"Despite the documented evidence of chess historian H.J.R. Murray, I have always thought that chess was invented by a goddess." George Koltanowski, from Women in Chess, Players of the Modern Game
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Saturday, May 19, 2007
We Don't Get No Respect
A comment made this morning over at Susan Polgar's blog caught my attention - Chessbase doesn't have any coverage on the U.S. Chess Championship. I checked it out this morning (8:54 a.m. CST) and - sure enough - nary a word. I then checked Chessdom, another website that is (I believe) run by Europeans and - no mention of the U.S. Chess Championship there, either.
That's rather insulting. It's like the people who are running these "chess news websites" are saying to American chessplayers - you don't count, you're peanuts, you're pathetic and not worth the megapixels to report on you. But if they're "chess news websites," shouldn't they report on all the important chess news? Maybe they think we Americans are pathetic players not worthy of their exalted attention, but there are people out there who want to know whats going on in the U.S. Championship and they're not getting very current news from either the MonRoi website (the "official" website) or the USCF website. I'm reading Michael Aigner's blog (he's playing in the U.S. Championship) and Dylan McClain's New York Times blog. Susan Polgar is also reporting results and round match-ups seemingly before they're posted at the MonRoi site, lol! Good for her.
Crowthers' The Week in Chess is reporting U.S. Championship results and updating on a daily basis. Thank goodness for the Brits!
I report on all news that I can find on women chessplayers and women's chess and I don't care where the tournaments were held, what websites I find the information at or what newspaper the articles were published in. To the guys who are running Chessbase and Chessdom - isn't it about time you started treating American chessplayers and events with the same respect that I, a news operation run by me, me and only me, afford to all women players, whatever their country of origin? Geez!
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI'll try to explain how Chessdom works. The website has just been launched and I won't hesitate to admit that many things have to be improved (navigation on the top of everything).
We have no contributors from the USA, and we mostly collect info from Susan Polgar's blog. That's how we made items about Las Vegas scholastic tournament, US championship preview and I was also writing about Nakamura's triumph in an online blitz tournament. There is also very nice (in my opinion) profile of the US top player Gata Kamsky.
Currently, Chessdom is being run by four people: two posting news, one programmer and "Volturno" owner helping us with managing technical stuff. There are maybe 10 contributors sending us articles or interesting links, but we can't force them into anything, they help when they feel like.
We have spent two weeks in Sofia providing extensive coverage of the Mtel Masters. The working time (for four of us) was 1pm-1am every day, very often with additional meetings in the morning. Another five people from Bulgaria were voluntarily helping during the games (translation, live commentary, videos, photos) – a BIG thanks to them!
Physically, it was impossible for two writers to cover all the main events worldwide. We haven't had a single word about the Russian team championship, and on my "to do list" are Bosna 2007 report, Elista candidate matches (Kamsky playing), Leon 2007 preview etc. We have sent more than 40 emails to various webmasters/tournaments, only nice people from Benidorm, Sigeman and Politiken returned with useful info. Webmaster of the Foxwoods Open (that's US tourney) replied in a very insultive manner.
Having said this, we need more contributors – both tournament organizers/webmasters and chess fans sending us news. A blogger from Australia emailed me with question for GM Ian Rogers and I returned him video, see http://closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com/2007/05/gm-rogers-on-soft-titles.html. Chessdom is in fat minus, only server is taking 200 euros/month and we also had two-weeks costs in Sofia. We are forced to continue with our daily jobs in order to support the website. This is significantly limiting time available to be devoted to the Chessdom.
Placing us in same line with the Chessbase is surely flattering, but I'm afraid they are, unlike us, running on the astronomical budget
If you feel like helping us improving our news service, don't hesitate to email the news. My address is goranurosevicATgmail.com and we also use chessdomATgmail.com.
Thank you and keep up with wonderful work.
Goran Urosevic
Chessdom Editor
Hi Goran,
ReplyDeleteThanks for paying attention! That is very kind of you (and the sign of a good businessman). And thanks also for the explanation about how Chessdom's website is currently operating. I know it's a lot of work - I have more than I can handle just trying to report on women's chess news at Chess Femme News at Goddesschess.
I did read the articles at Chessdom you mentioned about Nakamura's blitz and the Kamsky profile (I am fascinated by his story; unfortunately, the one and only World Chess Championship that I attended, in Las Vegas in 1999 - the FIDE Knock-out, he had already been eliminated so I did not get to see him play).
Have you "advertised" at Chessdom (perhaps in an editorial) requesting volunteers to send information on local events and "color" background? If you could tap into the players on the local club level, I'll bet you could get a lot of news on events from all over, and volunteers who live locally to attend events and record the action for you. Of course, they might not necessarily be the "big" events with the usual top 10 or 15 players. Actually, though, I hardly ever read about those events anymore unless there is a woman playing (like Judit Polgar); after awhile, all those events begin to sound alike - same actors, same scenes, if you know what I mean. But, I suppose the average chess fan wants to read about the "big guns" and what they're doing, as opposed to the "not so big guns" and what they're doing. That's why I report on women's chess. There are relatively few "big guns" who are women, so I can report on them AND also report on the women players no one has ever heard about. They play just as hard, and with just as much heart, if not the same skill level :) And even if only their friends and family are interested in how they did at Tournament A, I'm interested too, and try to report on it. Reporting on chess from my perspective is a labor of love and respect - for the game and for the women and girls who play it (and the guys, too :))
I wish you and your friends good luck with the website, and I hope you will be "in the money" soon.
jan