1st World Women's Team Chess Championship

You've never heard of the "World Women's Team Chess Championship?" Well, neither had I - until yesterday. I discovered it accidentally while perusing the latest chess news that a team from Vietnam would be participating in this championship. To be fair, this is the very "first" event of its kind - sponsored by FIDE - so we couldn't have heard of it before. But I follow the news about women's chess events rather closely and until yesterday I don't recall reading anything about this event. The Championsip will be held in Ekaterinburg, Russia from May 19 - 30, 2007. According to the official "rules" 10 teams will participate - the top five Women's Teams from the 2006 Chess Olympiad , four teams that won their respective (I guess) Continental Team Championships, and one team from the host country. The United States Women's Olympiad Team finished 4th in Turin in 2006, and I assumed it would be participating - but - well, you'll see why this assumption was way off base! The May 7th article from Vietnamese Thahn Nien News, said this: "Vietnam won the right to compete at the event as a champion of the 2005 Asian Women’s Team Championship. "The team’s five members are master Le Kieu Thien Kim, grand master Hoang Thi Bao Tram, GM Nguyen Thi Thanh An, master Le Thanh Tu, and master Pham Le Thao Nguyen. "According to the world’s chess governing body FIDE, the ten best women’s teams are eligible to attend the first edition of the tournament to be held at four-year intervals, including four continental team champions, five top teams at world Olympiad, and a host. "Among the participants are Ukraine, Russia, China, Armenia, Georgia, Netherlands, Poland, Vietnam, Botswana, and the tenth team to represent the American continent to be decided later. "The World Chess Team Championship for Women is the sequel to the Women’s Continental Team Championships and the Women’s Chess Olympiad. "Source: FIDE, Tuoi Tre – Compiled by Minh Phat" The official website for this event (which I found this morning at the FIDE website) reports the following teams will be participating in this event: Armenia; Botswana; Vietnam; Georgia; China; Poland; Russia; Ukraine; Germany; Czech Republic. Nary an American to be found! Hmmmm, so I guess the "team to represent the American continent" mentioned in the May 7th article that had yet to be determined has, sadly, fallen by the wayside. I wonder - will we read about this in the USCF's Executive Board minutes some five years from now - as a footnote? The U.S. Women's 2006 Olympiad team was composed of WGM Anna Zatonskih, IM Irina Krush, WGM Rusudan Goletiani, WGM Camilla Baginskaite. Krush will be playing in the 2007 U.S. Championship that begins May 15th and runs through the 23rd; Zatonskih is not playing in that event because she recently gave birth to her first child. Susan Polgar said at her blog that Goletiani would not be playing in the U.S. Championship for personal reasons. That leaves only Baginskaite - but she is not playing in the U.S. Championship either and, as she is much higher rated than two other women who will be partipating in that event, I assume she has other commitments too. So, none of the women from the 2006 U.S. Women's Olympiad Team were/are available to play in Ekaterinburg. But this surely didn't come up over night. I'm sure I read in the official FIDE rules something about at least 6 months' notice to the representative chess federations? But reading through those requirements - well, suffice to say I came away confused! Maybe the folks who are running USCF came away confused too, but then - what are we paying them for? Particularly upsetting to me is that I could not find any mention of this event at the USCF website. I'm eternally naive, it seems; I thought it would be big news! Nor has the story been picked up by the press - and yet - think about it: Vietnam is sending (and paying for) a women's team to play in this Championship in Russia - and the United States' team is disbanded and our chess federation has no money to send them to play even if we could get them together again. Once again, a very sad commentary on the state of chess in the United States.