The Polgar Claim to have won the "Triple Crown" of Chess
samsloan
The most recent such event was the Melody Amber Tournament at the
Vista Palace Hotel in Roquebrune/ Cap Martin, Monaco. (The tourney
name is that of the infant daughter of the sponsor, J. J. van
Oosterom, the former director of Volmac Software Group.) Twelve of the
world's best players (but not the world champion, Gary Kasparov) came
for the double-round competition, which took place from Feb. 3 to 12.
Vasily Ivanchuk of Ukraine won the $20,000 first prize with a 14-8
score. Viswanathan Anand of India was awarded the $17,000 second prize
for his 13 1/2-8 1/2 tally. Anatoly Karpov of Russia, Ljubomir
Ljubojevic of Yugoslavia and Viktor Korchnoi of Switzerland shared
third place with 12 1/2-9 1/2.
===============================
There were two halves of the tournament. If the first half, the
players played a round robin of 30-minute "action chess". In the
second half, they played a round robin of blindfold chess. After that,
the scores for the two events were combined to produce an overall
winner. As there were 12 players, each player played a total of 22
games.
These tournaments are not rated and are not official competitions
recognized by FIDE.
Unfortunately, back in 1992 the news sources that we rely on today did
not exist yet. The Internet was not fully developed. There was no
rec.games.politics . That started in 1994. There was no TWIC. That
started in 1994 as well. There was no mention of this event in Chess
Life magazine. I do not have access to "New in Chess" for that year.
Thus, it is difficult to evaluate the claim that these events
constitute any sort of "world championship" or part of a "triple
crown".
Sam Sloan
help bot
samsloan wrote:
Sam Sloan is, I think, once again, dead wrong.
The thing is, if you look back to the issues for, say, the
months of February or March, you may not find what you
seek because Chess Life was notoriously slow in their
coverage of such events. In order to find this particular
event I would probably begin by looking through the issue
that came out in April or May of 1992. Then you need to
work forward, as I would not rule out coverage *months*
after the fact by these, the kings of sloth. The very idea
that such a powerful slate of players would be overlooked
entirely is a bit strange, and the editors never missed a
chance to get in a shot for Gary Kasparov, here, pointing
out his absence would be an obvious one. For anyone
with access to a complete set, the year-end index would
be an answer, if one could find it.
Anyway, one need not rely on Chess Life for this sort
of information, since the definitive source for all info these
days is Google.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
And do you know *why* Gary Kasparov was absent
from this big event? Of course, it was to protect his
reputation as world champion, but also he was sorely
needed to relay the winning moves to BF, who was
playing Boris Spassky and had forgotten how to play
after twenty years! Poor BS thought he was playing
a rusty old man, but in fact it was GK, trying his best
to "emulate" Bobby Fischer. Moves were relayed via
radiowaves, transmitted to the (new) fillings in BF's
teeth. Despite some technical difficulties (evident
in the moves themselves), the scheme worked well
enough for the two men to split over $5 million. It is
a little-known fact that GK selected all his moves
while playing blindfolded; GM Kasparov explained,
matter of factly:
"I don't need to see the board to beat Spassky,
these days".
The mass media, along with piddledee-nothing rags
like Chess Life, covered the Fischer event and barely
mentioned the concurrent Melody Amber tourney.
Such is the state of America that the cult of celebrity-
worship has taken over completely. On top of this,
writers like GM Larry Evans took up the gauntlet and
declared that the popular "Action chess", as it was
called, was a sign that chess was being -- and I quote:
"dumbed down". That's a good one, coming from a
man who, upon repeatedly being corrected for his many
analytical errors by "patzers armed with Chessmaster",
simply curled up into a ball and announced that he
would not analyze anymore! LOL Yet even in the old
days, players like world champions Lasker, Capablanca,
and Tal were known for playing fast chess or blindfold.
-- help bot
Sam Sloan
the Woman's World Championship four times and to have won the "Triple
Crown" of Woman's Chess.
I have been wondering where this claim came from. Now I have found it.
It is in the book "Queen of the King's Game" pages 55-57 and 218-219.
The Blitz and Rapid Play tournaments were held over three days in
Budapest in May 1992. They were organized by her father, Laszlo
Polgar. Every country in the world was sent invitations but only 24
players showed up. There were a few strong players. In addition to the
three Polgar sisters, there was Chiburdanidze, Galliamova and
Akakhamia.
On the other hand, none of the Chinese women, including the world
champion Xie Jun, came, nor did Cramling come.
These events were not reported in any chess magazine. The games are
not available in any chess database. The event was not rated or
reported by FIDE.
Anybody can organize a chess tournament and call it a "world
championship". It is up to the public to decide whether these are real
world championships or not.
Sam Sloan
samsloan
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/communications/news/stories/videos/susan-polgar-graduation.php
Do you think that when he said that she was the "winner of four
Woman's World Championships", that she was the winner of the Triple
Crown in Chess and that she won the Woman's World Championship in
2006, he realized that he realized that most of this was campaign
puffery?
Somebody should make a transcript of that short speech and then we
should count the many false statements there.
Sam Sloan
samsloan
Polgar thread resurrected from the burial grounds! [/quote]
Why do you question or object to this?
[/quote]
The objection is based on the fact that you are simply repeating the
attack that has been repeated ad nauseum. There is, or was, a clause
in the AUG about repetitious attacks, which this is.
