More questions for the USCF

Bill,

Thank you for your response. However, your response does not address my original question. In addition, IM John Donaldson clearly stated that he was asked to take over this task by you on June 10th. Why did the USCF wait so long before sending out invitations to players?

In addition, John said the following:

"With no previous Mind Sports Olympiad invitation criteria to go by, I stuck with something simple. I invited the top ten men and women on the July 2008 USCF rating list. This produced a few positive responses, but I ended up having to go to numbers 20-30 to eventually complete the teams."

On the bottom of this email, John showed us the list of the top 10 players according to the July 2008 list. When he did not get enough response, he then went further down the list to number 30.

Could you please then explain the following:

Individual Men:

Blitz and Rapid
Shabalov Alex, Akobian Varuzhan and Friedel Josh.

Individual Women:

Blitz and Rapid
Krush Irina (only blitz), Shahade Jennifer, Abby Marshall (only Rapid) and Zenyuk Iryna.

Pair events: Irina Krush and David Pruess

Men's team: Alex Shabalov, Eugene Perelshteyn, Josh Friedel Jesse Kraai and Dmitry Schneider

Women's team: Iryna Zenyuk, Cindy Tsai, Abby Marshall, Chouchanik Airapetian and Shirley Ben-Dak

This was posted on the USCF website. According to USCF's own MSA, Jennifer Shahade last played in 2004 while my last event took place in 2006. Why is there a different standard for me? Why did one get an invitation and one did not?

We cannot have things work both ways. If I am not qualified because of the activity requirement then how come another player who also did not meet this requirement received the invitation and I did not? And if the activity requirement does not apply in a blitz and rapid event (since this is clearly not the Olympiad or US / US Women's Championship) then why was I not invited?

You responded by saying: "Susan, I apologize that you feel that you were unfairly treated regarding this. I can assure you that there was no slight intended to you." So if that is the case, how do you explain what happened?

Thank you.
Susan Polgar

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In a message dated 7/25/2008 5:34:39 P.M. Central Daylight Time, bhall@uschess.org writes:

All,

John Donaldson is not at fault in any way for any perceived errors on this issue. John put a tremendous amount of effort into this project and deserves all of our appreciation. Susan, I apologize that you feel that you were unfairly treated regarding this. I can assure you that there was no slight intended to you.

Regards,
Bill Hall
Executive Director
United States Chess Federation
P.O. Box 3967Crossville, TN 38557-3967
Phone: (931) 787-1234
Fax: (931) 787-1200

1 Kamsky, Gata (12528459) NY USA 2782
2 Nakamura, Hikaru (12641216) NY USA 2747
3 Onischuk, Alexander (12625186) VA USA 2725
4 Shabalov, Alexander (12544264) PA USA 2704
5 Ehlvest, Jaan (12514557) NY USA 2687
6 Seirawan, Yasser (10509459) WA USA 2685
7 Kaidanov, Gregory (12543746) KY USA 2682
8 Shulman, Yury (12741541) IL USA 2673
9 Christiansen, Larry M (10460921) MA USA 2670
10 Akobian, Varuzhan (12740522) CA USA 2666
11 Benjamin, Joel (10102511) NJ USA 2646

1 Krush, Irina (12543137) NY USA 2530
2 Zatonskih, Anna (12873912) NY USA 2490
3 Goletiani, Rusudan (12807449) NY USA 2384
4 Baginskaite, Camilla (12716466) CA USA 2342
5 Rohonyan, Katerine (12973020) MD USA 2322
6 Abrahamyan, Tatev (12851435) CA USA 2294
7 Tuvshintugs, Batchimeg (12925481) CA USA 2290
8 Melekhina, Alisa (12726115) PA USA 2286
9 Battsetseg, Tsagaan (12719650) MD USA 2251
10 Ross, Laura R (12630804) NY USA 2216
Zenyuk, Iryna (12846035) NY USA 2216