My proposed solution to the Anna Khan Problem

First, I want to say that Anna Hahn is a very nice and sweet lady.
Everybody likes her. She has expressed no opinion on this controversy
and may not even know about it.

The controversy arose when Susan Polgar formed the Woman's Olympiad
Training Squad for the purpose of gathering together the most
promising and talented young players for the purpose of preparing for
and trying to win the 2004 Woman's World Chess Olympiad.

Almost immediately there were protests from players who were left off
the squad. One of these protests came from Elena
Donaldson-Akhmylovskaia, a very strong player who in 1986 played a
match for the Woman's World Championship. (She lost to Maya
Chiburdanidze). However, it was explained that she could still qualify
for the team. She was simply too far away in Seattle, Washington to
join the training squad.

Recently, however, there has been a new protest from especially
Beatriz Marinello, the new USCF President, who says that Anna Hahn
should be on the US Woman's Olympiad Team.

Anna Hahn was not considered for several reasons. Her rating is too
low, only 2215, whereas all of the members of the training squad are
rated over 2350, plus she has a full time job at Goldman, Sachs and
does not have the time to prepare and train for the Olympiad.

Take a look at the current USCF rating list for women at
http://www.uschess.org/ratings/top/feb04/women.php

However, her name keeps coming up because she won the 2003 US Womans
Championship. The US Woman's Championship was not intended to be a
qualification tournament for the Woman's Olympiad Team. Rather the
2004 US Woman's Championship was supposed to be a qualification
tournament. However, the 2004 US Woman's Championship could not be
held on schedule for financial reasons, as in no money, so therefore
Beatriz contends that Anna Hahn, the 2003 champion, should be on the
team.

There are several problems with putting Anna Hahn on the team. One is
that he is too weak. Her rating is only 2215. A Woman's Olympiad team
consist of four players. The number five rated woman in the US is
Elena Donaldson-Akhmylovskaya, who is rated 2426. Anna Hahn is the
number 13 rated woman in the US. Thus, Anna Hahn is nowhere near to be
strong enough to play on the team.

In addition, the victory by Anna Hahn in the 2003 US Womans
Championship was a fluke. Anna Hahn entered as one of the very lowest
rated players in the tournament. She played the tournament on the
bottom boards. Most of her opponents were experts and weak masters.

Take a look at http://www.af4c.org/oldsite/uschamps_results09.asp

In contrast, Jennifer Shahade was one of the early leaders in the
tournament. She played the event on the top boards. Her opponents were
grandmasters or grandmaster strength players.

In the last round, Jennifer Shahade played on board 5 near the top.
Anna Hahn played an expert rated 2164 on board 25 of the 30 board
event. Jennifer lost and Anna Hahn won. This left them with the same
number of points but Jennifer had played a field rated 200 points
higher than the field Anna had played. They were joined by Irina
Krush, who had played in the middle of the field. Because the sponsors
wanted to proceed with the awards ceremony, there was a blitz playoff
between the three. Anna Hahn won the blitz playoff. However, at that
time, that was of no moment because that tournament was not supposed
to qualify a player for the US Olympiad Team.

It was only subsequently when Erik Anderson was unable to raise the
funds to hold the 2004 US Championship on schedule in January 2004
that this issue became important.

It also needs to be explained that it was a promotional scheme of Erik
Anderson to combine the US Championship and the US Womans Championship
into one event. In the traditional US Womans Championship, the top 12
or 14 woman players were invited and they played a round robin against
each other. Under the new Erik Anderson system, the top men and the
top men and the qualifying players of both sexes were combined
together in one giant Swiss System event. Naturally, the women players
were much weaker than the male players. It is for this reason that
Jennifer Shahade played the entire event against male grandmasters
whereas Anna Hahn played almost the entire event against much weaker
women with master or expert ratings.

The USCF Executive Board ruled in March 2003 that Anna Hahn was not
entitled to a spot on the Woman's Olympiad Team. However, a new
Executive Board was elected in August, 2003. Beatriz Marinello, the
new president, has put her prestige on the line and is very insistent
that Anna Hahn must be on the team. Beatriz raised this issue at the
USCF meetings in Los Angeles and was voted down. Nevertheless, she
keeps raising it again and again.

