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World Championship draughts 2007
Hardenberg, may 14, 2007

Decision of main referee Rima Danileviciene regarding games of Samb and Otgonbayar
in the first round.

After carefully studying the regulations of the FMJD and the special regulations of the
tournament the main referee Rima Danileviciene has decided to declare the games of
Ndiaga Samb and Tuvshinbold Otgonbayar lost for the players Samb and Otgonbayar
because they were not present 1 hour after the start of their games in the first round.
Before the tournament it became clear that the players Samb and Otgonbayar would not arrive
in time for the opening ceremony. Due to visum problems and in the case of Samb by noncooperation
of his national federation.
The invitation for Samb was handed over to the Senegalese tournament director 2 month
before the tournament, but this tournament director did not submit this invitation to the proper
authorities in Dakar. Only a few days before the tournament FMJD’s executive vice president
Pieter Hildering arranged for a visum for Samb by a long telephone call with the embassy in
Dakar.
Samb had a plane arriving may 12, 5.00 in the morning in Paris and arrived at 23.00 that day
in Hardenberg. If he would have taken a plane from Paris to Amsterdam he might have
arrived in time, but he chose not to do so.
The invitation for Otgonbayar was send on april 7 by the bureau of the FMJD, too late due to
technical problems on the bureau. This letter was received in Mongolia 14 days before the
tournament. It took a little bit more than ten days to get the visum in the embassy in Ulan
Baatar, also due to the fact that there are several vacation days in this period. This visum was
dated on may 10 and given to the player on may 11. Otgonbayar arrived on may 12, 17:30 at
Schiphol. He arrived at 21:00 hours in Hardenberg.
Because it was known in advance that the 2 players would not be in time for the opening
ceremony the FMJD board has discussed what to do. On the basis of article 22 from the
World Championship regulations, they decided to accept the 2 players as participants in the
tournament. In this article it is written that the player has to be present in the opening
ceremony to be able to participate, with exception for the case of force majeure because of
visa or plane problems.
The main referee interprets this article 22 as giving the player a right to participate in certain
circumstances, but to leave it to the decision of the referee what will happen with the games in
the first round.
The decision what to do with their games in the first round was left to the referees also by the
CD of the FMJD, as written in e-mails from Mr. Hildering and Mrs Bubbi.
The suggestion to change the tournament schedule and play round 14 in which Samb and
Otgonbayar had to play against each other was not seen as a real option by the referees. All
players have prepared themselves for the opponents in the first round(s) and not yet fully for
their opponents in round 14.
In article 3 of the WC regulations the following is written as guideline for the referees:”
They will be guided by strict maintenance of the rules and regulations.”
In annex 3, the official FMJD competition regulations, it is written in article 5.7 that
when a player is more than 1 hour late his opponent receives a regulatory win.
It is the opinion of the referees that if the FMJD wants to take itself serious as an international
sports organisation they cannot let these kinds of things pass without measures to be taken.
In other sports it is unthinkable that a players or a team arrives too late for a tournament and is
not present when they have to play but are allowed to play later in the tournament.
However, if both opponents of Samb and Otgonbayar would have been happily willing to
make a sportive gesture the main referee would possibly decide otherwise because the players
are more important than the rules, but this was not the case for both opponents.
The referee wanted to make the same decision for both games because the circumstances for
both players were the same. It is not correct to let one opponent play because he is willing to
make a sportive gesture, while the other opponent gets a regulatory win because he does not
want to play.
One of the reasons for the referee was also the remark of the opponent of Otgonbayar,
Alexander Schwarzman. Schwarzman said that he needed his day rest and he would be
disadvantaged if his concurrents would have a day rest while he should have to play with
Otgonbayar. Especially with Schwarzmans program: round 4 Tchizov, free day, round 5
Valneris and round 6 Georgiev it is clear that Schwarzman has a good point.
The rights of the players who are in time are clearly more important than those of the players
coming too late.
Because of all these reasons the main referee decides to declare the two games lost.
The player who does not agree with this decision may protest with the Jury d’Appel.
As it is written in annex 2, the official regulations for official FMJD competitions, in article
2.11, the Jury d’Appel has to answer, respecting fully the rules, any appeal (written in French
or English with a copy for the main referee) by a player against a sanction or decision of the
main referee.
As written in the tournaments regulations article 14 the Jury d’Appel consists of chairman
Ada dorgelo (Netherlands) and members Johan Demasure (Belgie) and Yuri Tchertok
(Russia).
Main referee world championship Rima Danileviciene