An Arbiter's Notebook
by Geurt Gijssen

Events in Elista

I was very honored when I received a fax with the message that
I had been appointed as Chief Arbiter of the XXXIII Chess
Olympiad in Elista. In 1996 I was the Chief Arbiter of the
match for the World Chess Championship between Anatoly
Karpov and Gata Kamsky, also played in Elista, and I had only
good memories about Elista and Kalmykia. The co-operation
between the organizers and me was excellent and when I saw
that the same people would be organizing the Olympiad, I was a
happy man. Looking back on the Olympiad, I am still a happy
man. The organizers were nice persons; the Kalmykians are
very simpatico and co-operative and considered every foreigner
as a friend. In this Notebook I would like to tell you something
about this very remarkable Olympiad.

Immediately after a tournament in France, the Cancan
tournament between Veterans and Ladies, I flew to Moscow. In
Moscow, on September 22, Mr. Makropoulos called me. He
told me that the first round probably would have to be
postponed for two days, because the Chess Palace in Chess City
was not ready. We discussed some options and we agreed to cut
one round and one rest day. This meant, instead of 14 rounds,
we would play 13 rounds.

On September 23 I arrived in Elista and I went immediately to
Chess City. When I saw the building I felt desperate. It was, in
my opinion, absolutely impossible to start on September 29,
although everybody assured me that we would start on the 29th,
instead of 27th. From this moment I visited Chess City very
frequently to inspect and track the progress. In the meantime
many teams arrived and went to their apartments and cottages
in Chess City. The players also had their doubts about whether
or not we would start on time. By the way, the players were not
briefed about the postponement of the first round. They were
walking around the Chess Palace wondering when it might
start.

Looking back, I can say that it was quite funny that the
Kalmykian organizers were so sure that we would start on the
29th in the Chess Palace, but the non-Kalmykian organizers
started to make an emergency scenario in case the building was
not ready. I myself went to the Youth Palace, in which in 1996
the match Karpov-Kamsky had been played and calculated how
many matches could be played in this building. Mr. Gelfer
checked the number of matches that could be played in the
living rooms (and not the kitchens, like some journalists
reported) of the cottages. The final result of our calculations
was that we could start the Olympiad in this way on September
29.

The opening ceremony was scheduled for September 26, at 7.00
p.m. During this ceremony, I informed the captains that on
September 27, at 3.00 p.m., there would be a captains' meeting
in the Youth Palace. The opening ceremony was really
splendid.

At the captains' meeting almost all captains were present. Mr.
Makropoulos, Deputy President of FIDE, explained the reason
why the first round had to be postponed for two days. Due to
the monetary crisis in Russia, which had commenced August
17, it was impossible to withdraw money from banks to pay the
people who were working in Chess City. The organizers had
lost three weeks and he asked the captains for their patience. I
explained the alternatives and I must admit how surprised I was
with the support we got from the captains. The alternative
playing venues were not a problem at all, 13 rounds instead of
14 rounds were accepted and one rest day less was also agreed.
 
Another item in this meeting was Yom Kippur, a Jewish holy
day. Back in Bled, during the meeting of the FIDE Central
Committee it had been decided that the Israeli teams would be
allowed to play on September 29, from 10.00 until 18.00 and on
September 30 from 18.00. It was also decided that I should
announce this at the captains meeting before the start of the
Olympiad. There were no objections. The captains were very
co-operative. In my opinion, we had gotten off to a good start...

The Olympiad started in fact on September 29 at 10 a.m. in the
Youth Palace with the matches Israel B-Venezuela in the men's
competition and Azerbaijan B-Israel in the women's
competition. The night before I had to inform the captains of
these teams that they had to play the next morning instead of in
the afternoon. The Venezuelan team was attending a party at
the time and it was very difficult to find them. However, after
the start of these two matches I went immediately to Chess City
to see whether it was ready for play or not.

There, it was as if I were witnessing a miracle. We certainly
could play in the Chess Palace! Floor after floor had been 
finished by the contractors and it was amazing and inspiring to
see how hard people were working to finish their job on time.
None of the organizers and the staff went to sleep that night.
Ben Bulsink, an employer of DGT, who was responsible for the
computer boards and the electronic clocks, worked for 35 hours
to install them. Eric Van der Schilden and his staff from the
TASC Company started to install the network. So, at 15.15 we
started the first round in the Chess Palace.

