Has Anything Changed?

I finished reading Jennifer Shahade's book Chess Bitch today. It was a great read - I was disappointed to get to the end of the book! I especially appreciated the section where she talked about women who played chess in the "early days" in the United States ("Playing for America.") As I was reading, I was very much struck with this story from the career of U.S. player Mary Bain, and I take the liberty of quoting from Ms. Shahade's book: (p. 229) It was not until 1951 that Bain managed to capture a single title from the Gresser and Karff duo [U.S. Women's Chess Champion title holders]. This enabled her to take another stab at the world crown. She was thrilled to travel to Moscow, along with second-place Karff, to participate in the 1952 World Championship Candidates. . . . (p. 230) She was livid that the American Chess Federation offered her neither financial nor psychological support. "My sendoff was cruel. I was told that I was not going to represent the USA and USCF but Zone Number Four. No use complaining..." She also had no second to help her analyze adjourned games, which ususally resumed the following day: "When I have an adjourned game I stay up all night and then make the worst move." Ideally, Mary would be sleeping soundly, while her trainer would work through the night, and then supply her with a thorough analysis in the morning. British Master Golombek sympathized with Bain, pointing out, "It is very sad that a great country like the USA should have such a weak chess federation." Perhaps the worse insult was that the Soviet Federation had been willing to pay all expenses for her second, but Bain had not been told this until it was too late to arrange. Does this sound familiar? We have the same kind of treatement of our women chessplayers going on over fifty years later. Two recent examples are the way the USCF treated the Women's 2004 and 2006 Chess Olympiad Teams - the same way they treated U.S. Women's Chess Champion Mary Bain - like dirt! It is well known and publicized that the USCF tried its best not to fulfill its contractual obligations to the 2004 Women's Olympiad Team, including waiting several months to pay them the bonus money the team members earned by bringing home the first ever Women's Team Olympiad Medal (Gold) and promptly cancelling the Women's Olympiad Training Program that Susan Polgar had been asked to spearhead just a few years before! I have written in this blog about the inability of the USCF to keep the 2006 Olympiad team together - they finished in fourth place and had earned a spot to play in the recently-concluded First Women's World Team Chess Championships. But we couldn't even field a team of players. Botswana sent a team of four players to the Championship, which didn't win a single match. Wouldn't our "B" team have done better? Of course, the USCF probably didn't have a contingency plan for a "B Team" - or the money to send the team to Russia to compete even if we did have a "B Team." Geez! The richest country in the world - so we claim. But we can't afford to send four women to Russia to compete in a chess tournament. Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-6