Because of this and the uncertainty this has created, the US Womans
Olympiad Training Squad has stopped holding training sessions. No
further preparation for the Olympiad is now taking place. Nobody has
said this, but there obviously has to be doubt as to whether the top
players will even play. They may not be interested in playing on a
team so weak that it has no chance to win a medal. The World Chess
Olympiad will be held in November in Spain. If Anna Hahn is on the
team, the US will have no chance to win. Susan Polgar has twice led
teams representing Hungary to the Gold Medal in the Womans World Chess
Olympiad. She might not be interested in playing on a weak team that
is going to finish in 20th place, which is where the US team finished
the last time Anna Hahn played.

Neither side shows any signs of backing down. Therefore, I have a
proposal.

My proposal is that an in-between US Woman's Championship be held some
time in the next two or three months. The tournament will be held at
the Marshall Chess Club. There will be only six players. Anna Hahn
will be invited along with the top five rated players. Prizes will be
minimal. We might be able to get the US Chess Trust or the Gesila
Gresser Foundation to donate a small prize fund. (Gesila Gresser was
many times the US Woman's Champion and often donated money for womens
chess events at the Marshall.)

Since Erik Anderson could not keep his commitment to organize the US
Championship on schedule in January 2004, he has no right to complain
about this in-between event. Also, his US Championship now scheduled
for December 2004 (after the Olympiad) will not be affected.

In addition to solving the Anna Hahn Problem, this in between
championship will solve several other problems. Right now, with or
without Anna Hahn, Jennifer Shahade and Rusudan Goletiani are not
making the Olympic team. Jennifer Shahade is the former US Woman's
Champion and she had by far the best result of any woman player in the
2003 US Championship. Rusudan Goletiani is the Continental Woman's
Championship for both North and South America combined. She was not
allowed to play in the 2003 US Womans Championship. There are also
several other very strong woman players who are not at present making
the team. These include Camila Baginskaite rated 2370, Anjelina
Belakovskaia rated 2375 and Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya rated 2426.
Not all of them would even making it into this in-between US Womans
Championship, but at least holding this event would give them some
chance to qualify. It is truly ridiculous that players like Camila
Baginskaite, Anjelina Belakovskaia, and Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaia
are not even being considered for the team, but Beatriz Marinello is
strongly insisting that a player rated 2215 be on the team.

This seems to me to be the perfect solution to this otherwise
intractable problem. I do not see how anybody could complain about
this.

Sam Sloan

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 17:26:57 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:


The controversy arose when Susan Polgar formed the Woman's Olympiad
Training Squad for the purpose of gathering together the most
promising and talented young players for the purpose of preparing for
and trying to win the 2004 Woman's World Chess Olympiad.

Was this squad chartered by the USCF as having anything to do with the
official qualification procedures ?

Almost immediately there were protests from players who were left off
the squad. One of these protests came from Elena
Donaldson-Akhmylovskaia, a very strong player who in 1986 played a
match for the Woman's World Championship. (She lost to Maya
Chiburdanidze). However, it was explained that she could still qualify
for the team. She was simply too far away in Seattle, Washington to
join the training squad.

Recently, however, there has been a new protest from especially
Beatriz Marinello, the new USCF President, who says that Anna Hahn
should be on the US Woman's Olympiad Team.

Anna Hahn was not considered for several reasons. Her rating is too
low, only 2215, whereas all of the members of the training squad are
rated over 2350, plus she has a full time job at Goldman, Sachs and
does not have the time to prepare and train for the Olympiad.

If the USCF ratings were the published standard for qualification,
then her rating is an issue. If not, they are irrelevant, as is the
fact that she's employed. Has she said she lacks time? Was
unemployment or underemployment a criterion?

In addition, the victory by Anna Hahn in the 2003 US Womans
Championship was a fluke. Anna Hahn entered as one of the very lowest
rated players in the tournament. She played the tournament on the
bottom boards. Most of her opponents were experts and weak masters.

If you're using a tournament as a qualifier, the only thing that
counts is the final result, with the possible exception of deliberate
misconduct.

