Open Letter from IM Irina Krush - Response

Here is my prior post. Today at Chess Life Online Tom Braunlich gave a response to IM Krush's letter.

2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

What a kerfluffle last night! I didn't dream it - Anna Zatonskih DID win the Women's Championship after two games of rapid chess, two blitz, and one final "Armageddon" game - what did she and Krush get on their clocks, 30 seconds each??? Congratulations to AZ and to IK for a thrill-filled evening even though I'm really dragging today - 5:30 came REALLY fast this morning when I didn't hit the sack until after 1 a.m. Here are the final standings for the women: 1 Zatonskih, Anna IM 2490 USA 7.5 2 Krush, Irina IM 2515 USA 7.5 3-4 Abrahamyan, Tatev WFM 2280 USA 6.0 3-4 Rohonyan, Katerine WGM 2318 USA 6.0 5 Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg WIM 2289 USA 5.5 6 Battsetseg, Tsagaan WIM 2251 USA 4.5 7 Zenyuk, Iryna WFM 2205 USA 3.5 8-9 Epstein, Esther WM 2194 USA 2.0 8-9 Airapetian, Chouchanik WFM 2143 USA 2.0 10 Jamison, Courtney 2064 USA 0.5 What an exciting championship! My impression is that all of the women had a real fighting spirit this year and were going all out for wins. There were very few draws. I'll have to sit down tonight and figure out the relative percentage versus the men's draws. As noted last night, Tatev Abrahamyan had an excellent tournament, 6.0/9 and won the Goddesschess Fighting Chess prize of $500. I am not a good enough player to be able to assess the quality of play but from what I read elsewhere, the games were well-played. Of course there were goof-ups in the play-off games last night, that's to be expected given the exhaustion, overdose rushes of adrenalin during those last grueling minutes and the circumstances of the play-offs themselves. And Krush and Zatonskih experienced that too, har! I can't wait for the next big event! Will the US be fielding a women's Olympiad team this year? Shouldn't the USCF be getting that together quickly now, given that the women will need time to train and organize and USCF will need to raise some money to send them to Germany? Will FIDE ever organize another Women's World Chess Championship? What happened to the invitation from the government of Turkey to host the WCC there? Will I ever stop sounding like a soap opera? Stay tuned for AS THE PAWN TURNS...

