the position where the illegal move was made. Cyril was there also when it happened.

Since then, I’m very careful when playing against him because of that incident. Cyril is also aware about it especially that Gene needed points badly. He only had 2 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws.

I asked him, ‘If I ask the opinion of Toti Abundo or Joselito Marcos, will you accept their decision? He bluntly said, “No!”

Our conversation is going nowhere so I just decided to write to Toti Abundo, Joselito Marcos and Gary Bekker. Hopefully he will be enlightened by their thoughts or opinion.

I also added that if he just resigned a hopeless position, his opponent will respect him more. He countered, “You do the same thing like last month when they are teasing you to resign a hopeless game. I said you heard it wrong. It’s Elpidio Manaligod that they are teasing and not me because I’m winning with great advantage.

He also said that, ‘You just bring this FIDE Laws of Chess now. You should give us a copy earlier so that we can review it.” I said I gave him already a copy of it and it is also published in my Chess Mate column last year. He’s very stingy to spend .65 cents for one week just to be updated with my column.

I talked to Cyril during my break time and he suggested that it’s okay for him to have a rematch. But draw is unacceptable.

While playing piano at Palau Royal Resort, I can’t concentrate to my playing because of Gene’s attitude. I’m thinking of saying to him tomorrow this: Gene, have you thought about the illegal move? What is your decision? Will you accept another match with Cyril? I will call him. If he will stick with his decision that he won that game or just a draw, then I will say to him: We cannot allow one man to break the Laws of Chess because of one game so we will let you withdraw from the tournament. You’re right about me being at the tournament site every time there is a game so we will hold the remaining games at Palau Royal Resort. And I will be handling the registration money of the tournament because it is written in the Palau Chess Federation By-Laws that the Secretary/Treasurer is the one to keep an account of all money received and expended by the PCF. It is in the Article IV, Section 3: C of PCF By-Laws.

Gene is not even an officer of Palau Chess Federation. I will ask him to return the $297.00 that he owes to PCF when he spent that money upon suffering an economic crisis last year. I think he also spent most of the registration fee of the players of 2009 Palau National Chess Championship. He admitted to me that he spent the $297.00 but he cannot pay it now because he is still in tight budget. PCF owes FIDE more than 800 euros and the money collected should be spent to pay for at least half of it and not for his own personal use.

This is the latest as of 11:30 am (January 06, 2010): I talked to Gene and his decision is to withdraw from the tournament because he cited he’s very busy. I respect his decision and just ask him that as per Artcile IV, Section 3:C of PCF By-Laws, I will be handling the money received and expended by the PCF being its Secretary/Treasurer.

All remaining games will be played at Palau Royal Resort. Players will be assisted by Paquito ‘Pax’ Suringa or Jaime Guevarra if I’m not available.

I hope this development will make Palau Chess Federation more united and law-abiding federation and chess players. I’m glad that we solve it on our own.

Roberto

Gene Pastrana (White) vs. Roberto Hernandez (Black) 2005-2006 Rapid Chess tournament 1/15/2006

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 e6 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. d4 cxd4 6. Nxd4 a6 7. a3 b5 8. Ba2 Bb7 9. Qe2 Be7 10. Nf3 Nc6 11. Bg5 0-0 12. Bb1 Rc8 13. 0-0 b4 14. axb4 Nxb4 15. Re1 h6 16. Bxf6 Bxf6 17. e5 Bxf3 18. Qxf3 Bxe5 19. Qe4 Bxc3 20. bxc3 Nd5 21. Rxa6 Nxc3 22. Qf4 d5 23. Ba2 Nxa2 24. Rxa2 Rc4 25. Qg3 Qb6 26. Kh1 Rfc8 27. Rf1 Rxc2 28. Rxc2 Rxc2 29. Qh4 d4 30. Qe4 Qb2 31. Qa8+ Kh7 32. Qe4+ g6 33. Qf3 Rc7 34. Rd1 e5 35. h3 f5 36. g4 Rc3 37. Qg2 Qb3 38. Ra1 Rxh3+ 39. Kg1 fxg4 40. Rah7+ Kh8 41. Ra8+ Kg7 42. Ra7+ Kf6 43. Qc6+ Kg5 44. Qc1+ Kh5 45. Rh7 g5 46. Rg7 Qf3 47. Qg6+ (Illegal move)

Cyril Montel, Jr. (White) vs. Gene Pastrana (Black) Jan. 04, 2010 (Palau NCC)

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Bd2 d5 8. Bxb5 dxc4 9. e5 Nxb4 10. Qa4+ Nc6 11. exf6 gxf6 12. 0-0 0-0 13. Qxc4 Ne7 14. Nc3 c6 15. Rad1 b5 16. Qd3 Bf5 17. Qd2 Kh8 18. Qh6 Ng8 19. Qf4 Be6 20. b3 Kg7 21. Ne4 Qd5 22. Nh4 Rfe8 23. Rd3 Bd7 24. Rg3+ Kf8 25. Rxg8+ Kxg8 26. Nxf6+ Kf8 27. Nxd5 cxd5 28. Qd6+ Re7 29. Re1 Rae8 30. f4 f5 31. Qh6+ Kg8 32. Rxe7 Rxe7 33. Qg5+ Kf8 34. Nxf5 Rf7 35. Qh6+ Kg8 36. Qg5+ Kf8 37. Qd8+ Be8 38. Nd6 Re7 39. f5 Re1+ 40. Kf2 Re7 41. f6 Re6 42. f7 Rf6+ 43. fxe8=Q+ (Illegal move)………

Source: The History Of Chess In Palau     No. 22
             January 04, 2010