Grant Szuveges

What have the following proffessions all got in common?

Waiters in America
Taxi drivers (particularly in America)
Safari guides in southern Africa
People working on cruise ships (not sure what you call them)
Bouncers in Amsterdam

Answere: As well as the wage they get paid, they also collect tips.

In Amsterdam, when you leave a club or pub, you give the bouncer a coin or two if you think that they have done a good job (ie. not beating people up etc). And in southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa etc), many Australians and others get paid a small wage yet suppliment this with tips at the end of a 3 or 4 day safari....

The important theme, is that all of these people do a better job because of the tips that they may or may not get.

Now, lets talk about chess....

For whatever reason,chess seems to have enormous trouble attracting arbiters - not just at my club, but all through the scene. Therefore, I suggest the following:

The arbiter gets a small fee from the club and at the end of the tournament, the players can also tip the arbiter (if they have done a good job that is!).... The way to do this, is that the hat is passed around at the end of the tournament and people put the money in - either in an envelope or in cash. This way the arbiter doesnt know how much each player put in....

For a Saturday Allegro at MCC (starts 2pm and finishes at 6.30pm or 7pm), if I was playing, I would be happy to tip a good arbiter $2 or $3. Now if 20 players did the same, then the arbiter would get $40-$60 for that afternoons work..... For a 9 round Monday night event (one game per evening), I would be happy to tip $10 or $15. If 20 players did the same, the arbiter would get $200-$300 in tips..... As an arbiter, I would be happy to work for tips if it was the done thing in chess....

Who is this good for?

1. The arbiter - they get more money if they do a better job

2. The club - they dont have to pay as much and will get a good arbiter

3. The players - they will get an arbiter who is working hard to do a good job

Potential problems?

The main problem I see, is that chess does not have a culture of tipping. This culture would have to be built into chess over a period of time... One chess player told me a story about a cruise he went on where about a third of the guests tipped, and the other third (the chess players) had no idea..... But, if it means that we get good arbiters regularly, I would be happy to do it.

Does it diminish the role of the arbiter? I dont think so. If they get more money in the end then surely it helps their cause.

Does it make people respect the arbiter less? No, I dont think so.

Does it potentially corrupt the arbiter? Probably - but then the arbiter can probably be corrupted anyway. Eg. With tipping, someone can say "Oh, you favoured my opponent in the dispute because I didnt tip you enough last tournament" (not that the arbiter would know that because the tips would be anonymous) but then again there is nothing stopping people accusing an arbiter of bias anyway.....

In any case, I am keen to try to roadtest this idea and trial it in an upcoming tournament if someone wants to be an arbiter.....

Im not trying to Americanise Australian chess, and Im not even sure whether this idea is even a good one - although I am very keen to hear what other players and arbiters have to say about it. Give me your opinions people!!! Im very keen to hear them!

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Pablito15

Chess players can occasionally be a bit paranoid in my opinion, at club level and professional level. We've all seen ridiculous stuff; toiletgate, KGB, I've been told I couldn't go to the toilet while it was my move...

If arbiters need to be paid I'd support them getting a predefined percentage of the tournament pool. In essence you are right though- people can "tip" arbiters in any case so it's a tough one.

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Iconoclast

I HATE the tipping culture - even when I was the tipee. It is tantamount to begging. It exists as some kind of hybrid between a denigrating charity and slavery. I imagine that even in prostitution there is more dignity and respect between the parties.

Go for either:
1. A fair wage for satisfactory work or
2. A thank you for community service.


BTW, any tips must be put into the bowl anonymously lest bribery be the accusation.

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antichrist

What are you raving on about, nothing to do with arbitars or chess. You did better than any arbitar when you separated those fighting wildcats at the Doberl all those years ago - and what did you get ? A barring from even attending future Doberls - that is gratitude. Ask FG the fine detail, I am sure he can fill in your failing memory.

Iconoclast

What are YOU raving on about, nothing to do with arbitars or chess.

Three more pieces of rank hypocrisy over the next week and you will earn yourself a new moniker.

1. Lesser beaten players have no pride.
2. Accusing others of raving about an off topic matter
3. ?
4. ?
5. ?

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JaK

Tipping arbiters is an absolute disgrace and as such a crappy suggestion!
It makes arbiters look like two bob buskers or beggars.
I am not talking about unethical dealings here because they can occur by personal approaches with or without open or discreet tipping.
It just makes the whole thing look cheep and silly.
Clubs make enough money out of our donations, (by the way Trevor have you inscribed my name on the DGT clock I donated to the BHCC yet?) memberships and entry fees!
Having said that, having a collection box for other purposes / needs of Clubs is perfectly ok.

Pablito15

Good day Mr. Renzies! How are you? (Hope to see you at the blitz next Sunday!)

