{{No footnotes, date=April 2022 In

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition am ...

s, an arbiter is an official who oversees matches and ensures that the rules of chess are followed.

International Arbiter

''International Arbiter'' is a title awarded by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter in important chess matches. The title was established in 1951. Requirements for the title to be awarded are detailed in section B.06 of the FIDE Handbook. As well as thorough knowledge of the laws of chess and a proved impartiality, they include the ability to speak a FIDE-approved language and previous experience as an arbiter in important tournaments. International Arbiters are further categorized by FIDE into four groups, in order of experience, from group D, C, B to A. The

World Chess Federation displays the list of International Arbiters with their ID numbers, name, and title on its official website.

Notable International Arbiters

Some individuals have had careers as strong players and later become International Arbiters. Notable examples include: * Albéric O'Kelly de Galway, Grandmaster who was third

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or e-mail, email. Les ...

world champion before becoming an International Arbiter in 1962 and acting as Chief Arbiter at the

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo is ...

and 1969

over-the-board This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like ''fork'' and ''pin''. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific t ...

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

matches; * Lothar Schmid, Grandmaster who finished joint second with the then

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (, ; 17 June 1929 – 13 August 1984) was a Soviet-Armenian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost-impenetrable defensive playing style, ...

at Bamberg 1968 and was also a strong correspondence player before becoming an International Arbiter in 1975 and acting as Chief Arbiter in the 1972, 1978, and 1986 World Championship matches. *

Gideon Ståhlberg Anders Gideon Tom Ståhlberg (26 January 1908 – 26 May 1967) was a Swedish chess player. He was among the inaugural recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. He won the Swedish Chess Championship of 1927, became ...

, Grandmaster who was Sweden's top player for many years and refereed several of

Mikhail Botvinnik Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik, ( – May 5, 1995) was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster. The sixth World Chess Champion, he also worked as an electrical engineer and computer scientist and was a pioneer in computer chess. Botvinn ...

's world championship matches. * Zoltán Ribli, was a

Candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

twice and Hungarian Champion three times. *

Yuri Averbakh Yuri Lvovich Averbakh (russian: Ю́рий Льво́вич Аверба́х; 8 February 1922 – 7 May 2022) was a Russian chess grandmaster and author. He was chairman of the USSR Chess Federation from 1973 to 1978. He was the first centenari ...

, was a

and winner of the 1954

USSR Chess Championship The USSR Chess Championship was played from 1921 to 1991. Organized by the USSR Chess Federation, it was the strongest national chess championship ever held, with eight world chess champions and four world championship finalists among its winner ...

. *

Salo Flohr Salomon Mikhailovich Flohr (November 21, 1908 – July 18, 1983) was a Czechoslovak and Soviet chess player and writer. He was among the first recipients of the title International Grandmaster from FIDE in 1950. Flohr dominated many tourna ...

* Nana Alexandria * Peter Romanovsky * Isaac Kashdan * Daniel Yanofsky * Robert Wade *

Vasja Pirc Vasja Pirc () (December 19, 1907 – June 2, 1980) was a Slovenian chess player. He is best known in competitive chess circles as a strong exponent of the hypermodern defense now generally known as the Pirc Defense. Pirc was champion of Yug ...

Milunka Lazarević Milunka Lazarević (1 December 1932 – 15 December 2018) was a Serbian chess player and journalist. For many years, she was the strongest female player of Yugoslavia and became a contender for the Women's World Chess Championship. Biography ...

External links

Requirements for the title of International ArbiterRegulations for the classification of Chess Arbiters
*International Arbiter Chess titles 1951 in chess Awards established in 1951