Only 99,457 Signatures to Go **UPDATED**
I received an email from my former employer, World Chess (Agon), with Exciting News! Yes, truly! Here it is:
US President Will Meet the Challenger to the World Championship Title (If You Want Him To!)
More:
Dear Friends,
Chess fans from the US contacted us with an idea: to petition Donald Trump to invite Fabiano Caruana, the challenger to the Title, to the White House before the World Chess Championship Match that takes place in London in November.
They published a petition today in support of this proposal at the White House’ petitions page. According to the rules, if the petition is signed by over 100,000 in 30 days, the Administration will review and possibly grant it.We are totally supporting the idea, not only because it would be a really strong sign of support for the sport and because it would create additional attention to the Match which is already creating headlines, but also because we feel that we actually can make it happen!
If we take all of the chess community combined, it surely will be more than a 100,000 members -- it’s millions!
If you would like to see Fabiano Caruana at the White House before the Championship Match in November, please support and sign the petition.
Please share it on Social Media: #CaruanaInTheWhiteHouse
Three potential problems:
1. It doesn't say that the petition will be granted, only that it's possible that the White House will grant it.
2. I don't know Fabiano Caruana's politics. Maybe he wouldn't want to meet with President Trump?!
3. With three and a half weeks to go, only 543 signatures have been received, leaving 99,457 signatures to go.
Okay, chess fans, let's do this for Caruana and for the sake of chess. Love President Trump, hate him, whatever - it doesn't matter. We're doing it to promote the game, and to demonstrate that we chess players have some power when it comes to social media. Heck, if any of you know someone who knows someone who knows a Kardashian or some other big celebrity, we can get it done in a day or two. Norwegians: have Magnus Carlsen ask Liv Tyler to promote it. We can do it!
(Yes, I'm being slightly tongue-in-cheek, but with or without the irony it would be fun to make this happen, and the publicity would be good for chess.)
**UPDATE**
Some further thoughts and comments:
1. I think the publicity would be good for chess. Depending on how Caruana handles it, however, it might not be good for him. That's probably not how it should be - it should be fine for him to accept the honor not as coming from Donald Trump, the man, but as coming from the duly-elected President.
2. World Chess isn't covering itself with glory in the wording of the petition. In addition to the semi-incorrect "B.Fischer" (without a space and arguably using the wrong initial(s)), I've noticed at least three factual errors in the second paragraph of the petition. ("Since 1975, when World Champion B.Fischer resigned his title, an American chess player have never had a chance to become the World Champion. In 2018, Brooklyn-born Fabiano Caruana won the Candidates Tournament and earned the right to fight for the Championship title against Magnus Carlsen in a Match in London in Nov 2018.") Impressive! Let's see who can find the three errors the fastest.
3. As alluded to in the first update comment, and reflected in the comments so far, Trump is a polarizing figure. (To put it mildly. In fact, it's bizarre that commenters thus far find the idea of Caruana having a White House photo-op far more repugnant than they did Sergey Karjakin's running around with a pro-Putin tee shirt and making pro-Putin comments. Just for starters: Trump, for all his flaws, hasn't annexed parts - significant parts, at that - of two countries.) I generally prefer to keep politics out of the blog, even if the opinions expressed square with my own. Politics are important, but not so important that every bit of life must pass through its grinder. I'll make a bit of an exception this time, but with some restrictions. First, Trump = Hitler comments will be blocked. Don't waste your time (or mine). Second, please be respectful of and to those you disagree with. It doesn't imply that you agree with their views.
What would be interesting is to try to determine a threshold beyond which meeting with a political figure might be inappropriate. Let's say a strong pro-life advocate is invited to the White House during the administration of a strongly pro-choice President for something having nothing to do with the invitee's politics. (Maybe it's a situation like this, or a member of a national championship-winning sports team, or a great musician or scientist.) Should the recipient turn down the invitation? Alternatively, he could go in recognition that the honor is not so much from the particular man as it is from the man as president. Or he could go, and later thank the POTUS for the honor while noting that there are nevertheless strong areas of disagreement between the two. Relatedly: should the U.S. Olympic Team have boycotted the Berlin games in 1936, or was it good for them to go and have Jesse Owens and others burst the myth of the Aryan "superman"? Was the U.S. right to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, or did it just deprive hundreds of athletes from participating in something they had worked for for most of their lives? The aim isn't to debate those particular examples, but to use them to help formulate a more interesting position than "Trump is evil, and anyone who signs the petition is a Nazi sympathizer."
4. It wouldn't be as effective, publicity-wise, but it would still be a good thing for U.S. chess and less politically charged for Caruana to receive some sort of commendation from Congress. That sort of thing has been done before, so readers might drop their congressmen and women a note.
5. Only 99,454 signatures to go. The more realistic question is whether the petition will even get 1,000 signatories.