BLafferty
2012-04-18 10:46:00 UTC
The following is extracted from a post yesterday on the USCF Issues Forum. It is an excellent summary of Polgar and Truong's methods of intimidation and behind the scenes machinations to promote her at the expense of others like Anna Hahan and a fellow candidate for the USCF board whom she tried to intimidate based on the candidate's sexual orientation.
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"In any case, I wish to be clear about my [Hal Bogner] own position. I personally observed a number of troubling things in the several years prior to the outbreak of serious hostilities between Polgar and USCF itself. The most serious of these was the handling of the 2004 women's olympiade team, which you can read about here:
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/200 ... ournam.htm
I also became aware through a combination of direct observation, second hand information, and simple analysis of both, that Polgar was intimidating USCF with threats of lawsuits of over a number of things that did not appear to be legitimate, such as demanding a ton of free advertising as "payment" for things that USCF had never promised to the 2004 silver medalists.
I was critical in my questioning during the 2007 EB election campaign period, as were others whose comments you can read here - some still visible in the USCF Issues forum, and some in the areas where pulled posts are stored. Initially, much of her behavior could be ascribed to her partner, but when Bill Hall brought to me her effort to blackmail a [g-a-y] candidate out of the election race, and she personally called Hall and put him on the spot with a lie that he called her on, and which she admitted to, it was clear that she was behaving viciously herself, too.
As is widely known, things did indeed get more vicious, and you can see the visible status of this today:
Gregory Alexander has made his plea deal and given over statements and evidence against her and her husband; this may eventually lead to federal perjury charges against her, if nothing else.
TTU is letting their five year contractual relationship end, and she is publicly criticizing them as she takes her entire group of recruits and heads to stand near Rex Sinquefield's light, as you can read here:
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/10/150372274 ... new-school
And her PR machine is grinding away again, now drawing in this publicist and the attendant chess volunteers in the Norfolk area, and aiming for the white house.
Note that the author of the CLO article acts exactly as Brian Lafferty describes, and the quality of his research, too.
Note that the author now has apparently severed her relationship with HHCF in favor of one with Polgar, and uses Polgar as her calling card as she does what ought to be work that should stand on its own otherwise very good merits in her area, too. Why run the risk of repeating all of the terrible kinds of things that happened to USCF and others, when there are so many honest and outstanding role models available - including such women as Irina Krush, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Zatonskih, and Jennifer Shahade? And why draw a new cast of upstanding USCF stalwarts, such as Ernie and Joan Schlich and other VCF folks, into a scene that could blow up in recrimination or worse, as you can see has happened before?
Note the initial comment on the NPR page:
Lisa Suhay (NiceChess757) wrote:
The White House honors all sorts of sports figures, but Ms. Polgar has never been invited by any sitting president. Even after she won 4 Olympic gold medals and repeated the Final Four victory as the first woman ever to coach a men's team to a national title. I hope President Obama ends this Presidential loosing streak by inviting Ms. Polgar et all to The White House soon.
Well, you can probably discern that most of Polgar's medals won in women's only international competition were won as a representative of Hungary. The only time she represented the US, in 2004, caused tremendous acrimony, as Ms. Polgar blackballed the 2003 US Women's Champion off the team. More acrimony followed, and between 2008 and 2010, Ms. Polgar was suing each of her fellow US Chess Federation executive board members personally, costing that organization over half a million dollars in litigation expense. Her publicist omits those items.
Yes, Ms. Polgar once played chess better than any other woman in the world, though she never reached the overall world top 100. Yes, she broke ground for her youngest sister, who crested in the world top 10, and is one of the most respected Grandmasters in the world today. But her bitter retreat from the very gender barrier she claims to have breached, and her inability to play well with others, is the real story here."
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I suppose one of the unknowns at this point relates to Ms. Suhay and her ability, o lack thereof, to examine the historic facts about Ms. Polgar and her husband. More history to come...........
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"In any case, I wish to be clear about my [Hal Bogner] own position. I personally observed a number of troubling things in the several years prior to the outbreak of serious hostilities between Polgar and USCF itself. The most serious of these was the handling of the 2004 women's olympiade team, which you can read about here:
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/200 ... ournam.htm
I also became aware through a combination of direct observation, second hand information, and simple analysis of both, that Polgar was intimidating USCF with threats of lawsuits of over a number of things that did not appear to be legitimate, such as demanding a ton of free advertising as "payment" for things that USCF had never promised to the 2004 silver medalists.
I was critical in my questioning during the 2007 EB election campaign period, as were others whose comments you can read here - some still visible in the USCF Issues forum, and some in the areas where pulled posts are stored. Initially, much of her behavior could be ascribed to her partner, but when Bill Hall brought to me her effort to blackmail a [g-a-y] candidate out of the election race, and she personally called Hall and put him on the spot with a lie that he called her on, and which she admitted to, it was clear that she was behaving viciously herself, too.
As is widely known, things did indeed get more vicious, and you can see the visible status of this today:
Gregory Alexander has made his plea deal and given over statements and evidence against her and her husband; this may eventually lead to federal perjury charges against her, if nothing else.
TTU is letting their five year contractual relationship end, and she is publicly criticizing them as she takes her entire group of recruits and heads to stand near Rex Sinquefield's light, as you can read here:
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/10/150372274 ... new-school
And her PR machine is grinding away again, now drawing in this publicist and the attendant chess volunteers in the Norfolk area, and aiming for the white house.
Note that the author of the CLO article acts exactly as Brian Lafferty describes, and the quality of his research, too.
Note that the author now has apparently severed her relationship with HHCF in favor of one with Polgar, and uses Polgar as her calling card as she does what ought to be work that should stand on its own otherwise very good merits in her area, too. Why run the risk of repeating all of the terrible kinds of things that happened to USCF and others, when there are so many honest and outstanding role models available - including such women as Irina Krush, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Zatonskih, and Jennifer Shahade? And why draw a new cast of upstanding USCF stalwarts, such as Ernie and Joan Schlich and other VCF folks, into a scene that could blow up in recrimination or worse, as you can see has happened before?
Note the initial comment on the NPR page:
Lisa Suhay (NiceChess757) wrote:
The White House honors all sorts of sports figures, but Ms. Polgar has never been invited by any sitting president. Even after she won 4 Olympic gold medals and repeated the Final Four victory as the first woman ever to coach a men's team to a national title. I hope President Obama ends this Presidential loosing streak by inviting Ms. Polgar et all to The White House soon.
Well, you can probably discern that most of Polgar's medals won in women's only international competition were won as a representative of Hungary. The only time she represented the US, in 2004, caused tremendous acrimony, as Ms. Polgar blackballed the 2003 US Women's Champion off the team. More acrimony followed, and between 2008 and 2010, Ms. Polgar was suing each of her fellow US Chess Federation executive board members personally, costing that organization over half a million dollars in litigation expense. Her publicist omits those items.
Yes, Ms. Polgar once played chess better than any other woman in the world, though she never reached the overall world top 100. Yes, she broke ground for her youngest sister, who crested in the world top 10, and is one of the most respected Grandmasters in the world today. But her bitter retreat from the very gender barrier she claims to have breached, and her inability to play well with others, is the real story here."
----------------------------------------------------
I suppose one of the unknowns at this point relates to Ms. Suhay and her ability, o lack thereof, to examine the historic facts about Ms. Polgar and her husband. More history to come...........