2008 Women's World Chess Championship

From Susan Polgar's blog today: The following Open Letter was published by ChessBase.com: Open letter by the participants of the Women World Championship of FIDE We, the participants of the Women World Championship 2008, express our worry about the current dangerous situation near Cabardino-Balkaria. We think when there is such a tense situation, it is not expedient to hold such a high level tournament in that area. That’s why we kindly ask you to move this tournament to the safer place, which would be convenient for all the participants. If you agree with the above, please join us with signing this letter, and please send it to FIDE and to us (Maia Chiburdanidze, Lela Javakhishvili, Sopio Gvetadze, Nino Khurtsidze, Maia Lomineishvili, Sopiko Khukhashvili) by e-mail: wchampionship@yahoo.com We do not have the email addresses of all participants and kindly ask you to send this message to other participants you know. I was informed this past weekend that at least one of the U.S. players has withdrawn due to safety reason. I do really hope that this can be changed ASAP. ****************************************************************************************** For those of you not so familiar with chess, the women who "signed" the letter are all Georgian chessplayers. Maia Chiburdanidze, a highly respected and well-liked player, is a former Women's World Chess Championship, holding the title from 1978 to 1991. The other players are all highly ranked Georgian women. The Women's Championship is scheduled to start later this month - August 28th I think, in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russian Republic. Obviously the Georgian players would feel somewhat "concerned" about playing in Russia after it has invaded Georgia and bombed and shelled innocent civilians, engaging in ethnic cleansing of all Georgian peoples from the invaded territories preparatory, no doubt, to annexation into the Russian Republic. And people call America a barbaric country - ha! Putin is the undisputed leader, surpassing even Al Qaeda for terrorism. Mig at his Daily Dirt blog pointed out a few months ago that Nalchik has a past history of violence itself. The Georgian players would be walking targets and the people who are running Russia now wouldn't care if there was "collateral" damage - so what if a few stupid women chessplayers from other countries get killed in the process of taking out the Georgian enemies of the state! Here is the story at Chessbase. The handy map there shows that Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria borders Georgia to the north, including (it appears) at least part of South Ossetia (where the Russians have invaded). See WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia's commentary on the situation. Belakovskaia, who immigrated to the US in 1991, is a three-time U.S. Women's Chess Champion (1995, 1996, 1999). Here is her personal website.