The Dresden Olympiad finished nearly 2 weeks ago but there are still plenty of buzz surrounding Ivanchuk and Carlsen.

1. Ivanchuk refused to take a FIDE dope test and he is now at risk of being banned for 2 years in addition to having his results at the Olympiad erased. If FIDE goes ahead with this, the U.S. Open team will lose its Bronze medal and the Hungarian will get the Bronze instead. No one wants to see this happen as it is unfair and bad for chess.

2. Magnus Carlsen dropped out of the Grand Prix. This is not good news because he is one of the most exciting players in the world today. Even at a young age of 18, he is already a superstar! Let’s see how this will play out.

The other big news is FIDE made changes in the World Championship format and the bidding procedure for the 2009-2011 World Championship cycle is announced.

In the home front, the USCF got hit with another lawsuit while the federation is losing big money once again. Even though I am a board member, Mr. Bill Hall (ED), Mr. Bill Goichberg (President), Mr. Jim Berry (VP), Mr. Randy Bauer (VP of Finance), Mr. Randy Hough (Secretary), and the USCF did not inform me of this lawsuit.

I only found out about it 3 weeks after it happened (thanks to an email by a USCF member in the Midwest). This is not the first time that important and serious matters are being selectively hidden from members and some board members. More about this and other lawsuits later…

It’s Saturday Open Forum. The forum is yours. What would you like to discuss?

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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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