On Oct 19, 11:22 am, Larry Tapper wrote:
On Oct 19, 10:44 am, "j.d.walker" wrote:

I have seen references to Susan's heavy-handed dealings with
commentary on her blog. I had never experienced anything like that
and have given her the benefit of a doubt -- until today.

Her blog has an article titled "Ten things you didn't know about Texas
Tech" -- evidently from a local campus newspaper or some such. In it
the following statement is made.

"... In May, Tech checkmated its rivals by hiring the Billie Jean King
of chess. Susan Polgar was the first woman to qualify for the World
Chess Championship and to earn the title of Grandmaster. She will
SPICE up the sport at Tech, running the Susan Polgar Institute for
Chess Excellence ."

Does anyone know what "first woman to qualify for the World
Chess Championship" refers to, exactly? Offhand I would take this to
mean that Susan Polgar was the first woman to participate in the
official men's championship cycle by playing in a Zonal or the
equivalent. This could well be true --- I'm not questioning the
veracity of the statement, I'm just curious about the exact reference.

Larry T.

I happen to know exactly what it means, because I was personally
involved in this incident.

In 1986, it was announced that the top three players in the Hungarian
Championship would qualify to the zonal tournament to be held in
Warsaw.

None of the top grandmasters in Hungary played in the Hungarian
Championship because they all had already qualified by rating. Thus,
Portisch, Ribli, Andorjan, and Csom did not play.

The tournament was won by Grozpeter. Hazai and Susan Polgar tied for
second.

After the tournament was over, Sandur Serenyi, President of the
Hungarian Chess Federation, announced that they had made a mistake in
calculating the number of players they were entitled to send to the
zonal in Warsaw and that they were entitled to send only two, not
three, players.

Since Susan Polgar had a half tie-breaking point less than Hazai, she
would not be allowed to go.

I was in Budapest at the time this happened, staying in Susan's
apartment, so I went down to the Hungarian Chess Federation and
protested to Lako, who was the secretary and in charge of the office.
(He was no relation to Peter Leko, the now famous grandmaster).

Lako said basically that Serenyi was in charge and he decided these
things.

Since Grandmaster Csom was the lowest rated player who had been seeded
in by rating, I went to see Csom at a local team match and negotiated
a deal with Benko as the translator for Csom to play a match with
Susan for the extra zonal spot. Csom readily argeed to this, saying
that he did not really want to play in the zonal in Warsaw anyway. I
felt that Susan had a chance to beat Csom. (I also found it odd that
here I was, an American, unfamiliar with the language except that I
could count to ten, negotiating deals with Hungarians when they did
not seem to be speaking to each other.)

I then went to Dubai for the World Chess Olympiad, carrying with me a
signed power of attorney that Susan Polgar and her father, Laszlo, had
given me authorizing me to negotiate deals on her behalf.

In Dubai, one of the other Hungarians who could speak to English
(since Csom could speak no English) came to me and said that Csom had
changed his mind and was not willing to play a match with Polgar for
the zonal spot.

Andorjan then invited me to dinner with himself and Grandmaster Pinter
to explain their side of the story. Also, our grandmaster John
Fedorowicz had a discussion with Grandmaster Portisch about this
issue, with Fedorowicz arguing Susan's cause and Portisch opposed to
Susan.

Finally, I went to Filipowicz who was the organizer of the zonal in
Warsaw and he expressed surprise at this entire controversy, saying
that he had two empty slots for the Warsaw Zonal and he would be most
happy to have Zsuzsa Polgar playing there.

I also went to Florencio Campomanes several times over this issue and
basically he said that he personally would like to see Zsuzsa play in
the Zonal but the Hungarians were adamently oppposed to letting her
play and since FIDE is a federation of federations and the individual
players have no rights, he had no choice but to respect their wishes.

Hugh Myers, who was in Dubai as the editor of the bulletins, informed
me that I had been pressing the case of Polgar so hard that the order
had been given to arrest me and deport me from the UAE, but the edict
had been withdrawn by Campomanes before I could be picked up.

The end result was that Susan Polgar did not get to play in the Zonal
in Warsaw. However, the reason was NOT that she was a woman or that
she was Jewish (as she alleges) but rather in my opinion because she
and her father had alienated the top officials of the Hungarian Chess
Federation, plus the fact that she had one-half SB tie breaking point
less than Hazai.

Sam Sloan

On Oct 19, 11:24 am, samsloan wrote:
On Oct 19, 11:22 am, Larry Tapper wrote:





On Oct 19, 10:44 am, "j.d.walker" wrote:

I have seen references to Susan's heavy-handed dealings with
commentary on her blog. I had never experienced anything like that
and have given her the benefit of a doubt -- until today.

Her blog has an article titled "Ten things you didn't know about Texas
Tech" -- evidently from a local campus newspaper or some such. In it
the following statement is made.

"... In May, Tech checkmated its rivals by hiring the Billie Jean King
of chess. Susan Polgar was the first woman to qualify for the World
Chess Championship and to earn the title of Grandmaster. She will
SPICE up the sport at Tech, running the Susan Polgar Institute for
Chess Excellence ."

Does anyone know what "first woman to qualify for the World
Chess Championship" refers to, exactly? Offhand I would take this to
mean that Susan Polgar was the first woman to participate in the
official men's championship cycle by playing in a Zonal or the
equivalent. This could well be true --- I'm not questioning the
veracity of the statement, I'm just curious about the exact reference.

