| Sam Sloan 2005-05-30, 8:32 pm |
| Thursday, May 26, 2005
Question from a chess enthusiast
A fan raised this question to me on another forum. The question came
up because the USCF officially canceled the US Women's Olympiad
Training Program right after our team came back with one team Silver
medal, one individual Silver medal and two individual Gold medals.
"So what's to stop the program being run independently of the USCF?"
This also involves the issue of why so many female players quit the
game. All I can say is I am very thankful to have the support of
countless parents and coaches around the country. I hope there will be
major positive changes in chess in the near future.
Here was my answer:
WMD, unfortunately, the USCF is the national governing body of US
Chess. We cannot run any Olympiad training program without their
consent. All I can do is help other female players but unless we have
an official program, it is nearly impossible to raise serious funding
for this purpose (Olympiad).
A few weeks ago, I made an offer to raise more than $40,000 to support
the 2006 US Women's Olympiad Team. I made a personal guarantee for
this amount to help the team if I fail to raise it through my
foundation. I even offered to represent the US again to go for the
Gold this time.
Yesterday, I was told that my offer was rejected by the President of
the USCF as well as the other female member of the current executive
board. The proposal was rejected without one word of explanation. This
is also the same President who strongly objected to the annual Susan
Polgar National Invitational for Girls (which provides over $50,000 in
cash and scholarships for top girls in America every year without
costing the USCF a penny). She was the only one in a room of 40-50
people to object.
Thankfully, the USCF delegates and the USCF Scholastic Committee voted
overwhelmingly to support this tournament. Because of this, more than
3,000 young ladies competed in regional events in the last 10 months.
As you can see, there will always be obstacles to stop the growth of
womenfs chess in America. The federation does not want to do
anything. They have no interest to promote chess. They have not done
anything for womenfs chess in years. They claim they do not have the
money to do it even though it would cost them nothing. This country
has not produced too many GMs in the past decade. However, if others
want to help, they will not allow it. I am not the only one who faced
this. Politics will never end and some people will always put politics
before the welfare of chess. This is one of the reasons why US Chess
has gone nowhere. The federation benefited from the 1972 Fischer boom
and not much has been done since to maintain the strong growth.
Since the US Women's Olympiad Program was cancelled (the program was
canceled after we came back from the Olympiad with the first ever team
Silver medal, one individual Silver medal and two individual Gold
medals) and the USCF has no interest in doing anything serious in 2006
even though it would have cost them ZERO, our 2004 historic Silver
medalist team will not be given a chance to come back to go for the
Gold in the 2006 Olympiad. This team is dismantled forever. I will not
be a part of the 2006 US Womenfs Olympiad team and I am not even sure
if there will be a team in 2006. Even if a team is sent, they will not
get the proper preparation.
Because I spoke out and fought against the system, I am blacklisted
again. I faced the same thing 20-30 years ago. I just could not
imagine of going through the same thing in 2005. However, they have
miscalculated. This will only motivate me even more to make sure that
the young players of future generations would not have to go through
this. That is why I refused to be involved in chess politics and I am
lucky to have wonderful people supporting my initiatives outside of
the federation without hidden agenda.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
www.SusanPolgar.com
www.SusanPolgar.blogspot.com
posted by SusanPolgar @ 6:00 PM 6 comments
|