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By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN Published: January 3, 2009
Chess may be genteel, but a rift among the board members of the United States Chess Federation, the game’s governing body, has led to a series of lawsuits that has all the bad blood of a professional wrestling rivalry. The cases involve sexually explicit Web postings, accusations of stolen e-mail messages and allegations of harassment and slander.
In the latest twist, the federation filed a lawsuit last week in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in Illinois seeking the removal of Susan Polgar and Paul Truong, who are married, from its board.
The suit says that Ms. Polgar stole e-mail messages between board members and a lawyer hired by the federation. It also says that Mr. Truong posted obscene and defamatory messages on the Internet about members of the federation, and that he misrepresented his business background when he ran for the board last year. As evidence, the lawsuit includes a personal bankruptcy filing by Mr. Truong from June 2007, just before he and Ms. Polgar were elected.
Ms. Polgar’s lawyer, Whitney Leigh, said on Friday that the lawsuit should be thrown out because it was not authorized by the full board, on which Ms. Polgar and her husband still sit.
The dispute began in October 2007 when Samuel H. Sloan, a former board member, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan that accused Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong of writing the obscene and defamatory Internet messages, many of which were posted using Mr. Sloan’s name.
Among the tamer postings was one advertising the sale of a bogus sexually explicit DVD of Mr. Sloan’s wife. Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong have denied writing the postings.
Mr. Sloan, who said the postings were meant to ensure his defeat when he ran for re-election to the board in 2007, also named the federation as a defendant. His lawsuit was dismissed in August by Judge Denny Chin, who ruled that the court lacked “subject matter jurisdiction.” Mr. Sloan, who lost his re-election bid, has appealed.
Before the suit was dismissed, the federation hired Karl S. Kronenberger, a San Francisco lawyer, to look into the claims that Mr. Truong had made the postings.
In late June, Ms. Polgar, in e-mail messages to 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, Mr. Kronenberger outlined strategies that included ways to persuade Mr. Truong to resign. Both Mr. Truong and Ms. Polgar have denied intercepting federation e-mail messages.
Mr. Kronenberger has 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 in August that “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 to force Internet service providers to turn over the protocol addresses that had been used to gain access to the board’s e-mail accounts.
Based on the responses it received to the subpoenas, the federation amended its lawsuit in October, naming as defendants Ms. Polgar and Gregory Alexander, who has managed Ms. Polgar’s chess discussion Web site. The federation sought an injunction to stop the two from unlawfully accessing e-mail accounts of the federation and its employees.
In August, Ms. Polgar filed a lawsuit in Lubbock, Tex., where she lives, against the federation, four of its board members and other members of the federation, claiming libel, slander and “business disparagement.”
In the filing last week, the federation included information supplied by United Online, an Internet service provider, that listed a Paul Truong as the account holder of the protocol addresses used to create some of the obscene postings.
In an e-mail message on Friday about the dispute, Mr. Truong said: “Not much I can say other than it is the same group which conspires to libel and defame Susan for their political gains. We will be vindicated in court.”
Aunque este tema no tiene que ver directamente con el ajedrez en Puerto Rico si se relaciona con la promoción de Puerto Rico como centro turístico y que mejor que apreciar las bellezas naturales de Puerto Rico en un viaje de vacaciones y a la misma vez pasar un fin de semana jugando ajedrez. Fomentemos a Puerto Rico como destino turístico por sus bellezas naturales, sus bosques, sus playas, sus hoteles y su gente y aprovechamos para fomentar que se juegue ajedrez.
El Yunque es una maravilla... Vota por el Yunque
La Compañía de Turismo de Puerto Rico (CTPR) puso en marcha una nueva campaña para que el bosque nacional El Yunque se convierta en una de las próximas "Siete maravillas del mundo", cuya selección semifinal culminará el próximo 7 de julio.
El director ejecutivo de la CTPR, Jaime López, explicó en una rueda de prensa que la campaña "El Yunque tiene que ser una Maravilla", ayudará a que el bosque esté entre las primeras once posiciones del grupo "E" o "Bosques, parques nacionales y reservas naturales".
López exhortó a todas las personas “a seguir votando por nuestra maravilla natural para asegurar estar entre las primeras once posiciones en su categoría y pasar a la segunda ronda”.
El funcionario explicó que para participar del proceso de votación la persona solo requiere tener acceso a la Internet y poseer una cuenta de correo electrónico para confirmar su voto.
Para votar, Turismo creó el portal cibernético www.votaporelyunque.com que brinda orientación al usuario de cómo votar por ese bosque tropical lluvioso. Mediante ese portal se da acceso a la página oficial de la competencia internacional de las “Siete Maravillas” para que se pueda efectuar la votación.
Turismo también estableció el número telefónico: 1-877-Yunque 1 que es libre de cargos, para orientar a las personas y el personal puede ayudarles a efectuar la votación y luego de recibir la confirmación en su correo electrónico, solo tiene que aceptar la misma.
Otro número de teléfono donde pueden llamar es al 787-724-2800 ó al 787-412-7323.
La página oficial para escogerlo es www.new7wonders.com.
