It’s Saturday Open Forum. What would you like to discuss? The conclusion of the first round of the candidates’ matches? The next round of knockout? Gata Kamsky magnificent performance? The lack of support for him and chess players in general by the home federation? The proposal by chess politicians to abolish all-girls events by the Susan Polgar Foundation which brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars in college scholarships as the USCF election time starts?
The forum is yours. Just be sure to keep it clean please.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I just received a special post card from USCF President Bill Goichberg. He basically said that Paul and Susan are bad for chess and they should not be elected. He thinks that it’s wrong for them to point out the problems of the USCF. He thinks this does not do any good because it’s too negative. He also thinks her entire team is bad.
He endorsed Joe Lux, Stephen Jones and Don Schultz. I fully agree with Mr. Goichberg. We need to send these two back to their countries. The USCF doesn’t need some immigrants coming here thinking they can change our ways.
Just look at Continental Chess. Bill Goichberg ran it fine for years. The World Open is the biggest tournament in the US. I’ll second his advice: Vote for Jones, Lux and Schultz!
I’ll also vote for Sloan because he’ll work on getting rid of Susan and Paul. We need to work these men to work under the leadership of Mr. Goichberg.
happy bday kamsky! i was thinking if th uscf is right not to support him, after all kasmsky walked on chess right? so what garantees do they have about him walking away and do they know him after all the years he left the gap for nakimuri, just a thought.
by the way im very sorry susan that your sister didnt pass to the next round, what happened? it gives me the impression that she was a little vague at this time of the tournement, I thought she was much stronger than bareev, maybe 3 months ago or last year judith was much stronger, i just dont understand, could you help out here susy?
well never mind, im sorry.
your always, i hope the budapest tour will bring more joy and soon forget about it.
jb.
I would like to know why Ponomariov and Polgar didn’t play until kings on the board only, if their situation required a win only. Thank you if any reply.
Susan,
How did the above get past the moderator?
I think the US without immigrants (1st generation or 10th generation does’nt matter)would be a fairly poor country.
Again Susan I think someone is trying to wind you up. I can’t believe that Bill Goichberg would want support from the likes of our friend above.
Send our congrats to Judit on a good fight back at least with the second half of the match Bareev knew he was in a fight. He played extremely well though.
Here’s an idea I’ve had: let’s create a chess-cheating tournament. It should be like any other chess tournament, except that cheating (if you can get away with it) is encouraged. Participants should explain their cheating at the end and there should be a prize for best cheat.
The serious point of it would be to analyze the measures required to stop cheating in serious tournaments. The feasibility of the ‘yogurt counter-gambit’ or similar ideas could be studied in practice.
In these days of high-level computer chess play, such a tournament could be both useful and entertaining.
I also got a post card from Mr. Goichberg. He seems to hate GM Polgar and Mr. Truong with a passion. I don’t know why when all they want to do is promote chess. Politics make people do strange things.
I never got a post card from Bill Goichberg. I only got an email pointing to his website where he blasted Paul and Susan. He din’t say too many good things about Mikhail either. I think he ranked Randy 5th or 6th. Are USCF presidents allowed to campaign for his people and against others?
Dear Susan,
Allow me to disregard that previous racist comment. I guess America is not clean of prejudice and ,I am sorry to add, will never be. I just want to thank you for this great blog. How do you do it? I still believe America is a big nation and that you will win. If you lose, I would get even more pessimistic about the world’s way. You are doing the best you can and that’s what’s important.
And you do it for a great cause. Not just for selfish motives. Justice, from my life experience, sometimes does not prevail [ May be that is the difference between life and chess- a lesson one might learn if true I humbly don’t know ]. Evil forces use weapons that the good cannot counter. If you and your team win, it will not be only your win, it will be a win for the good in this world and more good I am sure will come out of it.
Praying for you and your team
Abie
Hello,
in the Elista there is the other match computer one. It is played by 2 Chessbase programms. They are declared as the best but is it true ?
They are about 200 Elo points behind Rybka. Situation a bit similar to human chess, is not it.
The Rybka author sent the open letter to FIDE.
Will the match be started ?
Regards
Pony.
Here is the letter.
An Open Letter and $100,000 challenge to
FIDE President Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov
His Excellency
FIDE President Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov
May 31, 2007
Dear Mr. President,
First, let me start by commending you for your entry into computer chess with the organization of The Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007. Computer chess has seen dramatic improvements in the past few years. Some chess engines have progressed dramatically from the primitive beancounters of yesterday and I believe that our games too now qualify as art. Chess at this level inevitably attracts the attention of chess players all over the world.
Unfortunately, the lack of an open, formal qualification procedure for your event was disappointing, and your choice of the two opponents was downright bizarre. You have snubbed my program, Rybka, which leads every single computer chess rating list by a considerable margin at all time controls from blitz games to long tournament games [1]. In many cases the gap between Rybka and her nearest competitor is well over 100 Elo. None of this is anything particularly new – Rybka was released on December 4, 2005, and since then her smallest lead ever in any major rating list at any time control and on any hardware was 60 Elo. In addition to this, she has competed in all eight major international tournaments held since her first release and taken clear (unshared) first place in seven of them. [2] Rybka has also displayed her superiority in competitions against human players. It’s no wonder that Rybka is generally considered the undisputed strongest chess program in the world.
Some of the other aspects of the match also raise questions. Chessbase exclusively markets three of the world’s top ten engines, so it’s a curious coincidence that two of them will participate. Also curious is the involvement of the ICGA – after all, their own self-titled “World Computer Chess Championship” is being held on overlapping dates. This type of apparent division between insiders and outsiders runs counter to all principles of sport and fairness, and I call on you to uphold democratic FIDE norms in the organization of such events.
In the spirit of open competition, I am formally offering a $100,000 computer chess challenge from Rybka to FIDE, who will be represented by the winner of the Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007. My challenge consists of a 24 game match, at classical time controls, on unlimited hardware and with unlimited opening books, held at 2 games per day over twelve days, with Rybka giving a handicap of one point plus draw odds and thus requiring a score of 13 out of 24 or better to win the match. The prize fund of $100,000 should be a winner-takes-all, loser-pays-all proposition.
As the Ultimate Computer Chess Challenge 2007 takes place during the Candidates Matches in Elista, it is appropriate that the winner’s match vs Rybka be played in Mexico between September 12 and October 1, 2007, during the FIDE World Chess Championship.
Gens una Sumus,
Vasik Rajlich
author of Rybka
FIDE International Master
[1] CEGT Rating List
CCRL Rating List
CSS Rating List
SSDF Rating List
[2] 15th IPCCC 2005, 8th CCT 2006, 6th CSVN 2006, 26th Dutch Championship 2006, 14th WCCC 2006
16th IPCCC 2006, 9th CCT 2007, 7th CSVN 2007
i didnt watch the endagame of pono, but polgar couldnt play until kings of the board, why loose disastrously, she would have to loose her bishop and what next?
she did ok to accept the draw, there was nothing else for her to do on that position, probably she would kept on playing if the position wasnt like it ended up
jb.
Bill Goichberg has done a great job with the US Open too! He reduced expenses to almost zero allowing the cash to be diverted to better uses. Most of the Grand Masters had to play for free and were lucky if they broke even on this tournament. Spoiled GMs like Joel benjamin refused to play when they learned they had to pay their own way and there would be no prize money.
Where the rest of the world has to cough up huge sums of money (Linares, Corus, M-tel, Mexico City) to get GMs to play Goichberg is getting that for free !!!
I think this only helps the prestige of the US Chess community where our GMs play for free against the mercenary capitalist GMs like Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov and Ivanchuck.
Who are our GMs these days ???
Are you saying that Goichberg didn’t send out orange and black post cards attacking Susan and Paul? Are you saying that what I have in my hand is a fake post card?
Hi Susan,
I think you are an angel for good. There will always be evil people who oppose you.
“I would like to know why Ponomariov and Polgar didn’t play until kings on the board only, if their situation required a win only. Thank you if any reply. “
The answer is simple:
In case of Ponomariov there would have been one king left with a complete army and another one lonely.
In case of Judit there would indeed have been two kings left. There ARE dead equal positions in this game.
I think there has been enough fighting by Judit in all her games!
I am a class A chess player and chess coach. I will be voting this summer and will be informing many of my friends and students concerning what I have learned about the candidates for the USCF Executive Board. I have been reading and following Susan on this blog for sometime. I like much of what she has done for chess, but a couple things bother me.
(1) IMO, Paul & Susan’s marriage should have been disclosed to the voters in Susan and Paul’s Chess Life statements. Their failure to do so gives the appearance of trying to put one past the USCF voters.
