Election analysis by a major chess source

About.com is one of the most popular websites in the world. It is usually ranked around the top 100 most popular websites on this planet. There is a recent column about the upcoming USCF election.

Issues on the Chess Table : 2007 USCF Executive Board Election
From Mark Weeks,
Your Guide to Chess

...The list presents an unusually well qualified set of candidates, although all have their pluses and minuses. Each candidate received space to make a statement in the USCF's Chess Life for the months of April, May, and June.

...One of the features making the 2007 election unusually interesting is the candidacy of GM Susan Polgar. Mrs. Polgar is one-third of the famous chess playing Polgar sisters, a former Women's World Champion, an active organizer for scholastic chess (particularly for girls), a mother of two children, and a blogger who posts 10-15 items per day on her personal chess blog. Not since the heyday of Bobby Fischer have Americans seen such a strong chess personality with such an intense devotion to the game.

Polgar announced her candidacy in December 2006, along with a 'slate' consisting of Truong, Bauer, and Korenman (see I WILL run for the 2007 USCF Executive Board) with the words, 'I love chess and I cannot stand what some chess politicians have done to US Chess and the USCF. We HAVE to do better!'

In May 2007, she announced her marriage to Truong. The announcement took many observers by surprise.

...The About Chess choices: At About Chess, we have an interest in the future of chess in general, and the future of American chess in particular. We like and appreciate what both Susan Polgar and Bill Goichberg have done for the game in the United States. It pains us that they are at loggerheads in this election.

We also realize that Truong is the marketing and promotional mastermind behind Polgar's media success. While his efforts have been concentrated on his good friend (now spouse), rather than on the broad community of professional chess players, we feel that he should be given the opportunity to work his media magic for the benefit of all USCF members.

We don't like 'slates'. It isn't healthy to have four people with different backgrounds and objectives band together to create a 4-3 voting majority on a seven member board. For this reason, we prefer to look at what the other eight candidates have done for the good of chess.
After having spent some time learning about the candidates, our choices for election to the USCF Executive Board are Polgar, Truong, Bauer, and Schultz.

Bauer has a financial background and already served on the EB for one year, when he was elected to replace a member who resigned after the 2003 election. Schultz is a long time insider who knows everything and everybody connected to chess politics.

More can be read on chess.about.com website. Even without this election, check out this website. I highly recommend it.

Source: chess.about.com