An Arbiter's Notebook 
by Geurt Gijssen

Report from Batumi

The European Championship for national women's and men's
teams was organised from November 27 until December 7, 1999 in
Batumi (Georgia). Batumi is also the capital of a small autonomous
republic called Ajara.

The event took place in the so-called Chess Palace, built just
before this tournament. The building is very nice - it has two ample
playing halls, a hotel, restaurant, and separate press room.
Unfortunately, the hotel is not that big, but the owner of the
building told me that they will start to build another hotel next to
the Chess Palace.

The hall for the women's teams was sufficient. It was possible to
admit spectators to the hall. But the men's hall, although the same
size, was really too small. In principle, it was impossible to have
spectators in this hall, but due to a lack of control, many spectators
did manage to enter the hall. In this regard, I would like to mention
something else. I often see in team events a lot of people in the
playing area, who should not be there. Let me give an example:
there are four players and a captain on a team. Of course they have
access to the playing area. But what about the fifth player who is
not playing? I recall at the Moscow 1994 Olylmpiad we tried
something with stickers on the badges of the players who were
actually playing, but this did not work. In Batumi I was suddenly
confronted with people who had a "coach" badge. In the playing
hall I also found some with a "Head of delegation" badge. I was
never informed about this. Spectators whom I tried to remove
showed me "security" or "technical service" badges. And during
the ECU congress the situation became even worse. Every delegate
wanted to see how his team was doing and invaded the playing
hall. Nobody will be surprised when I tell you that, from time to
time, my blood pressure rose.

The teams were accommodated in different hotels in and around
Batumi. Each country had its own bus, but there were occasionally
problems with these buses and the drivers. Each team also had an
interpreter, who really did a splendid job. Georgia is a poor country
and electricity and water are big problems. Telephones and fax
machines do not always work properly. Often when the arbiters'
secretary was copying the pairings, the electricity suddenly
stopped. In this way we frequently wasted a lot of time that was
needed to inform the teams about pairings and team compositions.
By the way, it seems to me that almost everybody in Georgia has a
cell phone. I remember situations when I was with three Georgians
in a car and they were all using their cell phones. I think that the
time has come that FIDE should add an article to the tournament
regulations that prohibit cell phones in the playing hall for
spectators, organisers and players. In Batumi it was possible to
listen to many famous songs produced on the cell phones. And I
remember that in the exhibition game Kasparov-Timman, recently
played with containers in Rotterdam, Kasparov's cell phone was
ringing. In Batumi several players complained about these phones
and in spite of the fact that we put signs on all doors that they were
forbidden, it did not help.

The areas before the entrances of the playing halls were my biggest
problem. Georgians are very talkative and they were always
standing there. Although I requested at least three times per round
to put security, policemen and other people at these landings, it
was impossible to maintain silence. Yes, the organisers did put
some people in these areas, but after five minutes they would
disappear. The protests of the teams playing close to the entrances
of the playing halls were completely justified. I supported their
complaints. To be honest, I have to add and to admit that
chessplayers were also guilty of making noise and I explained to
them many times - I was almost desperate - that they were not
acting as responsible colleagues. They agreed completely with me,
kept silent a little while, and then started their loud discussions
again.

Some members of the organising committee really did their utmost
to make everything go smoothly, but some of the organisers I have
never met. For instance, I had never seen the tournament director
although it is the tournament director, in my opinion, who is the
key person in a tournament's organisation. (I understand that the
tournament director is, in the United States, the chief arbiter or the
equivalent and the "organiser" is probably whom most Europeans
call the tournament director). If such a person had acted in this
capacity here, for sure, I would have had an easier job.

There were 9 rounds without any rest days. It was my
understanding that the board of the European Chess Union made
this scheduling decision. The reason was probably to save some
money for the federations that had to pay all the associated costs,
such as transportation, hotels, food and beverage and fees.
However, I think it would have been better to have had at least one
day off. I am afraid that the board of the ECU had overlooked the
possibility that organisers would have liked to show chessplayers
the city, museums, and some factories, the harbour and more
interesting parts of the country. I am sure that, the government
headed by the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the autonomous
Republic of Ajara, Mr. Abashidze, would have been especially
pleased.

Personally I like team events like the Olympiad and Continental
Team Championships very much. There is a possibility to meet
many chessplayers, arbiters, journalists and organisers.

There were 36 men's teams (4 players and 1 reserve player) and 36
women's teams (2 players and 1 reserve player) in Batumi. The
tournament was very strong - 110 grandmasters and 34 women
grandmasters were present. The average rating of all participants
was certainly much higher than in the Olympiad. But it was also
remarkable that many strong grandmasters did not show up.
Russia, for instance, played without Kasparov, Khalifman, Karpov,
Kramnik, Morozevich, Svidler, Bareev, Rublevsky, Zvjaginsev and
Dreev. I was told that it had to do with the fact that the Russian
players were not paid for the 1998 Olympiad. 

Neither Akopian, a finalist in Las Vegas, nor Vaganian, played for
the Armenian team. And probably the most regrettable was the
absence of the strongest woman player of the host country, Maya
Chiburdanidze, who did not play for the same reason. Nana
Ioseliani and Nino Gurieli played for Georgia II. It is clear that
several federations have problems paying its players. The
Georgians played without their strongest player Zurab
Azmajparavishvili, but as President of the Georgian Chess
Federation and one of the main organisers of this event, it was
obvious that he could not play. By the way, Zurab demonstrated
that he is a perfect host. He really did everything to make my stay
in Georgia as pleasant as possible. And he succeeded.

At the risk of being boring, I must report that there were no
incidents during the tournament. As usual, the time limit was 40
moves in 100 minutes, then 20 moves in 50 minutes and finally 10
minutes for the remaining moves, with the addition of 30 seconds
after each move from the first. For every four boards there was one
arbiter and although many of them had no experience in
international tournaments, they had no problems with the clocks or
acting appropriately. One additional advantage of the Fischer
modus is probably that we need fewer arbiters. If we work with
experienced arbiters, then one arbiter for every eight boards should
be sufficient. I left Georgia with very positive feelings. Georgians
are very warm people and write the word "Hospitality" with a
capital H. Despite a few minor organisational problems, I believe
the players felt the same way. 