USCF Cancels Girls Championship
The USCF announced today that they have, in effect, ended the national girls champtionship. This event had been founded and organized by Susan Polgar. At their Executive Board Meeting, they chose to not renew the contract with Polgar. They have not announced a replacement event or the intent to put one out for bid.
Susan Polgar is allowed to hold a girls championship on her own, and the players will have their games rated by the USCF, but the event will no longer be recognized by the USCF as a national event.
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In a related story, this brings to a climax a long controversy between myself and various figures within the USCF regarding how USCF politics ought to be reported to the outside world. I first broke this story last month when I stated that the USCF "may" not renew the Polgar contract. People took issue with this statement, saying that without any official announcement, such speculation was unwarranted. My position was (and is) that chess politics ought to be reported like regular politics: all factors ought to be taken into account when deciding on the merits of the story, not just whether or not officials have made a statement.
In any case, my story turned out to be true.
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And in yet another story related to this, a plethora of challenges were raised to my after-the-fact questioning of the USCF Board's official actions. USCF folks didn't want this story to come out before the event and they opposed the story coming out after the event, too.
Footnote: The announcement.
The contract between USCF and Susan Polgar to recognize the Polgar Invitational as a national event expired with the 2009 tournament. This has been a fine event, has an outstanding sponsor in Texas Tech, and we hope that it will continue. Even though it is no longer a national, Susan Polgar has the right to organize it, as well as other tournaments, as USCF-rated events.
Bill Goichberg
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6 comments:
Thank you, Jack, for publishing this item. Based on what I have not seen on internet chess news sites and blogs, there seems to have be a blackout on news from the Oct. 31 - Nov. 1 EB meeting.
I do not frequent the USCF forum - everything I have seen or heard about it indicates that it is a cesspool.
Do you have any other news from the Executive Board meeting?
Jack is correct. The USCF canceled the USCF's national championship status of the event. Susan can still hold a tournament, but the USCF will not recognize it as a national girls championship.
What planet are you from?
How ironic that the USCF EB, on which a certain tournament organizer is a major force, won't let Susan call her successful event a national girls championship, yet that same organizer calls his own flagship tournament the pretentious 'World' Open!
No, I don't have any more news from the last EB Meeting. They are being very tight with the news over there. I practically had to pry this one of them with a crowbar!
Mike, again with the splitting of hairs in order to obscure the truth. The central fact is that before the EB decision, the USA had a National Girls Championship. Now it does not.
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