On her blog Natalia Pogonina has posted an article from her sport.ru live online interview. Viwewers could send their questions and her answers were happily published real-time.

From that interview I'd like to point out a few interesting answers:

Q: Whom were you rooting for at the World Championship? Why? (Traglodit)

A: I can't say I was actively rooting for someone, but I like Topalov's agressive and risky style.



This answer made me giggle for one basic reason. I was rooting for Anand the entire match. I think Natalia just had to be different from me.

Q: Do you like clubs and hanging out? (Oleg Haliulin)

.A: Rarely visit them, I am not a fan of clubbing.

Only in chess would such a question be asked in an open forum. Why is it we suffer such peculiarities?

Q: If you became FIDE President, what would you change? (Andrey Santalov)

A: Stabilize the World Championship cycle. Find respectable sponsors. Promote chess in the media, including TV and Internet. Expanding the geography of top events. Serious and constant work connected with the support of developing (in the chess sense) countries. Becoming part of the Olympics. Changing the rating system.

I like all of these ideas (well, actually the last two I really have no opinion of because it doesn't seem to matter all that much). I think if she were running for office i'd probably be singing her praises right now but, alas, to my knowledge she isn't a candidate ... it just goes to show that those who are most interested in what's good for chess are busy playing.

Natalia, I know you or Peter are gonna read this so here's my personal message to you: A very well answered interview altogether. Steering clear of those questions that really had no place and being prepared for the obvious (women in chess, having a family) questions. And most importantly, staying far away from the political questions. At any rate, it's always good to hear from you and you're doing all the right things to publicize yourself on the internet. I'd like to think I've helped pave the way for chess professionals to use the internet as a marketting tool but people like yourself deserve all the credit for having the sense to latch onto the idea and run with it!

That's it folks. There's no more of my commentary for the day. Go play some good chess.

Check out the recent article from Chessbase for a little unbridled journalism. I found here several articles I had been unable to locate so you should find it helpful in sorting out your opinion on the upcoming FIDE election as well.