2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

A few interesting things have come up: The Space Controversy! Susan Polgar commented the other day (5/15) at her blog that a few folks had complained about somewhat tight quarters in the playing venue. I was a little surprised myself when seeing Paul Truong's photos from Tulsa (posted at SP's blog) that the players in a prestigious event were seated at long tables next to each other; I guess I'd expected individual tables with room to circulate in-between; but I can't say that I thought things were unduly crowded. Still - I've never played in a tournament so I have no idea what might or might not be comfortable for a player in a national championship! The one and only tournament I visited was the 1999 FIDE Knock-Out World Championship in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace and there was plenty of space for players and spectators - hardly any spectators for the quarter-finals, actually, and I thought that was a shame. For the quarter-finals we were in a large banquet room and, sitting in the front row with Isis and Michelle, I could practically reach out and touch Shirov who was playing right in front of me just beyond a red velvet rope! Khalifman and Polgar were just down the row. I could easily see the wrinkles in her linen suit. It was a sort of pastel peach color, and she had on light tan shoes. In the semi-finals the venue was set up differently - the four players (Adams and Akopian, Khalifman and Nisipeanu) were at tables elevated at the front of the playing room and the audience was seated below. In both venues large electronic screens were provided where you could watch the games in progress, and headsets were available for free if you provided a credit card or ID card, over which you could listen to commentary and analysis of the games. Tonight SP gave an update based on Tom Braunlich's report after Round 3. I sincerely hope that Onischuk does not leave the tournament. I don't know what the organizers can do about the space at this point in the events. Reserving a second room to move players into was probably not the best solution, and I think the women were right to complain that moving them into a separate room was tantamount to saying "you're second class citizens" - the equivalent of having to sit at the back of the bus. I'm equally certain that no insult was intended. Where on earth is the audience seated? I mean - the Championships were advertised as open to the public and if it was being held here I'd certainly be in eager attendance. So, where is the public being seated? Or are "the public" those folks standing against the walls? Oh my... For Round 3 the five lower boards were moved to the reserved second room, and they didn't like it. Here's an idea - select pairings to go to the second room by random draw after the end of each round. That way, there's no actual or perceived discrimination taking place, it's just the luck of the draw and unfortunate that a larger room could not be secured - although who knows, the Berry brothers have been doing this kind of thing for years, maybe they can convince the hotel to swap out a larger space (if the Radisson has one available). A Great Story! Braunlich reported on 81 years young Beth Cassidy, who visited the tournament. Ms. Cassidy was a member of the Ireland chess team and a journalist with British Chess Magazine. She knew many of the classic GMs from the 40s and 50s. While a manager of the Manhattan Chess Club in the 1960s she wrote extensive detailed articles on the great masters that hung out there, including Fischer, Lombardy, Kmoch, Steinmeyer, etc. She worked for Shell and when she retired chose to live in Tulsa. Wow! Someone who knew all those greats - someone who managed the Manhattan Chess Club! I'll bet she has some stories to tell... There's a photo of Ms. Cassidy and Susan Polgar in Braunlich's report. She sort of reminds me of my mom, who turns 81 later this month. Comments About the Prize Structure and Women's Championship Well of course some misogynists are complaining about the fact that the prizes for the Women's Championship are nearly as large as those for the putative Men's Championship. In fact, some male players will be sent home with $250 less than the women (prize structure). Gasp! Here's one comment from Chess Life Online: Post: #102048 by NiceLife on Fri May 16, 2008 2:12 pm I don’t think it is unreasonable for a top-100-in-the-world player to ask not to play within elbow-bumping distance of another player. The organizers of a national championship should ensure that there is enough space in the tournament hall. It is not a scholastic tournament. I am glad Onischuk stands up for some standards of respect in chess. By the way, I am pretty sure the last 5 boards of the overall championship (which are still mostly IMs and GMs) are used to being treated as second-class in chess. They might make their expenses back in this tournament, but they will watch while the female players with lower ratings win more in this one tournament than they are likely to make in tournaments all year. [Emphasis added]. See my tears, darling, boo hoo. There were several comments about the Women's Championship being a separate event and therefore it SHOULD be held in the other room: Post: #102049 by bradenbournival on Fri May 16, 2008 2:18 pm Well the most logical solution is definitely to have the women's championship in a separate room. I don't see how anyone can complain about this since they are 2 totally separate tournaments! I don't believe putting the top boards in a different room is a very good idea, other players involved in the same tournament have to walk to a totally separate room to view games that might be very relevant to them in a future game... [Emphasis added]. Anyways, I'm sure having the top games in a different room will also invoke some complaints from Mr. Cry Baby Onischuk... Perhaps the best solution of all is for everyone in the tournament to pitch in for a ticket back to Russia.. [Emphasis added]. Post: #102050 by artichoke on Fri May 16, 2008 2:19 pm Well the prize funds are what they are, but for this one event I'd treat everyone as first-class. It's reasonable to put the overall championship in one room, the women's in another. [Emphasis added]. Post: #102062 by nocab on Fri May 16, 2008 5:13 pm The answer is all too obvious, but certainly will be called "politically incorrect" these days. Someone needs to say it, so I will. The women are playing in a completely seperate event. They are not as strong as the men. They should play in the other room. Period! [Emphasis added]. Soooo, the women should be isolated because they're "not as strong" players - or - just because they're women. Are we living in Saudi Arabia??? What's next - the all-enveloping black robes with mesh over the eyes so a woman needs a seeing-eye dog (or a male holding her on a leash) to navigate around? You silly dudes. You should be supporting better playing conditions and better prize money for ALL players. Anything else is a losing proposition. DUH!

