Susan Polgar

[Jack Maguire]

Susan Polgar has won the Furman Symeon medal, the first American winner of any of FIDE's 6 coaching medals.

http://www.websterkirkwoodtimes.com/...#axzz36WE0Rdth

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Susan Polgar

Susan should get the Rudyard Kipling medal for being positive when all around her are so negative. I love her positiveness. It's a pity more aren't like her.

[Caesar Posylek]

Re: Susan Polgar

Congratulations to Susan on that occasion!

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Susan Polgar

Susan Polgar is only one of St. Louis 'girls' highlighted in this St. Louis Public Radio news item.

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/...st-louis-girls

[Andy Shaw]

Re: Susan Polgar

Susan should get the Rudyard Kipling medal for being positive when all around her are so negative. I love her positiveness. It's a pity more aren't like her.

Hi Nigel, what exactly is the Rudyard Kipling medal?

[Ken Craft]

Re: Susan Polgar

I think he is alluding to Kiplin's poem "If"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If—



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Susan Polgar

I think he is alluding to Kiplin's poem "If"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


If—

I love that poem. It is very useful in the context of chess politics.

I have used excerpts of it in materials to help the kids prepare for a major tournament.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Susan Polgar

Yes I had to recite that poem in grade three and am the better for it.

[Gordon Ritchie]

Re: Susan Polgar

Congratulations to Susan Polgar. A very classy person standing out in the world of chess.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Susan Polgar

My sentiments exactly.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Susan Polgar

Hi Nigel, what exactly is the Rudyard Kipling medal?

Ken is correct; I only meant to credit Susan Polgar with some of the virtues described in Kipling's famous poem.

Comparing can be very odious, but sometimes insightful; just compare the small-minded remarks of Nigel Short while he was covering chess in Tromso at the World Cup with the remarks that Susan made. Not only did she set the bar very high for chess journalism, and bring out the character of her interviewees (by putting them at ease, etc.), but she also showed a dogged determination to be positive (without being blindly optimistic like some Pollyanna). OTOH, Short's remarks seemed just snobbish, mean-spirited, and seemed to revolve around endless put-downs of others. This was supposed to pass for humour.

One thing that Susan did that I had never seen before from a chess commentator of her caliber was the way she peppered her remarks with comments aimed at virtual chess beginners. Confident artists do this; they share a little of their art and by so doing make it interesting for newbies. This is awareness of her audience and shows some thought about what's she's saying. She was a man among boys and I mean that in the best possible way. This is how chess will grow .. with people like her.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Susan Polgar

Nigel thanks for explaining it so well. So many people I talk to still dont get her commentary style - whats not to understand?

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: Susan Polgar

... So many people I talk to still don't get her commentary style - what's not to understand?

One school of thought has high expectations, and doesn't mind if people get left behind, "too bad!", and another school of thought looks back and offers a little helping hand, and such, and assists the whole caravan moving forward together. I think more women than men would think the latter way as well ... so there's another reason, if you needed one, why more women in chess is a good thing.

Supplemental: I was particularly impressed with how Susan Polgar handled that Ukrainian (Koborov, maybe?) GM in the final four or eight at Tromso; his name escapes me but I thought he was going to have a breakdown or episode on the spot. Polgar "talked him down" like an expert mental health professional and, I suppose, showed something of the mental stress that top players are under as well. That's a high level of interpersonal intelligence (see Howard Gardner) and contradicts an old stereotype of chess players wonderfully.

[Vlad Drkulec]

Re: Susan Polgar

Ken is correct; I only meant to credit Susan Polgar with some of the virtues described in Kipling's famous poem.

Comparing can be very odious, but sometimes insightful; just compare the small-minded remarks of Nigel Short while he was covering chess in Tromso at the World Cup with the remarks that Susan made. Not only did she set the bar very high for chess journalism, and bring out the character of her interviewees (by putting them at ease, etc.), but she also showed a dogged determination to be positive (without being blindly optimistic like some Pollyanna). OTOH, Short's remarks seemed just snobbish, mean-spirited, and seemed to revolve around endless put-downs of others. This was supposed to pass for humour.

One thing that Susan did that I had never seen before from a chess commentator of her caliber was the way she peppered her remarks with comments aimed at virtual chess beginners. Confident artists do this; they share a little of their art and by so doing make it interesting for newbies. This is awareness of her audience and shows some thought about what's she's saying. She was a man among boys and I mean that in the best possible way. This is how chess will grow .. with people like her.

I couldn't agree with you more.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Susan Polgar

Here's the same news item I posted 3 days ago but now with a TV component.

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local...irls/12556685/