FIDE - New Player Licences

[Andy McCulloch]

With a lot of talk on the site about Fide ratings, I was wondering when some comment on FIDE's latest scheme would be forthcoming from CS. I notice that Alex McFarlane has posted about this on the ECF, but nothing here.

Quoted from the English Chess Forum.

"REGULATIONS ON REGISTRATION & LICENSING OF PLAYERS
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS">http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS</a><!-- m --> ... layers.pdf

Approved by 2013 Presidential Board

1. All Players shall be required to register with their National Chess Federations (NCF). The
FIDE Regulations on Registration, Transfers and Eligibility shall apply.

2. The NCF (or FIDE) shall issue the FIDE ID Number if the Player does not have one at
the time of registration. NCF will register the Player with FIDE by providing
information containing the Player’s Name, Gender, Place & Year of Birth, Photo,
Passport Number; FIDE ID Number (if any).

3. FIDE/NCF shall issue the Player with a Player ID Card bearing the information from
Rule 2 above.All information shall be maintained in the List of FIDE Licensed Players.

4. A Player who registers to compete in any FIDE rated competition shall be required to
provide his FIDE ID Number.

5. An Organizer receiving any registration must refer to the List of FIDE Licensed Players
before accepting the registration.

6. If an Organizer inadvertently accepted a Player without a valid License, the Organizer
shall be penalized 50 Euro for every infringement. Such Players shall not have a FIDE ID
Number and shall have no Federation Flag.

7. Games played by Players without a valid License shall not count for rating for
themselves. Games played against them by Licensed Players shall be counted.

8. A NCF may subsequently (during or after the competition) register the Player mentioned
in Rules 8 & 9 above provided a Late Payment Fee of 50 Euro is paid.

9. Players without a License cannot play in any official FIDE or Continental competition.

10. For each time a player who has been delisted by his NCF and subsequently re-listed, the
payment is 20 Euro."


Is this an attempt at a money maker, or are we going to see the removal of the licence of players who play in 'unauthorised ' events?

[Craig Pritchett]

This scheme does need some thought. FIDE tried to get the same (or virtually the same) scheme through two years ago. This was debated on the noticeboard then but the thread can no longer be retrieved!? Many of the same issues are exactly the same now.

If there is a difference it may be that there are no initial licensing costs to federations (although penalties remain that can hit federations and FIDE rated tournament organisers). That's a bit better but not really good enough. The scheme last time was dropped after many federations objected (believe Dutch were highly anti).

FIDE hasn't attempted to explain why there is a need for this scheme, a criticism last time that still stands, without which no one can grapple with the fundamental reasons for it.

There may in fact be a reasonable case for some limited licensing arrangement (such as a FIDE ID Card but without passport details). If this does go through I think, however, that at a minimum federations should object to passport details being required and held by FIDE. That's just not necessary quite apart from any larger security or privacy objections. Moreover, what will be done if a player has no passport or is between passports? This hasn't been thought through.

As I'm relying on memory some of above may be wrong.

[Andy Howie]

I've been abroad with work so have just seem this and a mail from Alex about it.

With a lot of talk on the site about Fide ratings, I was wondering when some comment on FIDE's latest scheme would be forthcoming from CS. I notice that Alex McFarlane has posted about this on the ECF, but nothing here.

Quoted from the English Chess Forum.

"REGULATIONS ON REGISTRATION & LICENSING OF PLAYERS
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS">http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS</a><!-- m --> ... layers.pdf

Approved by 2013 Presidential Board

1. All Players shall be required to register with their National Chess Federations (NCF). The
FIDE Regulations on Registration, Transfers and Eligibility shall apply.

All players in Scoland already are!

2. The NCF (or FIDE) shall issue the FIDE ID Number if the Player does not have one at
the time of registration. NCF will register the Player with FIDE by providing
information containing the Player’s Name, Gender, Place & Year of Birth, Photo,
Passport Number; FIDE ID Number (if any).

If you are going to play in a FIDE event Dougie encourages you to contact him so that he can register you. I think we will have to make that manditory.

I am not too happy with the Passport number to be honest, I'll seek clarification on that. It may cause problems in countires like Germany where Data protection laws would prevent that from being transmitted

3. FIDE/NCF shall issue the Player with a Player ID Card bearing the information from
Rule 2 above.All information shall be maintained in the List of FIDE Licensed Players.