Friday Night Miscellany

Summer is still here, even though this is the traditional first day of fall. It was in the high 80's today with strong winds out of the south, and a chance for thunderstorms tonight. The lawn is dry dry dry - no appreciable rain in three weeks. I don't know whether to water or try to cut - the lawn has that silvery cast caused by water deprivation and is laying down flat although it is quite long in spots. Oh well, I'll figure it out tomorrow. Sundown is before 7 now and the mosquitoes are out in force, I'm not going out there for blood or money! There's been a lot of hoo-ha this week over at The Daily Grail about an alleged meteorite that crashed into a remote part of Peru, not too far from a small village. Early reports alleged that villagers who rushed to the site saw boiling water in the crater and there were fumes. Later it was claimed that some 150 to 200 people got sick and went to hospital - although where this hospital wasn't clear since I doubt the village would have a place large enough to accomodate that many people! Anyway, the government sent investigators and medical personnel who did tests - radiation was suspected but actually to date (about a week now), no one has any radiation sickness. Actually, it can't even be confirmed that this was a meteorite. Pravada, picking up on a blog report somewhere, suggested that it was a piece of space junk shot down by the Americans for nefarious purposes (of course), while others suggest it was a piece of space junk whose orbit decayed, while others think it's the precursor of an alien invasion, etc. etc. Today it was reported that some bits of a iron indicative of a metallic meteorite were discovered - a few days it was reported that some bits of a rock meteorite were discovered, but the "crater" doesn't look like what I think of when I think meteorite blast site. Some have suggested that because the crater is in a volcanic (is that a word?) area it could be a mud-hole or sink-hole. Many have suggested that the initial eyewitness reports of boiling water and noxious fumes are more indicative of this type of phenomenon than a meteorite. All of this has been reported and/or commented upon by bloggers at the New York Times blog entry on the subject here. Well, it's all been entertaining, and quite amazing, actually, what people can dream up about conspiracies and aliens and what-not - and they're not even high on anything. If you'd like more reports, try doing a Google search under Peru meteorite - you'll get tons of stuff. Have you ever heard of "foreign accent syndrome?" Well, neither had I - until I saw this article. An 8-year old Yorkshire lad struck with viral meningitis had brain surgery, and when he woke up his Yorkshire accent was gone, replaced by a "posh" accent - does this mean BBC standard or the accents we hear in A&E productions of English classics? Anyway, "foreign accent syndrome" is a rare but well-documented phenomenon. Science is slowly closing in on its causes. Find more information here. Darlings, I haven't had the heart to see how Moro did today at the WCC Tournament. If Moro can't win it, I hope Anand does, for a host of reasons that I won't bore you with posting about. Chess related, for amusement this morning at the office when I should have been working, I visited Google's rec.chess.politics (it's something like that) and read what Mr. Sam Sloan has been up to of late. Mr. Sloan has what appears to be a never-ending bone-to-pick type battle going on with Paul Truong and Susan Polgar (mostly one-sided since they generally ignore him or out-flank him) - which seems to have been conducted mostly at the USCF "official forum." I don't intend visiting there anytime soon. My lefty-leaning Democratic roots seem to have biased me against visiting most "official" sites for anything! After sampling Mr. Sloan's rec.chess.politics posts for several months off and on, I think he sees himself in the role of a certain well-known Cervantes character - and no, I'm not talking about the donkey although sometimes Mr. Sloan does conduct himself like an ass. However, Mr. Sloan is a chess institution among some chess circles, and so one takes Mr. Sloan with a grain of salt, disregarding the garbage and enjoying the occasional tasty morsel he dishes up. One post today caught my eye, because I've been wondering about this myself. What's up with the 2008 U.S. Chess Championship? Susan Polgar, who promised on her blog to report there about what was going on at the USCF after she took her seat on the Executive Board, has been silent on anything having to do with USCF, beyond a few posts made shortly after she was first invested. I, for one, would be interested in reading more at her blog about what's going with the USCF and less (much less) about Ms. Polgar's new message board. What IS going on with the 2008 U.S. Chess Championship? Have any bids been received? Is the EB evaluating bids? Have any dates been set? What about the Women's Chess Championship? Will that be held separately, as a part of an overall U.S. Chess Championship, or will it be killed? I'm not asking for state secrets here - just some basic information. Is this information being revealed at Ms. Polgar's message board - to which you must sign up to view? That goes against my libertarian views! You don't have to be a member of Chessville in order to view the posts there - you can enter as a guest. Actually, speaking of Chessville and the good folks there, why didn't Ms. Polgar start posting there if she wanted to engender and encourage civil discussion about what she sees as chess issues? They would have loved to have her posting there and the influx of new members and views. Goddesschess has money for a 2008 Brilliancy Prize for the U.S. Women's Chess Championship. Will we be able to donate it???