How to use GAMeS –
FIDE’s new management system
In today’s modern world many questions of management are best handled
electronically, and Internet has made possible the instant update of information which
can now be available to anyone concerned at virtually no time at all. This is a major
development; it opens new horizons to administrators, and improves and extends the
services that organizers can provide to event participants. FIDE has moved in this
direction, by adopting GAMeS – a sophisticated management system with a wide range
of possibilities which can be used from any device (desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone,
etc.) with a browser and Internet connection. What follows is a comprehensive guide
which will enable users to get acquainted with GAMeS and benefit most from its
services.
2014
1.
Sign Up to be Introduced…
Hello GAMeS!....
Every relationship starts with introductions. GAMeS needs to meet you, but once this happens, it will
never forget you! This means that if you are introduced, you will never need to be introduced again.
Each time you try to enter GAMeS, the system will remember you and will welcome you…
In real life we use our names to introduce ourselves to other people. But there are many people with
the same name, so how is GAMeS to know that it is you and not somebody else who has the same
name? That is why, GAMeS uses email addresses, which are unique, instead of actual names, to
distinguish the various users. So, before you try to enter GAMeS, you need to have your email address
handy.
Your introduction to GAMeS is called Sign Up.
Type fide.gam-systems.net/SignUp in the address bar of your browser, press Enter, and this is what
you should get:
GAMeS would like to know some basic personal information about you, before it accepts you.
However, most of this information is already stored in the official FIDE database for thousands of chess
people. To save the inconvenience of these people, GAMeS first asks you if you are already registered
in the official FIDE database.
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
If you are, click on the circle on the left of the word YES.
Now you are prompted to enter your FIDE id. (If you do not remember it, you may click on
FIDE’s search tool and use this tool to find it.) Enter your FIDE id and press Search .

o
To avoid mistakes, the system will return the name of the person which corresponds to
the FIDE id entered. If that person is not you, you should press New Search and start
all over again by entering the appropriate FIDE id.
o
If that person is you, then just press Next Step to continue.
If you are not already in the official FIDE database, choose NO and press Next Step .
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In this step, GAMeS would like to get some personal information about you. There are two categories:
 Compulsory information: your name, surname, gender, year of birth and photograph are
required and you may not complete your Sign Up with GAMeS without providing them.
Your personal photograph is required for identification purposes
and will be used for your name badge at the various events.
Ideally, the photograph must be a color portrait, looking at the
camera, no sun glasses, hats, helmets, etc., resolution 300 dpi
(dots per inch), file format jpeg (jpg) or png, complying with the
dimensions, as indicated on the sample on the left. To upload
your photograph to the system, click Browse to locate and select
the photograph from your computer disk.
Please try to provide photographs which satisfy you as the
reproduction on badges, etc., is automatic. In particular, do pay
attention to the recommended resolution; computer monitors use
much lower resolutions than printers, so it does not follow that a photograph which displays
well on your computer screen will show equally well on your badge.
In GAMeS, required (compulsory) fields are always marked with a small red triangle at the top
left corner of the field value.
In this particular page, any required fields not yet completed are also mentioned at the top of
the Main Information tab, for your convenience.
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If you are already in the official FIDE database and answered YES when asked at the beginning,
you will find that your basic information is already filled in, having been transferred here
automatically. If this information is:

Incorrect (for example, the surname is misspelt or the year of birth is not the right one,
etc.), you will need to contact the relevant department of FIDE at [email protected] in
order to have it corrected. GAMeS is updated by the official FIDE database regularly,
but not vice versa.

