Taiwan Nationals 2013: part 4 -- making new rules

How does castling work when king and queen happen to be swapped since beginning of the game?

Here in Taiwan according to the local arbiters it works as: kingside castling resulting in a king on f8 and a rook on e8. And similarily a queenside castling ends up with king on b8 and rook on c8.

Of course, in the rest of the world the game would be restarted -- or possibly castling not being allowed for black.

The example above is a true example (from nationals 2012) -- for some reason the 'victim' of the ruling is not playing this year.

I think the example above is due to two factors:

• The FIDE arbiters seminar only counting attendance, there is no exam that actually checks that attendees really learn anything. So you can just pay and get your certificate.
• A local culture that forbids anyone (in power) to express weakness or ignorance. So better to give firm ruling in *some* way, than to lose face showing your ignorance.

The player who was disadvantaged by this knew (and argued for) the correct rules, but in vain.