National Arbiters Seminar in Toronto, Sept 28 2024

[Heidi Gay]

Hello,

Annex Chess Club is pleased to announce an upcoming National Arbiter (NA) Seminar for Saturday, September 28, 2024. This seminar will be in person. The seminar is open to all interested in chess arbitration, and can be counted towards the requirements for the National Arbiter title. Space is limited to 20 participants.

The seminar will be led by IA/IO Hal Bond, FIDE Lecturer, assisted by FA-elect Heidi Gay.

Hal Bond is Canada's leading arbiter. Amongst his many accolades, he was appointed as the Chief Arbiter at the 2012 Women’s World Chess Championship, Deputy Chief Arbiter at the 2012 World Chess Championship, and as the Chief Arbiter of the 2017 World Youth Chess Championship.

WHEN: Saturday, September 28, 10am to 8pm
WHERE: 918 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON M5R 3G5 (2 blocks north of Bathurst station) -- The Sun Room
FEE: $100 (via e-transfer to info at annexchessclub dot com)
CAPACITY: 20 participants
LANGUAGE: The language of the seminar will be English.
ORGANIZERS: Annex Chess Club
EQUIPMENT: All materials provided; we recommend bringing your laptop to refer to the FIDE Arbiters' Manual and/or a notebook for note-taking.

The seminar will cover the following topics:

• Role of Arbiters, Laws of Chess
• Tournament Management (Swiss Manager, SwissSys, Tie Breaks, CFC/FIDE Rating Reports)
• Competition Rules, Equipment Standards, and Clocks
• Fair Play
• Exam
• NA Title Regulations and Application Procedure

Refund policy: Fees are non-refundable. Should the seminar be cancelled due to low registration, we will refund all fees paid within 30 days of the cancellation date.

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/fVBruddLNJ7qWnTD7

This is the first NA seminar in Canada to be organized in person since the pandemic, and we expect spaces to fill out quickly, so please register soon to avoid disappointment!

SEATS REMAINING: 1 (updated 7/1, 23:00 EDT)

[Heidi Gay]

Just 8 seats remaining (also updated in the original post).

NEW: If you are not local to Toronto / GTA and are interested in attending online, please email info at annexchessclub dot com; if we have sufficient interest, we can potentially arrange for you to attend this seminar virtually.

[Heidi Gay]

6 seats remaining -- if you are a club organizer, tournament director, and/or a community volunteer helping to run rated events, don't miss out on this excellent opportunity!

[Heidi Gay]

3 SPACES LEFT -- appreciate the enthusiastic response from the GTA chess community thus far!

[Kerry Liles]

3 SPACES LEFT -- appreciate the enthusiastic response from the GTA chess community thus far!

I just registered (as far as I can tell...) so perhaps only 2 places left

[Heidi Gay]

I just registered (as far as I can tell...) so perhaps only 2 places left

Yup, there's only two spaces left.

[Heidi Gay]

ONE seat remaining!

[Heidi Gay]

Annex Chess Club hosted a National Arbiter seminar in Toronto this past Saturday (28 September 2024).

22 participants from 2 provinces (ON, QC) attended the seminar. All the candidates wrote the exam held at the end of the seminar, and 21 candidates passed the exam and have therefore earned a seminar recommendation towards the National Arbiter title.

Hal Bond was the lecturer, with Omar Shah, Alex Ferreira, and myself assisting on the speaking panel.

Congratulations to all the candidates!

[Kerry Liles]

Thanks to Heidi, Hal, Omar, Alex (in random order) for a very engaging seminar and for generating a lot of positive energy! The seminar was informative, thought-provoking and very much illustrative of how important an arbiter's job can be. There were a LOT of great questions, dialogues and answers. This is a major step forward in the N.A. development program and I am very glad I was able to attend. Thanks to all who presented and attended.