I Disagree with what you've written above- I think it's a nice thing for players to recognise the often thankless task arbiters do. Whether you think it's charity depends on the mindset of people giving 'tips'- if it's done in the spirit of recognising people doing a tough/underpaid job (I have no idea what arbiters are paid but arriving before everyone else and leaving after the last awful, drawn, stubborn end game has finished, dealing with agro players and depressing situations... isn't all that nice) then it's fine.

I would not be tipping anyone out of charity but out of gratitude personally. The last tournament I played in at the MCC I think Marcus Raine was doing the arbiting after a long search and he didn't look like he was particularly enjoying it! These people are often volunteers as well so I think it's a nice thing they should have their trouble recognised by the playing field voluntarily.

Paul

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Just2Good

They already get paid $100 or $200 a day. So why tip them?

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Iconoclast

If/when they have done a satisfactory job, I usually tell them thanks.
I think one of the more senior players (a regular elder) ought to do a whip round and buy the arbitor a bottle of X, book, CD. Anything but cash.

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JaK

G'day Mr Cavezza and welcome back! Yes the 90% or so chances I had to play on Sunday are now 99%+ , so I will see you there!

That's democracy!

We do already. Handing them some spare change is some sort of public humiliation.


depends on the mindset of people receiving tips as well. I wouln't give a tip to a cop, to a judge or to a social worker. It's against their code of practice as well.


Some are not the most pleasant characters themselves. They don't do all the job by themselves since they are helped by Club officials and other players, they aren't excluded of being stubborn and agro themselves. I don't know how much they are getting paid either but they don't do it for free. Maybe (and I emphasise maybe) those who might do it for free are usually Club officials who aren't qualified / competent for the job.

I have no problems with that

None forced him to do it! I'ts up to the Club (s) to make sure they have someone available to do the job.

Ideas such as the above, nice and humanistic as they sound, belong to the past. In order to promote Chess in the modern world one has to gradually abandon the community-drop-in-non profit-organisation approach.

In here you find a rough calculation of how much it costs me to be an active part of the Chess community these days.

Chess: How Much Does it Cost You? - Chess Chat - Australia's Premier Chess Forum

I know it's not much but for whatever it is I expect some value for it. Having amateur / volunteer arbiters shuffling silly cards to decide my next round's opponent and having to thank them for that in the end is definitely not on.

Nowadays, we are lucky to have professionals running $100s of Ks of Chess related business. I don't believe that people like Mssrs Sandler and Cordover who run such business and have shown an active interest in the future of the administration of our sport should be left out of discussions like this. I would also love to hear from the arbiters themselves. After all they are the ones who should decide either way.

Having said all that, I, being a part of the bridging generation ie those who have seen the past but have accepted the future, still love the old style tournaments, organised by the local chess personalities who do their best to attract new players and teach the juniors the best they can. But I am happy to see that they, themselves, have accepted the new style of administration, use computers, and engage professionals in order to improve their services.

I hope that passing the hat around for improving the arbiters' pay isn't one of them!

mowcop

I'm highlighting the above points because they are relevent for what I have to say.

A problem for the Melbourne Chess Club has been getting arbiters to run our weekly club tournaments, like the Monday night events which span 9 weeks. This, in my opinion, is something that should be done by an individual for the club. For instance, I have just finished running the City of Melbourne Open without taking any money for doing so. The players have seemed happy with my performance, I've kept things up to date, sorted out any issues when they've arisen (not many thankfully) and ensured that things have been ready for the players at the start of each round, and have even been able to blog about the tournament as its been going. I have enjoyed this experience and will happily take on the role of arbiter again when I can.

However, this is different to the Grand Prix Weekend tournaments, or title events in my opinion, where professional arbiters should be paid fairly for their knowledge, experience and time. This is something I have no interest in doing at this present moment in time.

All arbiters should be using pairing programs to help them prepare pairings, but the pairings should be checked before being published. People are usually happy if you're consistent and state your rules before the tournament starts. Volunteers/amateurs do a great job of running club chess tournaments but unfortunately, there are too few and that is the big issue. People need to be stepping up and giving something back to the game, not always taking from it.

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JaK

Without diminishing the value of other club tournaments, MCC events are usually amongst the stronger - if not the strongest - in the country.
As such, special care should be given to have professional (or as close to professional as possible) arbiters being involved.
In an ideal world (Europe comes to mind) central and local authorities, in co-operation with Clubs organise arbiter seminars producing a No. of officials every year!
Another negative aspect of Club officials acting as arbiters is that of open tournaments. Some Non club members don't really feel comfortable.
Club officials acting as tipped arbiters would be even worse.
Club officials acting as tipped arbiters in tournaments they also participate as players is just a joke!
Coming back to the original question. Arbiter tipping? Thanks but no thanks!

Just2Good

This just goes to show how great a chess club the MCC is!

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JaK

whoever disputes that must have shit for brains!

Ehm TO

Question out of pure ignorance. Is an arbiter for chess used as a judge or something? I understand what an arbiter is, I just don't understand how often disputes can arise in chess.