In this case, Kasparov very much wants the attention of the West; I
doubt that many people would view the support of a chess federation
would be viewed as intervention as a hostile power in any case.

The USCF is not involved in the cause of Russian democracy, and it is
not part of our mandate. However, I feel that if a chess master makes
a great contribution in an area other than chess, we celebrate this
achivement. When Josh Waitzkin won a martial arts championship, the
USCF discussed this non-chess achievement in its magazine. If a chess
master became a major supporter of a noncontroversial humanitarian
cause, I am sure we would honor them somehow for their sacrifice of
time and/or money.

Kasparov is sacrificing his time and money, and putting himself at
some risk of physical danger. The cause should not be controversial to
any American (I say American here only because we are speaking of the
USCF; the same statement would be true for people from any democratic
country.) In my opinion, we should make a public celebration of his
political heroism.

I suppose I will try to use my own tiny forum to make such a
statement. Since I am more firmly tethered to planet Earth than some
writers on this forum, I will not make the claim that my Chess Cafe
column is the best-ever writing about chess, but I will try to take
off from Kasparov and discuss other chess players who have made bold
political statements for noble causes. I am a slow writer for new
articles, however, so it may take some time to polish such an article.
The problem is not lack of noble chess players, I am happy to say; I
have run into quite a few players during my historical chess research
who fought altruistically for justice on behalf of quite a number of
different causes.

This is probably my last post on the subject for a while. It looks
like the Truong issue is finally coming to a head, and it is probably
true that the USCF will have to deal with it before engaging itself in
any broader issues.

Jerry Spinrad

On Dec 6, 5:31 pm, David Richerby
wrote:


n Dec 6, 5:31 pm, David Richerby
wrote:
wrote:
Kasparov is in a dangerous position at the moment. One of the factors
that gives him the freedom to oppose the regime is the attention of
the international chess community to the former world champion. It
should be a no-brainer for the USCF; loudly announce support for his
attempts to maintain democracy in Russia.

Somebody has already suggested this. My reaction then was to say that
it would be *essential* to ask Kasparov about this first. My guess is
that USCF support could be the kiss of death for Kasparov's campaign
by causing him to be denounced as America's puppet.

Dave.

--
David Richerby Addictive Perforated Priest (TM):www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ it's like a man of the cloth but it's
full of holes and you can never put
it down!