It also needs to be explained that it was a promotional scheme of Erik
Anderson to combine the US Championship and the US Womans Championship
into one event. In the traditional US Womans Championship, the top 12
or 14 woman players were invited and they played a round robin against
each other. Under the new Erik Anderson system, the top men and the
top men and the qualifying players of both sexes were combined
together in one giant Swiss System event. Naturally, the women players
were much weaker than the male players. It is for this reason that
Jennifer Shahade played the entire event against male grandmasters
whereas Anna Hahn played almost the entire event against much weaker
women with master or expert ratings.

These points would help argue for a different qualification scheme in
the future.

My proposal is that an in-between US Woman's Championship be held some
time in the next two or three months. The tournament will be held at
the Marshall Chess Club. There will be only six players. Anna Hahn
will be invited along with the top five rated players. Prizes will be
minimal. We might be able to get the US Chess Trust or the Gesila
Gresser Foundation to donate a small prize fund. (Gesila Gresser was
many times the US Woman's Champion and often donated money for womens
chess events at the Marshall.)

In other words, keep flipping the coin until it come up heads.

It is truly ridiculous that players like Camila
Baginskaite, Anjelina Belakovskaia, and Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaia
are not even being considered for the team, but Beatriz Marinello is
strongly insisting that a player rated 2215 be on the team.

It sounds a bit different when you say she's insisting that the
current US Champion be on the team, doesn't it?

This seems to me to be the perfect solution to this otherwise
intractable problem. I do not see how anybody could complain about
this.

Other than it's ad hoc and arbitrary.


Sam Sloan

Sam,

Very nice explanation but I don't like your solution.

A chess rating is your cumulative life result. If Hahn should win that
tournament 5-0 her rating will go up 75 points or so, and she'll still be
rated lower than any other woman on the team. So even if she wins it, the
tournament doesn't prove anything except perhaps that the lady doesn't play
enough. If that's the case tough luck.

Observation: Regardless of the tournament type, the only logical, equitable
tiebreak system is performance rating. The other tiebreak systems are
completely arbitrary. Perhaps the argument for using P.R. in round robins is
debatable, but in swiss tournaments there simply is no logical alternative.
I've tried introducing this idea at my local club and everyone's eyes glaze
over.

Angelo
"Sam Sloan" wrote in message
...
My proposed solution to the Anna Khan Problem

First, I want to say that Anna Hahn is a very nice and sweet lady.
Everybody likes her. She has expressed no opinion on this controversy
and may not even know about it.

The controversy arose when Susan Polgar formed the Woman's Olympiad
Training Squad for the purpose of gathering together the most
promising and talented young players for the purpose of preparing for
and trying to win the 2004 Woman's World Chess Olympiad.

Almost immediately there were protests from players who were left off
the squad. One of these protests came from Elena
Donaldson-Akhmylovskaia, a very strong player who in 1986 played a
match for the Woman's World Championship. (She lost to Maya
Chiburdanidze). However, it was explained that she could still qualify
for the team. She was simply too far away in Seattle, Washington to
join the training squad.

Recently, however, there has been a new protest from especially
Beatriz Marinello, the new USCF President, who says that Anna Hahn
should be on the US Woman's Olympiad Team.

Anna Hahn was not considered for several reasons. Her rating is too
low, only 2215, whereas all of the members of the training squad are
rated over 2350, plus she has a full time job at Goldman, Sachs and
does not have the time to prepare and train for the Olympiad.

Take a look at the current USCF rating list for women at
http://www.uschess.org/ratings/top/feb04/women.php

However, her name keeps coming up because she won the 2003 US Womans
Championship. The US Woman's Championship was not intended to be a
qualification tournament for the Woman's Olympiad Team. Rather the
2004 US Woman's Championship was supposed to be a qualification
tournament. However, the 2004 US Woman's Championship could not be
held on schedule for financial reasons, as in no money, so therefore
Beatriz contends that Anna Hahn, the 2003 champion, should be on the
team.

There are several problems with putting Anna Hahn on the team. One is
that he is too weak. Her rating is only 2215. A Woman's Olympiad team
consist of four players. The number five rated woman in the US is
Elena Donaldson-Akhmylovskaya, who is rated 2426. Anna Hahn is the
number 13 rated woman in the US. Thus, Anna Hahn is nowhere near to be
strong enough to play on the team.