Larry T.

I happen to know exactly what it means, because I was personally
involved in this incident.

In 1986, it was announced that the top three players in the Hungarian
Championship would qualify to the zonal tournament to be held in
Warsaw.

None of the top grandmasters in Hungary played in the Hungarian
Championship because they all had already qualified by rating. Thus,
Portisch, Ribli, Andorjan, and Csom did not play.

The tournament was won by Grozpeter. Hazai and Susan Polgar tied for
second.

After the tournament was over, Sandur Serenyi, President of the
Hungarian Chess Federation, announced that they had made a mistake in
calculating the number of players they were entitled to send to the
zonal in Warsaw and that they were entitled to send only two, not
three, players.

Since Susan Polgar had a half tie-breaking point less than Hazai, she
would not be allowed to go.

I was in Budapest at the time this happened, staying in Susan's
apartment, so I went down to the Hungarian Chess Federation and
protested to Lako, who was the secretary and in charge of the office.
(He was no relation to Peter Leko, the now famous grandmaster).

Lako said basically that Serenyi was in charge and he decided these
things.

Since Grandmaster Csom was the lowest rated player who had been seeded
in by rating, I went to see Csom at a local team match and negotiated
a deal with Benko as the translator for Csom to play a match with
Susan for the extra zonal spot. Csom readily argeed to this, saying
that he did not really want to play in the zonal in Warsaw anyway. I
felt that Susan had a chance to beat Csom. (I also found it odd that
here I was, an American, unfamiliar with the language except that I
could count to ten, negotiating deals with Hungarians when they did
not seem to be speaking to each other.)

I then went to Dubai for the World Chess Olympiad, carrying with me a
signed power of attorney that Susan Polgar and her father, Laszlo, had
given me authorizing me to negotiate deals on her behalf.

In Dubai, one of the other Hungarians who could speak to English
(since Csom could speak no English) came to me and said that Csom had
changed his mind and was not willing to play a match with Polgar for
the zonal spot.

Andorjan then invited me to dinner with himself and Grandmaster Pinter
to explain their side of the story. Also, our grandmaster John
Fedorowicz had a discussion with Grandmaster Portisch about this
issue, with Fedorowicz arguing Susan's cause and Portisch opposed to
Susan.

Finally, I went to Filipowicz who was the organizer of the zonal in
Warsaw and he expressed surprise at this entire controversy, saying
that he had two empty slots for the Warsaw Zonal and he would be most
happy to have Zsuzsa Polgar playing there.

I also went to Florencio Campomanes several times over this issue and
basically he said that he personally would like to see Zsuzsa play in
the Zonal but the Hungarians were adamently oppposed to letting her
play and since FIDE is a federation of federations and the individual
players have no rights, he had no choice but to respect their wishes.

Hugh Myers, who was in Dubai as the editor of the bulletins, informed
me that I had been pressing the case of Polgar so hard that the order
had been given to arrest me and deport me from the UAE, but the edict
had been withdrawn by Campomanes before I could be picked up.

The end result was that Susan Polgar did not get to play in the Zonal
in Warsaw. However, the reason was NOT that she was a woman or that
she was Jewish (as she alleges) but rather in my opinion because she
and her father had alienated the top officials of the Hungarian Chess
Federation, plus the fact that she had one-half SB tie breaking point
less than Hazai.

Sam Sloan- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

And there you have it,Sam. I have no rights as chess player, but as a
member of FIDE, three
passport holders of St Kitts and Nevis have 1/160th of the power.

Why are we fighting? POWER.

Marcus Roberts

I also went to Florencio Campomanes several times over this issue and
basically he said that he personally would like to see Zsuzsa play in
the Zonal but the Hungarians were adamently oppposed to letting her
play and since FIDE is a federation of federations and the individual
players have no rights, he had no choice but to respect their wishes.

On Oct 19, 11:24 am, samsloan wrote:

In 1986, it was announced that the top three players in the Hungarian
Championship would qualify to the zonal tournament to be held in
Warsaw.

None of the top grandmasters in Hungary played in the Hungarian
Championship because they all had already qualified by rating. Thus,
Portisch, Ribli, Andorjan, and Csom did not play.

The tournament was won by Grozpeter. Hazai and Susan Polgar tied for
second.

After the tournament was over, Sandur Serenyi, President of the
Hungarian Chess Federation, announced that they had made a mistake in
calculating the number of players they were entitled to send to the
zonal in Warsaw and that they were entitled to send only two, not
three, players.

Was this ever verified? How many slots were they
*in fact* entitled to fill?


The end result was that Susan Polgar did not get to play in the Zonal
in Warsaw. However, the reason was NOT that she was a woman or that
she was Jewish (as she alleges) but rather in my opinion because she
and her father had alienated the top officials of the Hungarian Chess
Federation, plus the fact that she had one-half SB tie breaking point
less than Hazai.

A good story. However, there is a gaping hole in
that nothing is presented in the way of explanation
as to how or why the top Hungarian officials (who
aren't even named or numbered) were alienated.


In addition, a little research (don't look at me!)
could verify of refute claims such as "first woman
ever to qualify" or "first woman to earn GM title",
etc. If in fact any of these claims referred only
to the women's title, that ought to be pointed out.
I am left wondering if players like Vera Menchik
or Nona Gaprindishvili ever earned any FIDE
titles or participated in any of the w.c. cycles.


-- lazy bot

Crossposting is eveil

Crossposting is evil