I really like some of the ideas behind a recent chessvibes article. The current FIDE administration has really sat on its hands in situations like the Women's World Championship debacle and the Kamsky-Topalov match issues. We definitely need to bring about change. I strongly encourage that you read the article that I've linked above - I'm just wondering if Judit will actually do it. Dare I mention that Susan might consider the option as well? Susan's popularity has outweighed major controversy and her fans remain for the most part loyal. Why not use that to take FIDE by storm?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even Susan Polgar is not immune. I read an article from Susan's Blog this morning about her new blog layout. I couldn't help but giggle at the little note as I read it because it's the same way I feel when I'm changing something with chessvine.

The previous layout of this blog was done a while back and it is not really so efficient with so much wasted space. Therefore, I decided to give it my amateur shot to "enhance" it. I personally find this layout a little easier to read and follow. I am not done yet as I am still playing with various features. But I hope you like the new format as well.

TeeHeeHee. Susan is such a consummate professional you'd never think of her taking an 'amateur shot' at anything. Even she's human I guess ... she just lends the appearance of a chess goddess.

Good luck with your changes, Susan. I look forward to the final result of Susan's Blog 2.0.

I hate to drag poor Susan through the mire but it seems she already has been and I'm just passing it along. It's interesting to note that the following article on Susan's legal entanglements appeared in the New York Times(!) but didn't appear in any chess media. Granted, it's not Chess Life article material but I haven't heard all these details in any chess forum or anything ... it's all very hush-hush. Anyway, I'm giving you the full NYT article because I think a blurb just won't lay the whole thing out for you:

Claims of Fake Web Postings Roil the Chess World
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: August 16, 2008

Chess can be something of a staid affair. But a dispute involving members of the governing chess organization in the United States has erupted into a legal fight that has all the passion of a Bobby Fischer tantrum.

There are claims of fake sexually charged Web site postings, stolen e-mail messages, and rival lawsuits, with one side alleging harassment and the other, slander. Even the Secret Service is looking into the situation.

The dispute began more than a year ago, when Samuel H. Sloan, a former member of the United States Chess Federation’s executive board, accused other federation members of using his name to post nasty remarks on two Internet bulletin boards devoted to the politics of the chess world.

One of the tamer examples supposedly from Mr. Sloan advertised the sale of an X-rated DVD.

An administrator of the federation’s Web site then placed a report in the group’s internal discussion forum saying that he had discovered that the person who had posted the items attributed to Mr. Sloan was almost certainly Paul Truong, who last year was elected, along with his wife, Susan Polgar, to the board.

Mr. Sloan, who lives in the Bronx, filed a federal lawsuit in Manhattan in October claiming harassment and seeking $20 million in damages. He named as defendants Mr. Truong, Ms. Polgar, the five other members of the federation board, the federation itself, several of the group’s officials and Texas Tech University, where Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong work. The lawsuit contends that the remarks were posted in an effort to defame Mr. Sloan and defeat him in his bid for re-election to the board. He was defeated.

Mr. Truong said on Saturday that he did not post comments in Mr. Sloan’s name on the Web. The federation hired Karl S. Kronenberger, a San Francisco lawyer, to look into claims that Mr. Truong had faked the postings.

Then, in late June, Ms. Polgar, in e-mail messages with the board and on a chess forum Web site, quoted from confidential e-mail messages between Mr. Kronenberger and a litigation subcommittee set up by the federation. In one message, posted on several Web sites, including a chess politics bulletin board, Mr. Kronenberger outlined strategies that included ways to persuade Mr. Truong to resign. In January, the board had asked Mr. Truong to resign, and he refused.

Both Mr. Truong and Ms. Polgar have denied intercepting internal federation e-mail messages.

Mr. Kronenberger said that he asked Ms. Polgar how she had seen the e-mail messages, and that she declined to answer. Ms. Polgar said in an interview on Saturday, “The messages were public knowledge; they were on the Internet.”

On June 25, the federation, contending that the e-mail messages had been stolen, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court seeking subpoenas for Internet service providers to turn over the Internet protocol addresses that had been used to gain access to the board’s e-mail accounts. The federation was also seeking to take depositions from Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong about the issue.

Mr. Kronenberger said that the service providers provided the Internet protocol addresses. He said he believed that the unauthorized access to the e-mail between him and the litigation subcommittee, in addition to compromising attorney-client privilege in the case, constituted wire fraud. He said he had turned the information provided by the Internet service providers over to federal authorities.

Edwin Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, which investigates certain instances of wire fraud, said the case had been referred to its field office in San Francisco.

On Aug. 7, Ms. Polgar, a former women’s world chess champion, filed a lawsuit claiming libel, slander and business disparagement, among other things, in a state district court in Lubbock, Tex. She named as defendants Mr. Sloan, the federation, four of its members, and a number of other people involved in the case.

The suit claims that Mr. Sloan and others tried to damage her credibility with Texas Tech, which last year created the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence. “They have made a concerted effort to harm me, my family and my career,” Ms. Polgar said on Saturday.

Mr. Sloan called Ms. Polgar’s suit “entirely frivolous,” and said he had never contacted Texas Tech or the Lubbock police about her or her husband.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 17, 2008, on page A30 of the New York edition.