Three chess mentors and qualified arbiters from Jamshedpur enhanced their skills after going through a virtual workshop on Thursday.

Jayant Kumar Bhuyan, Chandan Kumar Prasad and Vishal Kumar Minz attended the online workshop organised by The Federation Internationale des Echecs (Fide) and European Chess Union (ECU) and conducted by experts.

The virtual course was aimed at educating the arbiters and helping them pass their enhanced knowledge to upcoming arbiters.

Arbiters are responsible for ensuring the rules and laws of chess are adhered to. They are an important part of tournaments held across the globe.

The resource persons during the workshop included international arbiters Laurent Freyd (chairman of FIDE Arbiters Commission), Nebojsa Baralic (commission secretary) and Jirina Prokopova ( in-charge of titles of the commission).

“We went through topics like how to fill and validate an arbiter’s norm, how to select norms for a valid application and how to check data related to an application. The session was very fruitful,” said Bhuyan, a seasoned coach and an international arbiter.

Prasad, a national-level arbiter, said these workshops go a long way in enhancing one’s knowledge.

“Now we can pass on the lessons learnt to upcoming local arbiters in a more effective manner,” he added.

The three arbiters also attended a similar Fide and ECU-organised virtual workshop with different topics on June 10.

The topics covered the role of arbiters in online tournaments, how to prepare for different kinds of online events, tricks to deal with the challenges that an arbiter may face online, use of process and tools for arbiters online and methods to implement fair play measures and tools.

Besides officiating as arbiters in various tournaments, the three also mentor chess enthusiasts in the steel city.

Bhuyan is a mentor at Tata Steel Chess Training Centre while Prasad trains students at schools. Minz has been functioning as a coach for some years now.