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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
12 August 2025
The FIDE Arbiters Commission recently released a new edition of its Arbiter Manual which you can download from this website or from FIDE.
This supersedes the edition released last autumn after the Budapest Olympiad. There was no 2023 edition.
We recommend all arbiters and tournament organisers to download the document immediately and refresh their memory by working throughit before their next congress.
Tim Harding qualified as a FIDE Arbiter in January 2020, just before the pandemic, and his title application was one of those ratified at June 2020's quarterly FIDE Council (held online).
Tim received his certificate from FIDE on 10 August 2020 and was eventually able to use the qualification a few times, at first in hybrid junior tournaments and later in a few over the board events. His last arbiter session was during the 2024 Irish national club championships.
Later in 2025 he may be available to assist in running tournaments again.
Tim's title now shown on his FIDE Profile and on the list of arbiters by country posted by the Arbiters Commission.
In September 2018 Tim became a FIDE-licensed National Arbiter, having completed his qualification in August 2018. He immediately began the process of earning norms for the much more important FIDE Arbiter title.
As a FIDE Arbiter Tim is qualified to act as a chief arbiter or deputy arbiter in most classes of tournament in which international titles may be earned. National Arbiters are qualified to run FIDE-rated non-title tournaments and officiate as an assistant at more important events.
Tim's final qualification was earned when the Irish Chess Union organised a FIDE Arbiter Seminar, early in 2020, which was conducted by International Arbiter and FIDE lecturer Alex McFarlane from Scotland. Attending one of these and passing the exam with a score of at least 80 per cent is an essential requirement, and Tim passed top of the class with a score in the 90s.
Nine of the 16 the candidates attending the seminar passed the exam; one was an Italian IA doing the course as a referesher and one was a Norwegian arbiter. Two of the non-Irish arbiters who passed the exam are actually resident here.