"Paul Rubin" wrote in message
...
"David Kane" writes:
You have not substantiated your claim that she was prepared
to play the match vs. Xie Jun.

Huh? She suggested dates and venues, no reason to think she was
unwilling to play at them. You're saying that all the documented
statements and offers are wrong because something different was going
on in her deepest heart of hearts and that she would have found some
other way to duck if FIDE agreed to her dates and venues. Of course
that can never be disproven, but it's completely speculative on your part.

There are three factors. Money, titles, and reputation.
On the money scale, Polgar sued for "at least Sfr 500,000"
On titles, she wanted to be recognized as champion.
With respect to reputation, she wanted FIDE to be found guilty of
wrongdoing.

So a clear win for Polgar would have been something like SFr 1 million,
the title, and a ruling that FIDE had acted inappropriately.

That was public relations posturing, not much to do with actual cash.
As Sydney Greenstreet said in The Maltese Falcon, "This is genuine
coin of the realm. With a dollar of this, you can buy ten dollars of
talk."

A clear win for FIDE would have been SFr 0 to Polgar, Polgar without
the title, and a ruling that FIDE acted appropriately.

A clear FIDE win would have also required Polgar to pay the
arbitration costs and FIDE's legal fees. Instead the money went in
the other direction. That sounds like a Polgar win to me. No clear
statement of FIDE acting inappropriately

In fact, *no* statement at all. And Polgar herself accepting Xie Jun
as champion, which is in some ways even better than the clear FIDE
win scenario I outlined - which would have been having some
arbitrator say it.


, because that would have
devalued the title even more than it already was, which would have
been against both Polgar's interests and and FIDE's. Instead we're
left to infer who was right based on the direction of money flow.

You obviously have zero grasp of tort litigation. Settling for expediency
happens all the time. Your "logic" would have a $1 win as a Polgar victory.


The actual settlement was somewhere "in between": $25000 to Polgar,
Polgar without the title, and no decision concerning the
appropriateness of FIDE's behavior. That may technically be "in between"
but objectively a lot closer to FIDE's clear win.

You are completely wrong and grasping desperately. The settlement
clearly indicates FIDE acted inappropriately. That is why they had to
pay Polgar 25 thousand sweet, sweet smackeroos.


They didn't have to pay it. They agreed to pay it in return for something.

Genuine coin of the
realm, worth 250 thousand of talk, not that advanced a concept. (Heh,
250K USD = around 500K SFR at that time, one could even say she was
paid in full). "Somewhere in between" would have been a carefully
worded press release with no clear winner, neither party pays the
other, Polgar and FIDE split the arbitration costs, both sides pay
their own legal fees. Instead, the result at the bottom of the
scoresheet: Polgar 25000, FIDE 0.

You forget that Polgar was suing for the title. Losing *that*
would have been a loss for FIDE. Instead their procedures
were upheld in return for a small sum. I will grant that the
$25000 settlement does suggest something less than 100%
perfect behavior on FIDE's point, something I've never
claimed. FIDE apparently didn't do a very good job of arranging
match conditions, though in fairness to FIDE this was made more
difficult because Polgar herself did not want to play the match, and
Polgar's federation was also not supportive of her. But even given
those factors, FIDE may not have done everything that they possibly
could have been expected to. Hence, they settled for something
slightly less than the clear FIDE win.

Be aware also that the title simply wasn't worth much.
skipped

In fact, it wasn't worth much *to Polgar*, which is why she avoided
playing. Polgar no doubt felt that she had little to gain by playing
Xie Jun. She'd already been champion, she was hoping to hit the
jackpot by playing Judit, and she'd been a well-known chess personality
her whole life. However, those factors *don't* apply to other woman
players. A ~$100,000 purse and a chance to prevail in a FIDE sanctioned
cycle was worth something.


Anyway, you haven't even shown that CAS had the jurisdiction to make
FIDE give Polgar the title, and in Polgar's version this turned out to
be impossible.

According to several reports, Polgar *sued* for it. Obviously FIDE could
have restored the title in a settlement. But Polgar's case wasn't strong
enough.


Susan Polgar continues to play the CAS result as a minimal win but as


That's what it was. Polgar had moved on with her life and was not
interested in competitive chess at the time. She tried to keep her
title with away-from-the-board maneuverings. She failed.

The real winner was Xie Jun and other women chessplayers who were
contending later cycles. Through no fault of her own, Xie Jun
was seeing her title devalued by Polgar. FIDE did the right thing
to settle with expediency - not because Polgar deserved anything,
but becaues Xie Jun and other woman players did.