Incomplete, you will need to fill in whichever of the basic information is missing.
 Optional information. The rest of personal information on this form is optional. It can only be
to your benefit to provide it, but you are not obliged to do so.
Please note that the Personal Information form you are looking at consists of three tabs. In
addition to the Main Information tab depicted above, there are also
the Additional Information and Passport Details tabs. They are accessible by clicking on the
tab name at the top of the form.
In the Additional Information tab, you may provide your current residence address. Once you
picked the country of residence from the drop down list, the country’s international dialing
code will be automatically filled in. Do not enter it again before your telephone and/or fax
numbers.
The Passport Details are useful to enable GAMeS to check if you need a visa to enter the
country where a certain event is to be held. In this case, it will advise you accordingly and may
be used to produce and supply you with the organizer’s letter of invitation for your new visa.
Please pay attention to the dates of validity of your passport as certain countries require that a
visitor’s passport must be valid until well after the intended day of departure.
Important Notice. The Personal Information you provide here is kept under conditions of strict
confidentiality, in accordance with European Personal Data Acts. This information will not be
posted publicly. FIDE will use it exclusively for its own purposes and will not release it to any third
party without your consent.
Once you have provided your Personal Information, click on Next Step to proceed.
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Here you are first asked to provide your email address.
As explained at the beginning of this chapter, GAMeS uses your email address to identify you. Your
email address will be your username for entering GAMeS. The email address used to identify you may
not be used by any other person. No two or more users may share the same email address.
Please make sure that your email address is valid and functioning. GAMeS will send a link to your
email address so that you can activate your account. If you are not able to receive this link at the email
address provided (because you have misspelt the email address or because the address is no longer
functioning, etc.) you will not be able to activate your GAMeS account.
After providing a valid email address, you need to provide a password of your choice and confirm that
it is the one intended by re-typing it.
Passwords must consist of at least 4 and at most 15 alphanumeric characters (letters and numbers).
The symbols @, #, $ are also allowed, and so are the punctuation marks !, ?, -, _. Special letters not
existing in the English alphabet, like accented characters (for instance, é, ø, etc.) are not accepted.
Passwords are case-sensitive (i.e. 13Dyna@, 13dyna@, 13DYNA@ are all different passwords).
Important Notice. As your email address may be widely known, the password remains your only
tool of privacy. Do not disclose it to anybody. If you do, people who know it might enter GAMeS
on your behalf and provide information, etc. Although this might be done without your consent,
FIDE has no way of knowing that it is not your genuine action and it will take it as such. You are
advised to change your password frequently.
Keep your password in a safe place and try not to lose it. However, if you do lose it, GAMeS will come
to your rescue through your email address (see Chapter 2: Sign In).
Once you have entered your email address (username) and typed and re-typed your password,
press Submit . The system will check the validity of your information and if everything is fine, you will
be notified with a ‘successful action’ message.
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Are you done? Almost….
To finalize your acquaintance with the system (don’t forget it is about a life-long relationship!),
GAMeS needs to make sure that the email address (username) entered belongs to you and it is
functioning.
As soon as you press Submit , GAMeS will send a message to your email address used earlier for
signing up. This message contains your name, surname, etc. – and also an activation link. Here is a
sample:
Welcome to GAMeS, the administration system of FIDE!
You have signed up as follows:



Username: [email protected]
Surname: WALKER
Name: Richard
To activate your account, please click on the link below:
https://fide.gam-systems.net/Account/Activate?code=H8DE22F3BCD4
Thank you for using FIDE GAMeS.
All you need to do now is to click with your mouse on the activation link.
Provided your Internet connection is functioning, GAMeS will identify you with your email address
which will, from now on, be also your username – the name with which GAMeS will be recognizing
you each time you wish to use the system.
To be sure that your introduction has been concluded successfully and that you are now known to the
system, GAMeS will send you a second message:
Welcome to GAMeS, the administration system of FIDE!
Your account has been successfully activated.



Username: [email protected]
Surname: WALKER
Name: Richard
To sign in, please click on the link below:
https://fide.gam-systems.net
Thank you for using FIDE GAMeS.
Note that your password is not included in either of the above email messages, for reasons of security.
Therefore, you are strongly advised to note down your password and keep it in a safe place.
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This concludes Sign Up, i.e. the procedure of being introduced to GAMeS. You are now ready to use
the system, and you may forget about Signing Up because, normally, you will not need to come back
here again.
Do not forget that:

In order to use GAMeS, you must Sign Up first.

Sign Up is concluded with the activation of your account. Without activation, Sign Up
is incomplete and will not enable you to use the system.

Sign Up is a once in a life time procedure.
As it is unnecessary to repeat it, the system will not allow you to Sign Up a second
time with the same email address.