Could be a simple addition to the existing membership cards

4. A Player who registers to compete in any FIDE rated competition shall be required to
provide his FIDE ID Number.

5. An Organizer receiving any registration must refer to the List of FIDE Licensed Players
before accepting the registration.

6. If an Organizer inadvertently accepted a Player without a valid License, the Organizer
shall be penalized 50 Euro for every infringement. Such Players shall not have a FIDE ID
Number and shall have no Federation Flag.

7. Games played by Players without a valid License shall not count for rating for
themselves. Games played against them by Licensed Players shall be counted.

8. A NCF may subsequently (during or after the competition) register the Player mentioned
in Rules 8 & 9 above provided a Late Payment Fee of 50 Euro is paid.

Quite self explanitory

9. Players without a License cannot play in any official FIDE or Continental competition.

We do this up here for the Scottish Championships.

10. For each time a player who has been delisted by his NCF and subsequently re-listed, the
payment is 20 Euro."

Hmm, ECF will have fun with that one!

Is this an attempt at a money maker, or are we going to see the removal of the licence of players who play in 'unauthorised ' events?

I don't see any money making to be honest. More making sure people are registered before they play.

One area I will be seeking clarification is things like SNCL and Richardson. What do we do with a player that comes in later in the competition.

[Andy McCulloch]

Since neither the SNCL or Richardson are at present FIDE rated it seems irrelevant to be worrying about their status.

More to the point perhaps, are the fees to be charged if a player has been de-listed and now has to pay to be re-listed. This seems to give governing bodies a lot more power, perhaps Turkey and India as examples last year, where players were barred. In one case it seemed personal and political, in the other the individuals had taken part in 'non-authorised' events.

How long before these fees are applied to all players new to FIDE competition? There do seem to have been a large number of new fees set up lately, arbiters and organisers, for instance.

[Andy McCulloch]

Just found this on the ECF.

"Roger de Coverly » Fri Feb 01, 2013 12:54 pm

Sean Hewitt wrote:
but it is a FIDE requirement that you have to be a member of your national federation (if the federation has a membership scheme) to appear in the FIDE rating list.

Actually that's disputed.

Chess Scotland specifically asked this question. They have a membership scheme but not a compulsory one. They asked if they needed to insist on membership as a condition of play to have their national league rated. The FIDE answer of a couple of years ago was that they didn't, membership being interpreted in the loose sense of listed with. FIDE being a federation of chess bodies doesn't offer individual membership unlike the ECF, also a federation of chess bodies. So when a Federation is suspended from FIDE for non payment, individual players from that Federation temporarily lose their ratings and cannot rectify the matter by joining FIDE as individuals.

Isn't the FIDE Registration scheme another attempt to get those federations like Scotland or Australia who don't have mandatory individual membership, to introduce it?"

[Andy Howie]

ECF have been spouting that line for a long time. It was the reason that Dougie and I contacted FIDE to clarify.

Key point is

1. All Players shall be required to register with their National Chess Federations (NCF). The
FIDE Regulations on Registration, Transfers and Eligibility shall apply.

Register, not become a member. You could argue that anyone playing in Scotland is registered with the NCF as when they play their game is graded and they have a pno on the Grading database.

There is no compulsion here to force federations like ours, Australia and Russia (everyone forgets that one!) to have compulsory membership. Or are you suggesting that we should have compulsory membership?

There are some issues with this idea from FIDE which needs to be resolved.

[Craig Pritchett]

[LINK REMOVED]

The (predictable) objections have begun, once again with the Dutch in the lead. I find it hard to argue against the reply signed by some rather weighty federations.

[Andy McCulloch]

This letter has already been referenced on the ECF where Alex McF posted this a.m. that CS was also now a signatory.

Is that the case?

GM Spraggett also seems to be of the opinion that it looks like a 'nice little earner' for FIDE.

Another contribution to the ECF(forum) points out that the last time the ECF(federation) signed an open letter, they ended up in a rather expensive lawsuit with FIDE.

[Andy Howie]

Apologies for the slow response. I have been away with Dell. Indeed that is the case.

[Alex McFarlane]

Lest we have a panic from Andy's brief message.

Another contribution to the ECF(forum) points out that the last time the ECF(federation) signed an open letter, they ended up in a rather expensive lawsuit with FIDE.

This is a simplification. The letter was in advance of action at CAS. The letter itself did not lead directly to court action.