Red arrow is Mr. Frank Berry and the Blue arrow is his twin brother Jim Berry. This was taken at the NY City Mayor’s Cup last year
The following was posted by USCF President Bill Goichberg:
The USCF Executive Board has approved a bid by Frank K. Berry to hold the Frank K. Berry US Championship May 15-23, 2007 as a 9-round Swiss at the Holiday Inn in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The vote was 3-1 with Sloan opposed and Channing and Marinello abstaining.
At least $65,000 will be available for prizes and/or player expenses; it has not yet been determined whether money towards expenses will be paid separately, or in the form of prizes to all players. Frank K. Berry has contributed $50,000 and may raise or donate more, and USCF has committed to raising or donating $15,000.
If enough money is available, it is possible that the top two players in the Swiss will qualify for a match to be played in Stillwater several months later to decide the US Champion. Whether or not this format will be used has not yet been decided.
It is expected that at least 34 players will compete in this event, the 31 who qualified according to procedures previously announced by America’s Foundation for Chess when that group planned to be the sponsor and three “wildcard” players, probably local, to be named by the organizing committee. It is also possible that additional “wildcard” spots will be offered to any player willing to pay a very high entry fee (probably in five figures) to compete; an announcement regarding this fee may be made soon.
The Tournament Directors will be Frank K. Berry, Jim Berry, and Alex Relyea, all of whom are donating their services. The organizing committee consists of Frank K. Berry, Jim Berry, John Donaldson, Bill Goichberg, Bill Hall, and Jerry Hanken.
Bill Goichberg
It would be interesting to know on what grounds Sam Sloan opposed the motion.
Sam will oppose anyone who doesn’t agree with him. This is the guy who helped the USCF lose the $250,000 sponsorship by the AF4C for the US Championship. This is the same guy who insults sponsors and players. He called Michael Aigner a patzer. But we have Hal Bogner of chessmagnetschool.com supporting this wacko Sloan. Brilliant!
Why does everything have to be about Hal Bogner? Who gives a damn about Bogner? I’m personally sick of hearing his name anyway. But this thread has nothing to do with Bogner. If you don’t like him, don’t deal with him. I don’t trust the guy with a 10 foot poll but that’s only my take.
I hope Sloan won’t chase away another sponsor. This guy needs to be in an institution.
Congratulations to all involved to making this event happen!
I hope the games are available over the Net for us to watch real-time.
If I can win the Mega Millions jackpot, I’ll be playing too.
I propose The Actual Champ plays a Match against This years Champ and that way we all have a Tour Champ as well as a Match and absolute champ. All this of course will involve a financial issue but I think It’s worth the try for the good of chess in the USA. One thing it worries me though, the Tour champ it’s more circumstancial than a Match Champ and the Match could not be between the strongests players. Any Ideas?
I’m glad the event did not get canceled, but is anyone else scratching their heads? Is the top pro chess tournament in the US going to have a 50k prize fund and take place in Stillwater, Oklahoma? *Snore*
Sloan opposes it? Probably a good thing then. In all honest though, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the Berry brothers at one of the Lindsburg opens and they were both very nice, well-intentioned people.
The thing about the fees is absurd and embarrassing for a national championship. Yet at the same time it is understandable given the present state of US Chess.
is there a list of qualifers somewhere?
Lets see:
They should give about $2000.00 to each player for expenses (30 in all) and then have Steakhouse gift certificates to award to the US Champion and a free membership to the ICC for a year and a copy of Deep Fritz.
Gata Kamsky’s decision to become a lawyer seems pretty smart after this announcement.
I don’t think we will be able to get Kramnik or many top players for this tournament with this prize fund.
If they maybe made a sincere effort to get Booby Fischer to play in this event maybe they could revive chess in the United States. Even in a small town like this Bobby Fischer’s name would bring headlines. Otherwise it will draw a lot of no-name players and not even make a dent in the press. I bet also, with Bobby Fischer in the tournament the USCF could raise more money than they ever dreamed of! Someone should go to Iceland and try to make some effort – it is a national waste to have him over there. 🙁
Bobby Fischer renounced his American citizenship in order to try to stay out of jail. The USA has not treated him well. Why should he risk prison to help out.
I dont think it matters where the US Championship is held the best players will show up to win.
I am grateful to the Berry brothers for helping chess to stage this event. I guess Sam Sloan has now cost Berry $50,000 donation to help out chess that the uscf would not have needed if sam was locked in his bathroom permanently.
This is a one time patch job. I doubt that Berry can afford this every year. A more permanent corporate sponsor needs to be found. Susan is the best prospect for that. Make sure everyone votes for Susan and all 3 of her slate.
I find it an interesting idea to say sell tickets to participate to anyone at say $3000 to $5000 per entrant. It would certainly help the prize fund. We do a similar thing at weekend swisses to the world open. so why not for the us championship.
Of course playing me each round would be like a one point bye for these grandmasters. I would feel like a fool losing 9 games in a row and having my rating go up. LOL. Ginnis book of world records. Who participated in the US Championships and lost all 9 games and had his USCF rating go up. LOL.
I finally read wiki’s version of sam sloane. according to wiki this sloane guy is a convited felon and an admiited sexual predtor. susan would know more about this than me. in other words he likes having sex with young kids. this guy sounds like a complete dirt bag. I never knew he was such a slime ball. i cant believe this guy got elected as uscf president. did anyone know this when they voted???
wolverine
Sloan lied to the voters before and after the election. He said that he was never convicted of anything. He’s the biggest scumbag in chess. He likes to have sex with minors and brags about it. He had pictures of every girl he had sex with on his website.
Then why does Hal Bogner support Sam Sloan?
Strange Idea:
Why would Kramnik pay $5000.00 to enter this tournament when he is capable of winning multi-million dollar prizes? I don’t see this happening.
I don’t think Hal Bogner is supporting Sam Sloan. Hal just wants to destroy the Polgar team so his guy Stephen Jones can win. You have to remember that Hal is bidding to take over the USCF website project and he wants to have the inside track to get this contract. That’s how things work. You can ask LateKnight on ICC about Hal and he can talk about him for 3 days. I’m sure it’s not something anyone can repeat. Hal has a long reputation of scammy dealings. It’s Hal being Hal.
If the USCF were entirely in the hands of Sam Sloan it would be one interesting place to put it mildly!
I saw a picture of this guy sam sloane and he looks like a disgusting slimy individual.i mean this guy has bragged about having sex with kids. how low of a filth bag can you get. hes rigging uscf elections and getting away with it. who governs the fairness of the uscf elections and how can these kind of individuals be thrown out.
wolverine
I thought that it was reported that AF4C gave USCF $25,000 to help with the US Championship. What happened to this money?
Two questions:
Will the participants have to join the Oklahoma Chess Foundation?
Will the Berrys invite members of the state chapter affiliate, against whom they have been battling, to assist?
If Mr. Berry is elected to the EB, will he once again attempt to have his organization become OK’s state chapter affiliate?
I like to see David Quinn, Brian Lafferty, Hal Bogner and Sam Sloan in the same room for a week. What a thought! Yikes!
I read in Sam Sloan campaign brochure that he is opposed to a Swiss format and he favors a round robin tournament strictly by ELO ranking to decide the US Championship as a qualifier to the FIDE Candidate Tournament.
I would also agree with this view.
How sad that the USCF can only manage a 65,000 prize fund for the Chess Championship of the richest country of the World and we wonder why our kids do not stick to Chess.
Sam Sloan can oppose anything he wants. He’s the guy who caused the sponsor to pull a $250,000 US Championship deal. He also wants this deal dead so he can blame Bill Goichberg and Jim Berry. He’s the biggest weasel out there.
Ooooh! You said “Weasel”!!!!