Not for the Interzonal, but for the zonal.

Polgar should have qualified for the zonal in Warsaw in 1986. She tied
for second in the 1986 Hungarian Championship with Istvan Csom. It had
been announced that the top three were in. The newspapers in Budapest
announced in great headlines that Polgar had qualified for the zonal
by finishing in the top 3.

However, at that time, Sandor Serenyi, President of the Hungarian
Chess Federation, was out of town. When he got back, he decreed that
there had been a mistake in calculating the number of players that
Hungary could send to the zonal. Hungary was only entitled to two
players, not three. As Susan had a half point less in Berger tie-
breaking points, Csom would go but not Susan, declared Serenyi.

As I was in Budapest when this happened, I asked Csom to agree to play
a match with Susan for the spot. Csom immediately agreed, saying that
he was not especially interested in playing in the zonal anyway.
However, later, in Dubai, during the chess Olympiad, Csom, with
Adorjan as his translator, told me that he had changed his mind and
was not willing to play a match with Polgar for the Zonal slot. Thus,
Polgar never played in the zonal.

Cramling had played in the European Zonal back in 1980 or 1981 in a
previous cycle. Thus, Cramling was the first woman ever to qualify for
the World Championship Cycle.

Actually, Susan never got to play in the world championship cycle, so
the issue is whether to count the incident in 1986 when, in my
opinion, she should have been allowed to play but never got to play.

Sam Sloan