July 18, 2007
TO: His Excellency Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President
Copy: Georgios Makropoulos, Geoffrey Borg, Ignatius Leong, Boris Kutin, Jorge Vega, Bessel Kok
Dear Mr. President,
I am writing to you for a special request. As you know, Women’s Chess is a subject very dear to my heart and I am working very hard to promote chess for young female players in America. I am glad to see many strong young female players today and I hope to see many more earning the grandmaster title and breaking the 2600 rating mark in the near future. This would be wonderful and it can give a big boost for chess overall.
However, I would like to see FIDE recognizing some of our pioneers, especially Vera Menchik, who was well ahead of her time. Since we already award the Grandmaster title to Women’s World Champions, I propose to have this policy apply to all previous Women’s World Champions, starting with Vera Menchik.
I understand that this is purely a symbolic gesture, as none of them are with us today. Nevertheless, I think that it is the right thing to do.
Thank you for considering my request.
Sincerely,
Susan Polgar
I agree. It is the right thing to do.
Whatfor?
i mean: why?
Great idea! Thanks for pushing the idea forward.
Bravo! You’re the true leader and ambassador for chess.
By ‘we’ I presume you mean ‘FIDE’? Do FIDE award GM titles to Women’s World Champions automatically: I was not aware that they do or ever did.
FIDE has done that since the 80’s.
if they do this then nobel prize should be awarded to mahatma gandhi too……
This is a really silly idea. If Menchik was posthumously awarded the GM title it would suggest that she was of a similar level to the original 27 players who were awarded the title in 1950 (Menchik was, of course, long dead by then).
She wasn’t that good, she was much weaker than the leading male players of the day, I think her highest position in the chessmetrics list is 42.
To award half a dozen weaker players of the past the title of Grandmaster would cheapen it considerably.
I don’t even like the WGM and WIM titles. I think they set women’s sites too low. Many women players have shown that they can become a genuine GM or IM over the board, why have these silly women’s titles? It just encourages the idea that women are weaker players than me, so let’s make their titles easier to achieve.
I like this idea a lot. It’s unfair to award the GM title to some wwc and not others.
Susan is right on! Go Susan!
Please let us know what Kirsan say about this.
Jon,
Clearly many Grandmasters today are weaker than the original 27 GMs from 1950. OK there’s been some development in theory, particularly opening theory, but so what!? Jon are you a Grandmaster? Perhaps Menchik deserves the GM title as much as some of today’s ‘weaker (for lack of a better word)’Grandmasters.
Mark
Jon,
Clearly many Grandmasters today are weaker than the original 27 GMs from 1950. OK there’s been some development in theory, particularly opening theory, but so what!? Jon are you a Grandmaster? Perhaps Menchik deserves the GM title as much as some of today’s ‘weaker (for lack of a better word)’Grandmasters.
Mark
Good idea.
Here is a key point by Susan:
>Since we already award the
>Grandmaster title to Women’s World
>Champions…
FIDE may agree, but they may decide to use the term “Honorary GM” (Honorary International Grandmaster)
Jon is quite right; this is a really silly idea. And in fact, the automatic granting of the GM title to the Women’s World Champion is also a silly rule which should be repealed. The GM title should be awarded strictly on merit and not be dependent on gender or race.
Curiously, the philosophy behind this request is the exact opposite of your sister Judit’s in refusing to play in women’s only tournaments.
I agree with you on most things, Susan, but on this one, no.
And, unfortunately, you make Ilyumzhinov look good if he refuses your request.
I think I agree with Jon about the GM title. Vera Menchik was a great pioneer but women’s chess in her era was nowhere near where it is today. Becoming Womens’ World Champion today really requires playing at GM strength, so awarding the GM title to the WWC is perfectly fine. In Menchik’s day, there was nowhere near the cultural encouragement for women to become top-level players as there is now, and the Women’s World Championship was at best an IM-strength event. Of course, even now, things are still not so great in chess culture, and there is surely further progress to be made, til we reach the day that women and men are represented in about equal numbers in every level of chess including the very top.
I’m fine with the idea of restricted titles (WIM, WGM) continuing to be available since they address the current imbalance in the culture, which cannot be waved away with a gesture. It will take a long time to overcome. But once the imbalance does go away, then we can look at getting rid of the special titles.
IT’s a bad idea
It is not correct to refer to Mr Ilyumzhinov, in his role as President of FIDE (a sporting body) as ‘His Excellency’.
I’m not saying Miss Menchik doesn’t deserve the GM title!!! But then we can go on and on…
For example, Nimzowitsch REALLY deserves that title too!! ….
Agree with some of the above. Awarding a title to someone just because of their gender is not on.
The titles of WGM and WIM are also a waste of space. Women are perfectly capable of taking on men in chess on an equal footing – as has been been proved by yourself, judit and others, Humpy etc etc.
The very though of tournament or titles for certain genders only is wrong – isn’t this what you fought against in Hungary so many years ago. If I was to arrange a tournament/title for wasps only I could claim that it is an inclusive tournament for certain category of player but in effect it would be racist and discriminatory.
Titles should be granted on the basis of earning them over the board with a certain rating.
we should be consistent and give women awards and priveleges in chess based on gender, not ability.
I should remind you that the world junior champion (male) is also awarded the GM title (although nowdays he ussually is already).
It is not only for women. (Similarly nowdays most women world champions do deserve to be GM).
I accept a crtic to all those “honorary” titles, but not particular for women.
Finally, it would be a symbolic move that would inspire and motivate (a litle bit) the develpment of female chess. And I really believe that being a women and professional chess player must have been quite a difficult thing at her age!
What for did you ask ? Well, I guess it would give chess playing a more ” womanly ” feel.