English Chess Forum

I am sorry to report the death of IA Carol Jarecki on 13th June 2021 at the age of 86.

One of the world's top arbiters for the last 40 years, she had officiated at many major events, including the famous Kasparov v Deep Blue match in 1997.

At FIDE elections, she was much in demand as a teller, as she was one of the relatively few people who were universally trusted and respected.

She was a US citizen but her FIDE affiliation was to the British Virgin Islands.

RIP

Sad news indeed.

I captured Carol at the 2012 FIDE London Grand Prix on September 21st, 2012 at Simpson's-in-the-Strand.

Her son John was a promising US junior player about four decades ago before giving up the game in adulthood.

Obit in NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/c ... -dead.html

Very sad, and so much to say.

I spent a fair amount of time with Carol at last year's FIDE Congress. She was as spry of mind as ever, and almost the same in body. She was of course 85, but you would not have known it and she clearly had no intention of dying in the forseeable future.

For over thirty years, whenever an international event was planned in Bermuda, the first question was "is Carol available?". If not, arrangements were altered to get the right answer. The island offered many attractions to visiting GMs, but as far as the chess itself was concerned, players up to the level of Gelfand and Svidler needed only to be told that IA Jarecki would be in charge for any questions as to whether the event would be well organised to disappear.

While she occupied many senior position - you don't get higher than a World Championship match - she was also brilliant at lower levels. Her skills came to the forefront at Olympiads, where she dealt diplomatically and effectively with problems resulting from both players and arbiters being unfamiliar with the basic rules of competitive chess. In similar vein, for many years she handled US scholastic events containing infeasibly large numbers of competitors ranging in strength from beginner to Master.

I was always impressed by her flying of small planes. She flew her own everywhere in North America and the Caribbean ( usually accompanied by a small and well behaved dog ) and when travelling in Europe would rent a two seater plane with as little fuss as the rest of us would hire a car. Her fluency in many languages was helpful when communicating with air traffic controllers at secondary airstrips whose command of English was not perfect.

Rather than going on forever, I shall finish by saying that she was a qualified nurse, which came in handy at more than one tournament.

Tribute by the FIDE Arbiters' Commission:

https://arbiters.fide.com/news/6256

Sad to hear this. I stayed at her home for the World Open in 1980 (with Jon Speelman, I believe). I remember her as being very kind, and her son John, then about ten, as a promising backgammon hustler.