Hola darlings! Here are the results from Round 8. Only one more round to go. Currently CHN is in first with 15 points; RUS in second with 13 and UKR in third with 12.0. I could not figure out how the points scoring system works, but based on what I saw, no team can catch CHN, the battle is now for the silver and bronze medals. VIE (2.0) v. GER (2.0) Le Thanh Tu 0-1 Paehtz, Elisabeth Hoang Thi Bao Tram ½-½ Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino Nguyen Thi Thanh An 1-0 Nill, Jessica Pham Le Thao Nguyen ½-½ Ohme, Melanie CHN (4.0) v. BOT (0.0) Hou Yifan 1-0 Sabure Tuduetso Ruan Lufei 1-0 Modongo Boikhutso Shen Yang 1-0 Sabure, Ontiretse Huang Qian 1-0 Pilane Masego Sylvia RUS (3.5) v. CZE (0.5) Kosintseva, Tatiana 1-0 Jackova, Jana Kosintseva, Nadezhda ½-½ Sikorova, Olga Korbut, Ekaterina 1-0 Blazkova, Petra Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0 Nemcova, Katerina POL (3.0) v. ARM (1.0) Socko, Monika 1-0 Danielian, Elina Rajlich, Iweta 0-1 Mkrtchian, Lilit Zawadzka, Jolanta 1-0 Aghinian, Nelly Przezdziecka, Marta 1-0 Aghabekian, Liana GEO (1.0) v. UKR (3.0) Chiburdanidze, Maya ½-½ Lahno, Kateryna Javakhishvili, Lela ½-½ Ushenina, Anna Khurtsidze, Nino 0-1 Gaponenko, Inna Khukhashvili, Sopiko 0-1 Vasilevich, Tatiana Here are the individual results (by Team), through Round 8. Performance wise, this may put it into better perspective as to why CHN has run away with the title: CHN 1. Zho Xue 6.0/7 2. Hou Yifan 7.0/8 3. Ruan Lufei 6.0/7 4. Shen Yang 6.0/7 5. Huang Qian 3.0/3 RUS 1. Kosintseva, Tatiana 5.0/8 2. Kosintseva, Nadezhda 3.5/8 3. Korbut, Ekaterina 2.5/5 4. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 5.5/6 5. Tairova, Elena 3.5/5 POL 1. Socko, Monika 4.5/8 2. Rajlich, Iweta 1.0/7 3. Zawadzka, Jolanta 4.5/8 4. Szcezepkowska, Karina 2.0/3 5. Przezdziecka, Marta 4.0/6 GEO 1. Chiburdanidze, Maya 4.0/7 2. Javakhishvili, Lela 6.0/8 3. Khurtsidze, Nino 4.0/7 4. Khukhashvili, Sopiko 2.0/5 5. Gvetadze, Sofio 2.0/5 UKR 1. Lahno, Kateryna 2.0/7 2. Ushenina, Anna 5.5/8 3. Gaponenko, Inna 6.0/7 4. Vasilevich, Tatina 5.0/7 5. Vosivic, Oksana 1.5/3 ARM 1. Danielyan, Elina 5.0/8 2. Mkrtchyan, Lilit 3.5/7 3. Aghinyan, Nelly 2.5/6 4. Andriasyan, Siranush 1.5/5 5. Aghabekyan, Liana 2.5/6 CZE 1. Jakova, Jana 2.5/8 2. Sikorova, Olga 1.5/8 3. Blazkova, Petra 2.5/8 4. Nemcova, Katerina 4.0/8 BOT 1. Sabure, Tuduetso 0.0/8 2. Lpang, Tshepiso 0.0/7 3. Modongo, Boikhutso 0.0/5 4. Saburre, Ontiretse 0.0/8 5. Pilane Masego, Sylvia 0.0/4 GER 1. Paehtz, Elisabeth 4.5/7 2. Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketsina 5.0/8 3. Nill, Jessica 2.5/7 4. Ohme, Melanie 2.5/6 5. Schoene, Maria Randi 2.0/4 VIE 1. Le Kieu Thien Kim 2.5/8 2. Le Than Tu 4.5/7 3. Hoang Thi Bao Tram 2.5/6 4. Nguyen, Thi Than An 3.0/6 5. Pham Le Thao Nguyen 3.5/5

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-5

Here are the results from Round 7: GEO (2.5) v. VIE (1.5) Chiburdanidze, Maya 1-0 Le Kieu Thien Kim Javakhishvili, Lela ½-½ Le Thanh Tu Khurtsidze, Nino ½-½ Hoang Thi Bao Tram Gvetadze, Sofio ½-½ Nguyen Thi Thanh An UKR (2.5) v. POL (1.5) Lahno, Kateryna 0-1 Socko, Monika Ushenina, Anna 1-0 Rajlich, Iweta Gaponenko, Inna 1-0 Szczepkowska, Karina Vasilevich, Tatiana ½-½ Przezdziecka, Marta ARM (1.5) v. RUS (2.5) Danielian, Elina ½-½ Kosintseva, Tatiana Mkrtchian, Lilit ½-½ Kosintseva, Nadezhda Andriasian, Siranush 0-1 Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina Aghabekian, Liana ½-½ Tairova, Elena CZE (0.5) v. CHN (3.5) Jackova, Jana 0-1 Zhao Xue Sikorova, Olga 0-1 Hou Yifan Blazkova, Petra 0-1 Ruan Lufei Nemcova, Katerina ½-½ Shen Yang BOT (0.0) v. GER (4.0) Sabure Tuduetso 0-1 Kachini-Gersinska, Ketino Lopang Tshepiso 0-1 Nill, Jessica Modongo Boikhutso 0-1 Ohme, Melanie Sabure, Ontiretse 0-1 Schoene, Maria Randi

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.