For instance, I stopped bringing up the fact that you consistently mis-
state the facts about things such as [i]all financial records have
been lost/destroyed, etc...[/i][/quote]
Why do you object to me pointing out the fact that virtually all
financial records pre-dating the move to Crossville have been lost,
destroyed, misplaced or cannot be found. Even at the first meeting of
the new board on August 5, 2007, when asked about a certain document,
Bill Hall said that it was "in the landfill". Again, the tape of that
meeting has not been posted to the governance website, in violation of
the by-laws. That is why the rest of you cannot hear him make that
statement.
Sam Sloan
samsloan
in Palm Beach Gardens, thanks to Joel Channing, and set four world
records.
1) 326 Simultaneous Games Played
(309 wins, 14 draws, 3 losses = 96.93% in 16 hours and 30 minutes)
2) Most games won 309
3) Highest percentage 96.93%
4) 1,131 Consecutive Games[/quote]
The reason you do not hear much about that claim lately and it is not
mentioned in the speech by the provost is that it is disputed.
Check the Internet and you will see a lot of questions being raised
about that claim.
Of course, I was not there so I do not know if it was true or not.
Also, any of could have done it, if we had had the stamina to stay
awake that long. I think I could probably do it, provided that my
opponents were weak enough.
Sam Sloan
samsloan
the fact that virtually all financial records pre-dating the move to
quote]
First, I brought up the mis statements you make such as this one (by
the way, when you made your allegation, you stated that a USCF staffer
had taken some high school students with him and they had dumped the
records in a landfill somewhere between New York and Tennessee) with
the attendant supporting mis statements to show an instance where the
dead horse beating had ceased.
Second, the point being made is that your continued repetition of your
attacks upon P/T about their resume and claimed championships is, or
was, a violation of the AUG. This thread had lain dormant for five
months. The election has been over for four months. What motivation
can one have to bring it up now?[/quote]
First, I did not report that. I wrote that I had heard that.
By the way, Jerry Hanken and Don Schultz said that they had heard much
the same thing.
Next, are you really claiming that Susan Polgar won the Woman's World
Championship four times, that she Won the Triple Crown of chess, that
she was the first woman to play for the Overall World Chess
Championship and that she won the Woman's World Championship in 2006?
These are all statements made by the Provost with Susan standing next
to him. If you are claiming that all of this is true, can you document
where she won these events?
Sam Sloan
samsloan
one ("THE" women's world championship) but have cast doubt over the
other three: whether they were really held, whether she played in
them, whether they were recognized by FIDE, etc. We heard a lot of
outright lies about the subject together with all sorts of
distortions, half-truths, and innuendo.
Then Don Schultz, a political opponent, found an official FIDE
publication (an annual or something?, I'm having trouble finding it
using the forum search function for some reason) that mentioned the
FIRST championship that she won.
Now we see actual certificates from FIDE which actually use the term
"World Championship Winner" for these other two events -- pictures of
them where they are on display in her Father's house -- posted on her
blog. I'd like to know if any of the people would like to appologize
for claiming that these events had never taken place, that she hadn't
won them, that they weren't "real", etc. Sam, don't you and your
friends feel that you owe an appology?
Edit: Sorry, here are the URLs:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_Q0lTtPVTG40/Rn13XAKbirI/AAAAAAAAEQo/33uIrnfk9tc/s1600-h/Rapid+Women%27s+WC.jpg
http://bp3.blogger.com/_Q0lTtPVTG40/Rn127QKbiqI/AAAAAAAAEQg/SzCSbnLgfgw/s1600-h/Women%27s+Blitz+Championship.jpg
I tried to make this show up as images, but that didn't seem to work:
[img]http://bp3.blogger.com/_Q0lTtPVTG40/Rn127QKbiqI/AAAAAAAAEQg/
SzCSbnLgfgw/s1600-h/Women%27s+Blitz+Championship.jpg[/img][img]http://
bp2.blogger.com/_Q0lTtPVTG40/Rn13XAKbirI/AAAAAAAAEQo/33uIrnfk9tc/s1600-
h/Rapid+Women%27s+WC.jpg[/img][/quote]
What Don Schultz found was mention of the 1981 World Championship for
Girls Under-16, which was held in England. The significance of what
Don found is that the 1981 event is not generally recognized as an
official FIDE event. It was the 1982 event held in Dresden, Germany
that is generally considered to have been the first World Championship
for Girls Under-16. Susan Polgar did not win that one. Don Schultz
found an official FIDE publication which listed the 1981 event, so is
seems that FIDE recognized that one retroactively.
None of this addresses the question that Susan claims to have won the
"Woman's World Championship four times" and includes the 1981 event in
England as one of these four times but few people feel that winning a
tournament for girls under-16 is the same as winning the Woman's World
Championship.
Next, the two certificates you post are on the wall of Laszlo Polgar's
home in Budapest. I see the words "Melody Amber" on them. However,
Melody Amber is an organization that runs highly publicized blindfold
and rapid tournaments in Monaco. These events in Budapest in 1992 are
nowhere listed as Melody Amber tournaments. They are also not listed
anywhere in any list of FIDE tournaments. In fact, they are not listed
anywhere at all. I understand that Laszlo Polgar, Susan's father,
organized the 1992 event himself and had these certificates made. They
do not look like they were made at the time of the event. They were
probably made later. I do not know what those two illegible signatures
on the certificates are.
I do not see how two certificates on the wall of Laszlo Polgar's
private home in Budapest for an event that was no where reported in
the chess media and is not mentioned in any book, publication or
standard database of events can be considered for Susan's claim to
have won the "Woman's World Championship" at these two events.
Sam Sloan