Info new players

How can I register to be an official chess player in order to participate in a tournament ?

Registration isn’t handled directly by the Royal Belgian Chess Federation (RBCF). You need to join an official Belgian club. This club will create your Belgian membership id. Find you nearest club in the club map.

How can I receive a FIDE ID ?

For participating in Belgium or abroad, you need a FIDE ID. If you don’t know if you have one, you can check it on the FIDE ratings website.

If you want to receive a FIDE ID for participating in a tournament (in Belgium or abroad), here are some guidelines.

First of all, you need to know if you are able to receive a FIDE ID from the Belgian Chess Federation (BCF) or not. Sometimes you have more choices and then you may choose only one. Attention, this choice must be taken carefully, because for changing the FIDE federation you have to pay.

Here is the flow to see which FIDE federation you can have.

• Are you Belgian citizen?
  • Yes:
    Do you live in Belgium?
    • Yes: Your only choice of FIDE federation is Belgium.
    • No: You have the choice of Belgium and the country of your birth as your FIDE federation.
  • No:
    Do you live in Belgium?
    • Yes: You have the choice of Belgium and the country of your birth as your FIDE federation.
    • No: Belgium cannot be your FIDE federation.

If you cannot have the Belgian FIDE federation or in case you have more options for a FIDE federation and you choose not the Belgian one, you need to contact the rating officer or the FIDE Delegate of the FIDE federation of your choice. You can find those data on the FIDE Directory website (go to the right continent and then the right country).

The following is only in case the Belgian FIDE federation is or can be chosen.

Are you member of an official Belgian club? If no, then you can not receive a Belgian FIDE ID. You have to understand that there are yearly costs for membership to FIDE and that the Belgian Chess Federation needs to receive at least once a membership fee from each player with a FIDE ID to cover those cost. Also is decided that the membership must be active at the moment of request. So membership in a season before the season of request does not count.

In the case you are member of an official Belgian club, then your request can be intended for two reasons: to be able to play in a Belgian FIDE homologated tournament or to be able to play in a FIDE homologated tournament abroad.

In the first case, no action is required. You can play your first FIDE homologated tournament without FIDE ID. And afterwards, while the tournament report with your results is uploaded to the FIDE Rating Server, your FIDE ID will be automatically created. Attention: this is the preferred way of working within the BCF. One small detail: the player who receives a FIDE ID, will not be notified. Only in some cases the organizer or the chief arbiter will be informed so that he can send correctly future reports.

However, in the case of playing abroad, you need to provide in advance your FIDE ID to the organizer, otherwise you cannot play. In that case you need to mail fide@frbe-kbsb-ksb.be. In that mail you ask that you need a FIDE ID for playing abroad and you provide the following data:

• Belgian ID
• Name
• First Name
• Sexe
• Full birthdate
• Stating if your e-mailaddress may be given to FIDE (by default: no)
• And if yes, then also the e-mailaddress that may be given to FIDE.

The requestor will be notified when the FIDE ID is created.

A special attention for FOA (FIDE Online Arena) members. Those members have already a FIDE ID, but they can still not play. Their FIDE federation is FID, so they need to have an active membership of FIDE and therefore they need to pay directly to FIDE before they are allowed to play any tournament.

However, if they want to receive the Belgian FIDE federation, then the BCF can accept them. But again, the BCF will only do that when they have an active membership.

How can I change my federation ?

For example, you have “France” as FIDE federation and want to be transfered to the Belgian FIDE federation.
There are fees to pay and paperwork to be done. All information will be provided to you personally by sending an email to fide@frbe-kbsb-ksb.be