The ASEAN Chess Academy together with the Singapore Chess Federation celebrated Singapore's 43rd birthday taking part in a road show at the Teck Ghee National Day Celebrations Obseverence Ceremony and Carnival.

The guest of honour was Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore and Member for parliment for Ang Mo Kio GRC (Tech Ghee Constituency). The road show gave the chess fraternity the opportunity to showcase the success and development of chess in Singapore.

Mr Wee Siew Kim another Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC (Jalan Kayu Constituency) played a blitz game with Singapore’s National Under-8 Girls’ Champion, Gabrielle Ho. A crowd of almost 5,000 residents attended the celebration

Botswana Chess Federation and the African Chess Union under the Auspices of the Botswana National Sports Council and the World Chess Federation (FIDE) are glad to announce that Botswana will be hosting the first ever FIDE CACDEC Seminar for Trainers in Gaborone for the benefit of chess coaches and teachers in our region under the direct supervision of FIDE.

Until now, one had to travel all the way to FIDE Trainers Academy based in Germany or the ASEAN Chess Academy in Singapore to participate in the course and obtain FIDE Trainer titles.

Now Botswana Chess Federation brings this unique opportunity for coaches to get trained as well as certified by FIDE right in the region, thus saving a lot of expenditure.

The ASEAN Chess Academy has kindly agreed to nominate a FIDE Trainer to be assisted by a FIDE Instructor to conduct the course and the examination. The course will be conducted in English language.

Three Titles can be achieved; FIDE Instructor, National Instructor and Developmental Instructor, depending on the results of the examination and also the applicant’s stature as a player, trainer etc.

Under the aegis of the Villahermosa Training Centre two more Tournament Management Seminars, especially for Arbiters and Tournament Directors was given in Cuzco, Peru on April 29^th-May 4^th  2008 and in El Salvador on May 7^th -11^th 2008.

IA Santiago Garcia, (MEX) gave the Seminar at a rate of 6 hours daily, explaining how to work with the official programs Swiss Manager, Swiss Master 55 for the issuing of Tournament Reports and also covered FIDE Title Regulations.

There were no cost for the participants, travelling expenses and honoraries were covered by the allocation given by CACDEC to CCA.

Jorge Vega, Continental President for America thanks Dr. Iturry, Peru Chess Federation President, Mr. Erick Hernandez, ESA Chess Federation President, IA Garcia, CACDEC, FIDE and Mr. Allan Herbert for the support given in making the seminars a success.

The attendees in Curzo, Peru were:

Ernesto Ramos Ortiz – Perú

Miguel Ángel Calla Huayapa – Perú

Daniel Luque Ayala – Perú

Edward Felipe Béjar Quiñones – Perú

Guido Germain Quiñones Paucar – Perú

FA Cecilia Carola Gallegos Fernández – Perú

Víctor Hermin Blanco Aguilar – Perú

Billy Lyndon Cotos Alba – Perú

Dante Arturo Soto Conde – Perú

Edgar Freddy Velasco Laque – Perú

José Bancayan Maco – Perú

Jair Tyrone Carpio Alvarado – Ecuador

María Enriqueta Velásquez García – Ecuador

The attendees in El Salvador were:

Nery Alexander García - Guatemala

Juan José Quintana - Guatemala

Rodolfo Deras Flores - Honduras

Iván Zuñiga - Honduras

Mario Durón - Honduras

Augusto Pineda - Honduras

Elisa Oviedo – Honduras

Daysi Monterrosa - El Salvador

Carlos Aviles - El Salvador

Ricardo Sefino - El Salvador

David Blanco - El Salvador

Marjorie Alvarez - Costa Rica

Diego Redondo - Costa Rica

Under the aegis of the CCA Villahermosa Training Centre a Tournament Management Seminar was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 21^th-26^th 2008.

The aim of the Seminar was to address the problems some Federations have in reporting tournaments results to meet FIDE title and rating requirements.

CCA CACDEC assisted the Argentina Federation with a budget to provide free accomodation and meals for all participants and lecturers.

The Seminar was introduced by IA Jorge Vega, Continental President for America who thanked FIDE, the CACDEC Chairman and the Argentine Chess Federation for making the Seminar possible.

IA Santiago Garcia from Mexico who used the Swiss-Manager and Swiss 55 programs very ably conducted the Seminar which was well received by arbiters from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

 The full list of attendees are:

Argentina: AI Marcelo Hermida, AI Luis Scalise, AI Mario Zilli, AF Víctor Esteban, AF Enrique Scarella, AN Alfredo Gaal, AN Raúl Vignoles, AN Jose Scalise, NA Silvio Reneé, Ines Gomez, AN Juan José Huergo, AN José Verdejo, Ramiro Troilo

Uruguay: Jorge Bermúdez, Ruben Hipogrosso

Paraguay: AI Francisco Ochelli, Miguel Ángel Vargas

Chile: Cristian Estrada, Jorge Valenzuela, Claudio Rosales

Perú: Luis Degregori, Jorge Soto

Bolivia: Alfonso Ferrufino.

FIDE ARBITERS' SEMINARS

P. NIKOLOPOULOS
Chairman
FIDE Arbiters’ Council