2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship - 3

How quickly the time has passed! The Championship starts tomorrow in Stillwater - two games tomorrow, eek! Good luck to all of the players. Unfortunately, since most of the play will be taking place while I'm at work, I won't be able to watch. Sigh. There's been a conversation going on at Mig's Daily Dirt since July 4th when he posted about the U.S. Women's Championship and was kind enough to give us some publicity about our Brilliancy Prize for the Women's Championship and a plug for Goddesschess and this blog. You can find the conversation here. Someone (I think it is only one person although there have been several postings of similiar ilk under different "names" - none that reveals anything about the poster's true identity, of course) has taken serious offense at women chessplayers. The gist of his complaint seems to be that he, as a 2400 level player, cannot make a decent living at chess because women chessplayers with lower ratings are raking in cash from their women's events and special prizes only available to them, thereby sucking cash away from him/his level of male players. Hey - I'm not making this stuff up! The level of venom and spitefulness/hatefulness this poster demonstrates toward women is instructive - and revealing. He's not brave enough, though, to reveal his true identity - typical all bluster and no guts when it comes right down to it. On the plus side, many insightful and thought-provoking posts have been made by the regulars who hang out at Mig's Daily Dirt, most of them male. And - to tie this ongoing conversation into the current event - Elizabeth Vicary, who will be playing in the Championship at Stillwater, made some posts too. Ms. Vicary is the lowest rated player in the Championship but let me tell you, if she plays chess as well as she writes, she'll come out of Stillwater with the winner's trophy :) After reading her recent interview with Jennifer Shahade at Chess Life Online and reading her posts at Mig's, I've become a big fan and I'm rooting for her all the way.