Since January, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) has been offering a twice-monthly FIDE Newsletter in Adobe PDF format. The quality of the first few issues has been uneven, but is bound to improve with experience. The newsletter offers a little to everyone interested in chess: players, arbiters, and historians. Here are some excerpts from the first three issues.

• New Rules at the Olympiad • 'New Rules at the Olympiad FIDE draws the attention of national federations to ensure that they and their players are acquainted with the new rules before they attend the Olympiad in Dresden.' • Volume 2008 Number 1, Date 1/1-25/1, 2008.

  The Fide.com link didn't work for us, but with a little sleuth work we found the rules at New Rules for the Chess Olympiads.
  
  

• How would you act as Arbiter? • 'In a match during a teams tournament, on board 1 the player with White pieces offers a draw. The player with Black pieces accepts on condition that the players on board 2 should also agree for a draw. The player with White pieces writes on his scoresheet the result as a draw and signs it. The player with Black pieces insists that since no draw was agreed on board 2, he does not accept White's offer and thus White has to continue the game. They summon the Arbiter. What must be his/her decision?' • Volume 2008 Number 2, Date 1/26-2/15, 2008.
  
  
• Sixty Years Ago 1st FIDE World Championship • The decision for organizing the World Chess Championship tournament was taken in the 2nd post-war FIDE Congress in July 1947 where the delegates considered five different proposals to solve the problem that emerged after World Chess Champion A. Alekhine died. The options were as follows: replaying the 1938 AVRO tournament with six players (the AVRO tournament had brought together the 8 players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at that time); a match between the winner of Euwe-Reshevsky semifinal and a Soviet-nominated player (expectedly Botvinnik); two semifinals between Euwe-Reshevsky and Botvinnik-Keres and the match between the winners; a candidates tournament to be held in 1949 where the winner would be the world champion; to declare one of the top grandmasters world champion. After several days of discussion, the delegates chose the first option and set the dates from March to May, 1948. • Volume 2008 Number 3, Date 2/16-3/05, 2008.
  
  

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