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.