by Susan Polgar
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
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