In addition, the victory by Anna Hahn in the 2003 US Womans
Championship was a fluke. Anna Hahn entered as one of the very lowest
rated players in the tournament. She played the tournament on the
bottom boards. Most of her opponents were experts and weak masters.

Take a look at http://www.af4c.org/oldsite/uschamps_results09.asp

In contrast, Jennifer Shahade was one of the early leaders in the
tournament. She played the event on the top boards. Her opponents were
grandmasters or grandmaster strength players.

In the last round, Jennifer Shahade played on board 5 near the top.
Anna Hahn played an expert rated 2164 on board 25 of the 30 board
event. Jennifer lost and Anna Hahn won. This left them with the same
number of points but Jennifer had played a field rated 200 points
higher than the field Anna had played. They were joined by Irina
Krush, who had played in the middle of the field. Because the sponsors
wanted to proceed with the awards ceremony, there was a blitz playoff
between the three. Anna Hahn won the blitz playoff. However, at that
time, that was of no moment because that tournament was not supposed
to qualify a player for the US Olympiad Team.

It was only subsequently when Erik Anderson was unable to raise the
funds to hold the 2004 US Championship on schedule in January 2004
that this issue became important.

It also needs to be explained that it was a promotional scheme of Erik
Anderson to combine the US Championship and the US Womans Championship
into one event. In the traditional US Womans Championship, the top 12
or 14 woman players were invited and they played a round robin against
each other. Under the new Erik Anderson system, the top men and the
top men and the qualifying players of both sexes were combined
together in one giant Swiss System event. Naturally, the women players
were much weaker than the male players. It is for this reason that
Jennifer Shahade played the entire event against male grandmasters
whereas Anna Hahn played almost the entire event against much weaker
women with master or expert ratings.

The USCF Executive Board ruled in March 2003 that Anna Hahn was not
entitled to a spot on the Woman's Olympiad Team. However, a new
Executive Board was elected in August, 2003. Beatriz Marinello, the
new president, has put her prestige on the line and is very insistent
that Anna Hahn must be on the team. Beatriz raised this issue at the
USCF meetings in Los Angeles and was voted down. Nevertheless, she
keeps raising it again and again.

Because of this and the uncertainty this has created, the US Womans
Olympiad Training Squad has stopped holding training sessions. No
further preparation for the Olympiad is now taking place. Nobody has
said this, but there obviously has to be doubt as to whether the top
players will even play. They may not be interested in playing on a
team so weak that it has no chance to win a medal. The World Chess
Olympiad will be held in November in Spain. If Anna Hahn is on the
team, the US will have no chance to win. Susan Polgar has twice led
teams representing Hungary to the Gold Medal in the Womans World Chess
Olympiad. She might not be interested in playing on a weak team that
is going to finish in 20th place, which is where the US team finished
the last time Anna Hahn played.

Neither side shows any signs of backing down. Therefore, I have a
proposal.

My proposal is that an in-between US Woman's Championship be held some
time in the next two or three months. The tournament will be held at
the Marshall Chess Club. There will be only six players. Anna Hahn
will be invited along with the top five rated players. Prizes will be
minimal. We might be able to get the US Chess Trust or the Gesila
Gresser Foundation to donate a small prize fund. (Gesila Gresser was
many times the US Woman's Champion and often donated money for womens
chess events at the Marshall.)

Since Erik Anderson could not keep his commitment to organize the US
Championship on schedule in January 2004, he has no right to complain
about this in-between event. Also, his US Championship now scheduled
for December 2004 (after the Olympiad) will not be affected.