Email addresses are used instead of names to identify GAMeS users. Each email
address may be used by one person only. It serves as his/her username for GAMeS.

Sign Up is a procedure designed for individuals only. Misusing it in order to
accommodate organizations, etc., is strongly discouraged as it might well lead to
absurd situations. In particular, it should not be used for creating general Federation
accounts intended to be used commonly by several people. All chess Federations have
been entered in GAMeS by FIDE, and any number of authorized users may be
associated with each Federation.
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2.
Sign In to Enter
Unlocking the door
Each time you wish to enter your home, you use your key to unlock the door. Where do you find the
key? Well, you get it from the locksmith. It is clear that, while you get the key once, you use it every
time you need to enter your home.
In computer language, getting your key is called Sign Up, and we saw how this is done in the previous
chapter. Using your key to enter the system is called Sign In1. Like in the above example, you Sign Up
(get the key) once, but you Sign In (use the key) many times.
Which is the key? The key is the combination of two things: the email address and the password. You
provided both of them during the Sign Up process. Each email address corresponds to one particular
password (as you defined it); unless the combination of the email address and the password is exactly
as you provided it at Sign Up, Sign In will not work.
There is only one difference from the above example. While all people in your home have copies of the
same key and use them to open the door, in GAMeS each user has his own key. All keys are different
and unique. But all open the door – i.e. let you enter the system - equally effectively.
1
Sometimes it is also referred to as Login. 8
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How can you Sign In?
Type fide.gam-systems.net in the address bar of your browser, press Enter , and this is what you
should get:
GAMeS now asks you to provide your key – in other words:

Your username – this is the email address you provided at Sign Up.

Your password – again as provided and confirmed at Sign Up.
Be careful to type the above information exactly as you did at Sign Up. Computers hardly distinguish
between small differences and big differences in such situations!
Now press Sign in and … voilà! The door has opened and you have entered the system.
Certain facilities are provided for your convenience on the above page.

If you click on the square box on the left of ‘Remember me next time’, you instruct the
computer to retain your Sign In information (username = email address and password) and
have it filled in for you to just confirm them next time you would like to sign in. This is
convenient, but jeopardizes your safety; any person using the same computer will be able to
enter GAMeS as if it were you. So, please be careful!
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If you click on the square box on the left of ‘Remember me next time’, the box is ticked to
depict your choice. To untick, click the ticked box again.

Have you forgotten your password? No problem! Just click on Forgot your password? to have
your password sent to your email address (username).
What about if you get:
This message shows that the email address (username) you entered is not recognized by the
system. The most likely cause is you may have misspelt the email address (username). Please
check it, re-type it and press Submit to try again.

fide.gam-systems.net is the standard entry page of FIDE GAMeS. In case you have come to this
page without having signed up yet, you may click on Sign up now to be redirected to the Sign
Up page. You do remember that you need a key to open the door, right? You are also
reminded that Sign Up is concluded with the activation of your account (see Chapter 1: Sign
Up to be Introduced…); there is no Sign Up without activation!
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3.
Being Home
Inside your system
You have just entered the system. This is your system. It is not a webpage belonging to somebody
else, who uses it just to convey information to you. This is an interactive system, used both by FIDE to
update you on the various events, etc. – but also by you in order to inform FIDE about your particulars
on a certain subject. You are about to start experiencing a new world of information interaction,
which is opening up for you!
So, you signed in and here is what you are looking at as you enter your own electronic home:
The first page you see will always show you all rooms that are available in the house, i.e. all sections
that are available in the system for you.
Unlike actual homes, your electronic home may change from time to time to reflect additional
possibilities you may be granted. For example, the above home page gives the user two possibilities: to
deal with his profile and to register for some event. Tomorrow, other options may be added, as
needed; these options will be included in the first page (called, home page) which will always depict
all available possibilities to the specific user.
As actual homes may well differ, so do the home pages of various users. GAMeS will always display
only the options (menus) available to you; it will not confuse you showing unavailable options.
Go ahead and experiment a little with your home page to familiarize yourself with the options
(menus). Here, we see two of them available: My Profile and Registration . We note that
under Registration there are two sub-options: New Registration & Existing Registrations. Our options
are arranged like a tree (Home) which has two main branches (boughs) My Profile & Registration ;
the second bough has two smaller branches (twigs), New Registration & Existing Registrations.
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GAMeS offers this tree-structure in two ways.

