Major Rule Changes by FIDE
At the recent FIDE Congress, delegates from the 103 countries represented made some rule changes that had been debated for the past few years. Here are the highlights-
1. Changes for title requriements:
a. By a margin of 100-4, it was voted for the introduction of a new title-TM (Traveling Master). To earn his TM title, a player must achieve a FIDE rating of 2000 and play in tournaments on all 8 continents.
b. The GM title was modified as well. FIDE abolished the necessity of "norms," saying that it is "unfair to the players not skilled enough to achieve them."
2. Anand's FIDE rating was raised by 50 points so he can get enough sponsors for the upcoming world championship match.
3. The insufficient material rule was abolished. In a case of K+B vs K, K+N vs K, etc, players must play the game out until one player loses on time. If there is increment or delay, the game is decided like this-
4.Abolishing loopholes:
The biggest story was that a player must automatically lose the game should they ever be down more than 5 points for 2 full turns. The evidence is that players sometimes resign to Carlsen when they are only down one pawn, and Carlsen is the best player in the world, so we should be following his example.
