Tournament Investigation Form – Guidelines

On past April 13th, the FIDE Council approved the guidelines under which a form can be submitted to the QC for a Tournament to be investigated.

These guidelines came into effect on May 1st. They can be found in the FIDE Handbook at this link, and we also present it here:

Tournament Investigation Form – Guidelines

1. The QC Tournament Investigation Form (TIF) is to be submitted to the Qualification Commission Secretary

2. The form must be filled out in full. The person sending the form must be clearly identified and all submissions must be signed and dated. Anonymous reports will not be accepted.

3. The identity of the person submitting the form will remain confidential, unless that person makes a public statement regarding the investigation concerned.

4. The form is designed to report tournaments that appear to breach the FIDE regulations regarding the operation of the FIDE Rating System, or the FIDE Title System.

5. Such breaches include:

            5.1 Tournaments organised to benefit a player or group of players in achieving a title or title norm through the manipulation of results

            5.2 Tournaments organised to benefit a player of group of players to improve their rating through the manipulation of results

            5.3 Tournaments organised in such a way that there is a reasonable belief that the sole purpose of the event is to manipulate the ratings of the players involved

6. The TIF is not designed to deal with the following cases:

            6.1 Individual cases of result manipulation (such as a player deliberately losing to another player in return for a reward or a player choosing open events that maximise his rating gains)

            6.2 Complaints about the organisation of a tournament (such as non payment of advertised prizes, poor playing conditions, or decisions of the arbiters)

7. Upon receipt of the TIF, the FIDE QC will begin an investigation of the event listed. Possible outcomes of the investigation are:

            7.1 No action due to the complaint being rejected

            7.2 No action but the organiser being asked to take remedial action for future events

            7.3 The complaint is upheld and the event is not rated (or removed from the rating system)

            7.4 The event is not rated, and further action taken against the event organiser and tournament arbiter(s)

8. In the case of an event being rejected for rating, the organiser may appeal this finding to the FIDE Council

9. If there are complaints that fall outside the areas listed above, then they should be made to the following commissions

            9.1 Individual player behaviour regarding arranged results – Fairplay Commission or Ethics Commission

            9.2 Arbiter performance – Arbiters Commission

            9.3 Event organisation issues – Events Commission

10. In the case where FIDE QC receives a complaint for individual cheating, the complaint will be forwarded to FPL. 11. A person must have a well founded belief that a breach has occurred before submitting the form. Submission of vexatious complaints or multiple submissions without evidence may result in action by the FIDE Ethics Commission.

You can see and download the Tournament Investigation Form (TIF) clicking below: