Members

Member
Daniel, Kelvin
Barbados

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022. Born in 1971, based in Garrison, science teacher.

Kelvin Daniel has been involved in chess for about forty years as a player, coach, international arbiter, organizer, and administrator. As a player, he represented Barbados at the junior and senior levels, including the Sub-Zonal and the Olympiad. As a coach, he coached at Garrison Secondary/Graydon Sealy school from 1997 onwards.

International arbiter since 2011, experienced in many local, regional and international events including the Olympiad and the World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

As an organizer, he was involved in the organization of many Barbados Chess Federation events over the years.

As an administrator and official, he held the roles of secretary, treasurer, and Vice President responsible for Tournaments, the post he currently holds. He is also responsible for the Barbados Arbiters’ Commission.

Member
Eichab, Charles
Namibia

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022. Born in 1979, based in Windhoek, chess professional coach.

Charles Eichab has been a full-time chess professional, especially as a coach, since 2007.

He is a FIDE Arbiter, FIDE Instructor and Candidate Master.

As a player, he represented Namibia in eleven Olympiads and three African Games. He won eight times the national championship and competed in several prestigious events, including Reykjavik Open in 2006.

He served many times as a member of various Appeals Committees and directed and arbitrated many local events over the years. His Academy in Namibia is by far the largest, and over a thousand students currently attend it.

Aside from chess, he completed a Leadership Course by the British Council in 2005 and took various courses in Math and Statistics.

Member
Johann, Gregor
Germany

Member of the Rules Commission since 2018. Born in 1969, based in the southwest of Germany, product Manager in a software company.

Gregor Johann has been chess active for over thirty years as a player and administrator.

He is currently the Federal Tournament Director in the German Chess Federation. In this position, he is responsible for the German Chess Championships.

He is also an active arbiter and organizer of several chess tournaments.

In his free time, he likes to go hiking in the german countryside.

Member
Kaplan, Amiram
Israel

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022. Born in 1944, based in Jerusalem (ISR), Sports administrator.

Amiram Kaplan has been an International Arbiter and FIDE Candidate Master for more than 30 years.

he is currently managing the Kfar Saba Chess Club, one of the two biggest in Israel and in the past, he has been the C.E.O. and Chairman of the Israeli Chess Federation.

He has a lot of experience in directing Chess Tournaments and various events. Lately, he has organised the World Team Chess Championship in Jerusalem, which was a great success.

Member
Krasenkow, Michal
Poland

Member of the Rules Commission since 2018. Born in 1963, based in …, chess professional player and coach.

Michal Krasenkow has represented Poland since 1996. He has a scientific education, having graduated from the Gubkin Russian State University of oil and gas with a master’s degree in applied mathematics.

After his academic career, he started as a professional chess player: He has been a grandmaster since 1989 and has won dozens of international tournaments. at his top, he was a quarter-finalist of the FIDE World Championship 1997/1998 with a peak Elo rating of 2702, which put him in the world’s tenth position in July and October 2000.

Senior Trainer since 2012, he trained several national teams, including Bangladesh (1995), Poland (2010 and 2014), and Turkey (2016 and 2018). he is a certified trainer of the Polish Chess Academy and was a member of the World Champion Viswanathan Anand’s team in 1999 and 2000.

He trained numerous GMs and IMs and is also the author of several books on chess openings and middlegames.

Member
Lehtivaara, Jouni
Finland

Member of the Rules Commission since 2018. Born in 1942, based in …, retired computer system specialist for a major corporation.

Jouni Lehtivaara was created International Arbiter in 1990.

He has a vast scientific education, having studied mathematics, physics and technology, and a perpetual computer science education during his work life.

He also has huge language skills since he is native Finnish, and also speaks fluent English and Swedish, medium French, Dutch and Esperanto, and has some understanding of Spanish, Italian and Russian.

At the national level, he is an incumbent member of the Finnish Committee of Chess Arbiters, a FIDE delegate, and also a Rating Officer until 2019.

Member
Marzouk, Amira
Tunisia

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022. Born in 1988, based in Dubai, a professional nurse in a hospital.

Amira Marzouk has been a chess player for over twenty years and is still active. Furthermore, she is an International Arbiter and National Instructor.

Her whole life was dedicated to chess as a player, arbiter and coach.

Member
Pérez Llera, Javier
Spain

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022. Born in 1963, based in Madrid (ESP), Electronic Engineer and Security Director, currently working as Security Manager for a public organisation.

Javier Pérez Llera has been serving as an International Arbiter since 1994, and he is currently the longest-serving active arbiter in Spain, promoted to category A’ in 2018.

He was the Chief Arbiter of fifteen Spanish Championships (six Team Championships, two Individual Championships and sever minor ones).

At the international level, he acted as the Chief Arbiter at the European Senior Championships in 2021, Deputy Chief Arbiter at the World Senior Championship in 2022 and the World Cadets Championships in 2018; he also was an arbiter in nine other European or World Championships, including two Olympiads and five superstar tournaments.

He has been a member of the Spanish Chess Federation Arbiters Committee ever since.

Member
Soto Gonzales, Ismael R.
Puerto Rico

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022. Born in 1976, based in Puerto Rico, Chess Coach and Teacher.

Ismael R. Soto González has spent more than fifteen years in chess.

He is a former President of the Puerto Rico Chess Federation.

In his career, he has been an arbiter and an organizer, but his main expertise is teaching chess to kids. in this capacity he also worked on some projects for the Kasparov Foundation. 

Member
Vardapetyan, Ashot
Armenia

Former Chairman of the Rules Commission since 2014, Honorary Chairman since 2018, and Senior Member since 2022. Born in 1955, based in Erevan (ARM), Economist, Urban-Engineer and Sociologist, author of more than twenty scientific books and contributions.

Ashot Vardapetyan was created International Arbiter in 1993. among his exterminated experience, he was Chief Arbiter in the World Championship Matches Anand-Carlsen (2013) and Anand-Gelfand (2012) and supervisor in Carlsen-Caruana (2018). He also served as the Chief Arbiter of many other events, including the World Team Championship 2015, World Cup 2019, 2011, 2009 and 2005, the World Rapid & Blitz Championship 2016 and fourteen Olympiads.

He is also active in education since, as a Lecturer, he gave more than forty FIDE Arbiters Seminars and Refreshing Courses.

He served for more than twenty-five years in various FIDE Commissions, as well as in the ECU. He is also Vice-President of the Armenian Chess Federation (2009-2017).

Armenian International Master of Sport.

Member
Zhu, Jiaqi
China

Member of the Rules Commission since 2022, based in Nankai (CHN), professor.

Jiaqi Zhu is a widely experienced International Arbiter of the highest category.

During his career, he was the Chief Arbiter of the World Youth Olympiad in Mongolia, the Deputy Chief Arbiter of one World Women’s Championship Match, three times Chief Arbiter of the World Mind Games and officiated in five Olympiads.