One is what you see in the centre of the page: the boughs (main items) appear in bold; the
twigs (item sub-divisions) appear in blue type. All (boughs and twigs) are clickable and lead to
the corresponding section of GAMeS, either directly (boughs without twigs) or indirectly
(boughs with twigs lead first to the twigs).

The other is in the form of a standard menu, on the black bar at the top of the page. Boughs
appear on the bar; a white triangle pointing downwards indicates the existence of twigs which
are revealed on clicking on the bough. Twigs are clickable too and again lead directly to the
corresponding section of GAMeS.
There is no difference between the two ways of picking your options. You may use any of them,
any time, at your convenience.
At the top right of the page, you see your email address (username). This is there to remind you
who is signed in the system. The white triangle pointing downwards indicates that there are
hidden options underneath. Click on the email address (username), if you wish to change your
password (it is advisable to do so frequently, for reasons of security), for various options on the
user interface, or in order to sign out when you have finished using the system for this session.
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4.
My Profile
Click on My Profile and this is what you see:
This looks very much like the page on personal information you met at Sign Up. You are right. It is
practically the same page, somewhat extended. And it comes with the information provided at Sign
Up already filled in.
The page My Profile should contain your most recent personal information. You are expected to visit
and update this page with your information whenever something has changed
For your convenience, this page is divided into several tabs.

In the section Personal Information we have the five compulsory fields defined as such by
FIDE. These are name, surname, gender, year of birth and photograph – all marked with a red
triangle at the top left of the field. These are not expected to change, except, perhaps, if a
better-looking photograph becomes available! The field code refers to the FIDE membership id
and may not be filled in here; it may only come from the official FIDE database in which case it
will be displayed here. The rest of the fields are optional.
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Your personal photograph is required for identification purposes
and will be used for your name badge at the various events.
Ideally, the photograph must be a color portrait, looking at the
camera, no sun glasses, hats, helmets, etc., resolution 300 dpi
(dots per inch), file format jpeg (jpg) or png, complying with the
dimensions, as indicated on the sample on the left. To upload
your photograph to the system, click Browse to locate and select
the photograph from your computer disk.
Please try to provide photographs which satisfy you as the
reproduction on badges, etc., is automatic. In particular, do pay
attention to the recommended resolution; computer monitors use
much lower resolutions than printers, so it does not follow that a photograph which displays
well on your computer screen will show equally well on your badge.
Please note that if your basic information (FIDE membership id, name, surname, year of birth)
came originally from the official FIDE database at Sign Up, any changes can only be made by
contacting the relevant department of FIDE at [email protected] in order to have it corrected.
GAMeS is updated by the official FIDE database regularly, but not vice versa.

All fields in the Residence & Contact Information tab are optional, except your (main) email
address. This is already filled in with the address you used to Sign Up and cannot be changed.
You are advised to fill in your country of residence before providing any telephone (and fax)
numbers, as you will then get the international country dialing code automatically filled in.

In the tab Passport Details you are encouraged to provide information about your passport
which is normally required by various countries in order to issue visitors’ visas. If such a visa is
necessary to enter the country where an event is to be held, this information may be used by
the event organizers to automatically produce any ‘Letter of Invitation’ that could be required
by your local consulate.

Your Professional Details tab enables you provide optional information about your
profession, which may be useful to FIDE for demographic surveys, etc.
Important Notice. The Personal Information you provide here is kept under conditions of strict
confidentiality, in accordance with European Personal Data Acts. This information will not be
posted publicly. FIDE will use it exclusively for its own purposes and will not release it to any third
party without your consent.
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Once you have completed any changes, amendments, etc., to your personal information, you need to
save it before you go.
GAMeS will always warn you in case changes have taken place on any page. If the red warning
sign Unsaved changes appears at the top right of the page, this means that, when finished, you will
need to press the button Save . If you press the button Exit instead, or just close the browser, any
changes you have made will not be saved and the old information will be retained.
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