According to the World Chess Federation (FIDE), at the end of January, the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission (ARB) launched a call of interest for the Chess Olympiad. “This way we got the necessary information from arbiters who wanted to join the team of arbiters for this top event. The Call of Interest lasted a month and results were shared with Continental Arbiters’ Commissions and all national federations. The interest from arbiters was huge, 754 arbiters from 130 federations participated,” FIDE said in a statement. Masole told MmegiSport that his selection was based on his application and impressive chess arbitration resume, coupled with recommendations from both the Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) and the Africa Chess Confederation (ACC). “This is a great opportunity for me to move up the World Chess Arbiters ranking ladder.
This selection follows my earlier appointment at the 2024 Africa Youth Championships that were held in Johannesburg, South Africa in June. These two – one being a continental championship and the other a world championship –should help my course of moving from International Arbiter Category D to Category C, with Category A being the top of the World Chess Arbitration pyramid,” Masole said. He added this is his third selection at the FIDE Chess Olympiad following his appointment at the 42nd and 43rd editions in 2016 and 2018 which were hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan and Batumi, Georgia respectively. Masole said his appointment means he will bring a lot of experience and new skills for the benefit of chess in Botswana. He will be amongst 22 arbiters from Africa with Uganda’s Stephen Ssemango Kisuze and South Africa’s Gunther Van Der Bergh as sector arbiters.
Meanwhile, African Chess Confederation (ACC) president, Tshepiso Lopang said that the inclusion of the 22 arbiters underscores the continent’s rich talent and readiness to officiate on the global stage. Other African arbiters at the Olympiad will be from Angola, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