At first, it turned out to be impossible to use the electronic
system, although a very well trained team managed to put all
the games into the computer. But, from round 3 the whole
system worked perfectly. This meant we could follow all games
in the computer room on the fourth floor and if something
irregular happened, it would be discovered immediately. The
rounds finished about 10.00 p.m. and at 11.00 p.m. the file with
all 328 games could be sent to the bulletin editor.

As in the World Championship Tournament in Groningen and
Lausanne, the time limit was 40 moves in 1 hour and 40
minutes, then 20 moves in 50 minutes and 10 minutes for the
remaining moves, with the addition of 30 seconds after each
move - the so called Fischer modus. Generally there were not
many problems, but even so there were a few incidents worthy
of mention. During the tournament it was discovered that the
clock would not function properly if it had been installed in a
peculiar way. It occasionally happened that the clock was not
programmed correctly by the arbiter. Fortunately it was quite
easy to correct. The big advantage was that claims based on
Article 10 of the Laws of Chess were eliminated.

The games were played on four floors. On the fourth floor the
matches 1-6 of the women's competition were played, on the
third floor the matches 7-36 of the women's competition, on the
second floor matches 1-42 of men's competition, while the
balance of the men's teams, boards 43-55, took place on the
first floor. In addition, the top matches in the men's competition
were played in a separate room on the second floor.

It was not so easy to supervise all floors. From the first to the
fourth floor there were 72 steps. Trust me on this. My room was
on the fourth floor. The readers will understand that I lost
several kilos, although I had no time for jogging.

In the building there were two main problems. First of all, as in
all Olympiads, it was very noisy. In all the halls and rooms,
except where the top matches of the women and men were
played, there was a lot of noise, mainly produced by reserve
players, captains and players who had finished their games. In
the rooms of the top matches it was quiet, but very warm. I had
to make a choice and this was in my modest opinion the best
solution. I tried also to reduce the people who had access to the
top matches. Policemen, translators and some arbiters had a
hard job, but ultimately they survived. The decision to close the
central staircase was a very good one.

In the sixth round the match USA   Georgia was scheduled. At
5.55 p.m. the US captain Larry Christiansen came to me and
informed me that Gulko would not press his clock after 6.30 for
religious reasons. Gulko in fact was ready to give his opponent,
Sturua, some compensation. I went to the Georgian captain,
Mrs. Gurieli, and informed her. She was surprised and went to
the first board player of the Georgians, Azmaiparashvili. His
first reaction was to agree draws on all boards, but then he
requested five minutes for deliberation. After these five minutes
the Georgians agreed that a boy could press Gulko's clock with
the proviso that Sturua should get two extra minutes. I agreed
and the game continued. 

In the next round Ukraine was the opponent of the USA. This
time Larry informed me that Gulko could not press his clock
until after 6.15 o'clock. Gulko agreed to play, while his time
was reduced with ten minutes and ten minutes should be added
to his opponent's time. Onischuk was his opponent. I went to
the Ukrainian delegation and Onischuk agreed immediately to
play under normal conditions: no compensation or reduction of
time. 

In the eleventh round England was America's opponent. David
Norwood, the English captain, came to me and informed me
that the English team had refused the request to allow someone
else to press Gulko's clock. I informed Larry Christiansen and
told him that I accepted the position of the English team. I did
point out to Christiansen, however, that he could take an appeal
and he was ready to do so. In the meantime I informed the
chairman of the Appeals Committee, Mr. Campomanes, who
was in an Asian continent meeting, that he could expect an
appeal. He asked me what was going on and then gave his
opinion that the Americans had no chance and might even have
to pay a fine. When I mentioned this to Larry, he decided to
take a path of lesser resistance and replace Gulko.

I can imagine that a reader might refer to the last paragraph of
Article 8.1 and the Preface of the Laws of Chess:

If a player due to physical or religious reasons, is unable to
keep score, an amount of time, decided by the arbiter, shall be
deducted from his allotted time at the beginning of the game.

When cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the
Laws of Chess, it should be possible to reach a correct decision
by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the
Laws. I thought it over. And my conclusion was that pressing
the clock (especially in the Fischer modus) is an essential part
of the game itself. Writing the moves is not essential and can
even be done from a reasonable distance. The person
designated to press the clock always sits next to the player and
in front of the opponent. This can be disturbing. Of course, if an
opponent agrees under such circumstances, I have no objection.

During the Olympiad there was also the FIDE congress and
three meetings of the Rules Committee. More about these
meetings next month...