In addition to solving the Anna Hahn Problem, this in between
championship will solve several other problems. Right now, with or
without Anna Hahn, Jennifer Shahade and Rusudan Goletiani are not
making the Olympic team. Jennifer Shahade is the former US Woman's
Champion and she had by far the best result of any woman player in the
2003 US Championship. Rusudan Goletiani is the Continental Woman's
Championship for both North and South America combined. She was not
allowed to play in the 2003 US Womans Championship. There are also
several other very strong woman players who are not at present making
the team. These include Camila Baginskaite rated 2370, Anjelina
Belakovskaia rated 2375 and Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya rated 2426.
Not all of them would even making it into this in-between US Womans
Championship, but at least holding this event would give them some
chance to qualify. It is truly ridiculous that players like Camila
Baginskaite, Anjelina Belakovskaia, and Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaia
are not even being considered for the team, but Beatriz Marinello is
strongly insisting that a player rated 2215 be on the team.

This seems to me to be the perfect solution to this otherwise
intractable problem. I do not see how anybody could complain about
this.

Sam Sloan

"Angelo DePalma" wrote
A chess rating is your cumulative life result.

I don't think so, Angelo.

Anna's win was not a fluke.
She played very well.

Also, I'd like to hear Anna's thoughts on this issue.

Steve Wilson

PS: Hallman, get in touch.

On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 17:26:57 GMT, (Sam Sloan)
wrote:


Neither side shows any signs of backing down. Therefore, I have a
proposal.

My proposal is that an in-between US Woman's Championship be held some
time in the next two or three months. The tournament will be held at
the Marshall Chess Club. There will be only six players. Anna Hahn
will be invited along with the top five rated players. Prizes will be
minimal.

I was just looking at the USCF rating list in connection with my
proposal for a six-player US Woman's Championship.

http://www.uschess.org/ratings/top/feb04/women.php

It turns out that the number of six works out nicely.

There are 11 players rated over 2330. After that there is a one
hundred point drop to the next player. After that there is Anna Hahn
who is number 13.

However, of the top 11, Alexandra Kosteniuk is not eligible because
she only recently arrived here and Martha Fierro is not eligible
because she represents Ecuador in the Olympiad. That leaves nine.

Camilla Baginskaite will not wish to play because she has a new baby.
That leaves eight.

I doubt the Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya will play because of the
distance involved and she has been inactive in recent years. I doubt
that Anjelina Belakovskaia will play. I doubt that Zsuzsa Polgar will
play.

This will mean that Tatev Abrahamyan gets to play which is very good
because she is only 16 years old and is rated 2332 so she is the most
promising player of all.

So the five top players plus Anna Hahn would be the perfect sized
tournament. Almost all of the rest are below 2200 and really do not
deserve to be in the US Championship.

Five of the six players are from New York or New Jersey so the
Marshall Chess Club would be the most suitable location.

Sam Sloan

I know Anna may not be the strongest of chess players for the US team,
but damn... those eyes make me melt! So why don't you think Susan
will play Sam, wasn't that the whole point of her joining USCF and
making such a big to-do for the past year? I don't think being a
cheerleader on the sidelines will help us that much.

On 22 Mar 2004 11:49:37 -0800, (John Lamont) wrote:

I know Anna may not be the strongest of chess players for the US team,
but damn... those eyes make me melt! So why don't you think Susan
will play Sam, wasn't that the whole point of her joining USCF and
making such a big to-do for the past year? I don't think being a
cheerleader on the sidelines will help us that much.

I have not asked Susan about this, but she formed the team with the
plan of winning the world championship.

If the USCF insists on putting a weak player on the team, thereby
killing any chance for victory, it seems likely that she will lose
interest in playing.

Sam Sloan

(Sam Sloan) wrote in message
...
My proposed solution to the Anna Khan Problem
First, I want to say that Anna Hahn is a very nice and sweet lady.
(snipped)

That's good. Then presumably Anna *Hahn* may not complain about Sam Sloan's
inability to write *her current name* correctly when he created this thread
with his expression, 'the Anna *Khan* Problem', in its heading.

--Nick

Nick wrote:

(Sam Sloan) wrote in message
...
My proposed solution to the Anna Khan Problem
First, I want to say that Anna Hahn is a very nice and sweet lady.
(snipped)

That's good. Then presumably Anna *Hahn* may not complain about Sam
Sloan's inability to write *her current name* correctly when he created
this thread with his expression, 'the Anna *Khan* Problem', in its
heading.

I don't know whether there is an Anna Hahn problem; however, there is a Sam
Sloan problem, and it seems insolvable.


Regards,

Simon.