Changes in Laws of Chess

Chess arbiters are obligated to stay updated on changes in regulations. Players often only learn about these changes during the arbiter's intervention.

Maciej Cybulski

Mar 19, 2024

1 min

Arbiters Organizers Rules FIDE

On the International Chess Federation (FIDE) website, one can find, among other things, the Laws of Chess - both the current ones in 2024 and four archival versions from the previous decade.

on the right of the player who has the black pieces

on the side where the player who has the black pieces decides

on the side where the arbiter decides

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What has changed in recent years? Many changes concern the broad issue of illegal moves - various types of irregularities and the consequences of their execution depending on the rate of play. Many active chess players vividly remember situations where they lost due to making the first illegal move in blitz. Later, the same penalty applied to rapid chess as well. Currently, the second illegal move results in defeat - regardless of the rate of play.

declare result 1:0

declare result ½:½

declare result 0:1

declare result ½:0

adds 1 minute for the player with the white pieces and order the player with the black pieces to complete the move.

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The current Laws of Chess span several dozen pages and consist of over 12,000 words and over 70,000 characters. We recommend this reading to everyone and even more encourage testing your knowledge in one of the quizzes we have prepared.

Quiz for Chess Arbiters #1
Quiz for Chess Arbiters #2
Quiz for Chess Arbiters #3

agreement to draw

capturing the king

three times occurrence of the same position

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Could you organize a chess tournament? Do you know the required lighting in the playing hall or the size chess pieces should have? Test your skills in the organizer's quiz as well!

Quiz for Chess Organisers #1

organizer

arbiter

players

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On April 1st, 2024, new Tie-Break Regulations come into effect, introducing many changes such as the abolition of the virtual opponent and a deep change in the management of unplayed games and matches.

Tie-Break Quiz #1

It is calculated by adding, for each round, a value given by multiplying the final score of the opponents by the points scored against them.

The number of points achieved against all participants who have scored at least 50% of the maximum possible tournament score.

The sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a participant.

After each round a participant has a certain tournament score. This tie-break is calculated adding the score of the participant at the end of each round.

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Tie-Break Quiz #2

№1 Alyx's Buchholz (BH) is:

Table 1 (Questions 1-3)

№1	Name	Pts	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5
1	Alyx	3.5	+W9	=B13	=W2	+B15	=W4
2	Bruno	4.0	+B10	+W7	=B1	+W16	=B3
4	David	3.5	+B12	=BYE	+W13	=W3	=B1
15	Reine	2.0	-B7	+W5	+B10	-W1	-B16
9	Jessica	1.5	-B1	-W10	=BYE	-F11	+BYE
13	Opal	1.5	+B5	=W1	-B4	-B8	-W14

Legend:
+W: Win with White pieces
+B: Win with Black pieces
-W: Loss with Black pieces
-B: Loss with Black pieces
-F: Loss by Forfeit
+F: Win by Forfeit
+BYE: Pairing Allocated Bye
=BYE: Half-Point Bye
--: withdraw from the round (Zero-Point-Bye)

For example, +W9 is a win with White pieces against player №9 (Jessica).

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