(2) Susan has been very critical of the USCF policies, unfortunately, she is not always specific as to which policies she deems to be wrong and how she would have done things differently.
At this time, I am undecided. A month ago, I was totally for Susan’s slate of candidates, now I’m less certain. I can understand that Susan might not want to list specific policies so as not to step on people’s toes. In addition, I can understand that Susan & Paul might think that their marriage is personal, private, and none of our business (IMO such a thought is mistaken, because such information might influence votes).
I realize that Susan is very busy and rarely answers messages posted on her blog, but I do hope she addresses these issues at sometime.
The gender question in chess is apparently being re-looked as a social and political theme. Susan Polgar for the female gender, and a male counterpart could then work on the issue. Is it even an issue? Susan senses that it is.
I sense that many people would understand that when gender is used for oppression by either of the genders, it is to be condemned.
In that case, chess is a great equalizer. However, most people take delight in the differences in the genders at the same time.
How can the diversity of gender be preserved in unity and turned into something great? Is chess the ideal battlefield for unity in diversity? I see this, but am not so sure that is apparent to the greater chess community though.
I think that reelecting someone like Sam Sloan would be as bad as, if not worse than, reelecting Bush. People, let’s not make the same kind of mistake that we made in 2004. Let’s get Susan Polgar’s block into office.
“vote”
Your message was posted on GM Polgar’s blog only to stir up trouble and cause a lot of people undue anguish. You, “Mr. Vote,” are here merely to hurt Susan and it only, in the end, hurts your own cause. Is it you Sam…who is “Mr. Vote?” Doesn’t matter. If GM Polgar and her team did not pose a real threat to your entrenched “power” and obvious corruption, then there would be no such posts on her blog.
GM Susan Polgar’s accomplishments outshine absolutely everything and anything that the current USCF board members have done. Every slur, every time any of you open you wicked little mouths, only makes GM Polgar and her team more popular. Have you not had a course in Political Science 101???
GM Polgar is in “her country.” You are too ignorant too realize that America is where she chooses t live. She, more than any other GM, has devoted her career, her life chess. She has already proven herself: World Champion, multiple times, Medal winner, etc.
What matters is that in addition to what she has already accomplished Over-the-Board (by the way, when did Sam Sloan last play a game of chess in public?).
You know, even the folks running for President of the United States, regardless of what party their from and slurs they call their opponenets, would never go so low as you have in your silly message. And, that (i.e. the 2008 presidential race is politics in its truest form).
There is not another American more dedicated, more “Forward thinking” and concerned about the next generation (hence, her great contributions and work in scholatic chess) of chess professionals/players than she.
Your words and your cronies like Sloan are soon to be gone from the USCF. Since you’re all uneducated buffoons (oh, just grab a dictionary….I’m sure you don’t know what that word means) and will soon be, well, literally, nothing in regards to chess, you still want to send that last insult to try and hurt Susan.
I think I speak for all who are fans of GM Polgar that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, you or anyone at the USCF can say to damage what GM Polgar stands for.
You, “mr. vote” shall be a forgotten by history….yet, the name of “Polgar” will rest safely in future histories of chess in the centuries ahead. She had already formed a legacy, one that is so imporatant an meaningful that it is history in the making.
Your pathetic crowd are insignificant even while you are, now that the election is approachign, temporarily on the Board, soon to be forgotten.
How sweet this victory shall be for GM Polgar and her team.
She, along with those she endorses, have our support, and you shall see. By the way….does any of the current USCF Board Members even know how to play chess? or, for that matter, have an official rating?
GM Susan…don’t let such vulgar people that posts such things bother you. We, both those who love the sport of chess, and America, are proud of you and everyone that has the name Polgar.
Thank you…for everything you do for every chess lover each day.
While I do not deny the tremendous positive impact Bill Goichberg has had on chess in the U.S.A., I am profoundly disappointed by his recent attacks on Susan and her team.
What’s more, I am disgusted by the fact that Sam Sloan, an ex-convict, is on the board and is being supported by the other members!
Do we want people like Sam Sloan running chess in America? I say no, no, and no.
This is our last chance to get a decent USCF board. Let’s take it with both hands and get Susan’s team elected!
I have not received a post card (yet) but I did receive an e-mail from Goichberg a few months ago. I have to say that while I was disappointed in the partisan nature of his comments, I ignored them. I expect that most other people who received it did the same. Goichberg is a chess promoter, not a chess statesman and I think most people, including the FMs, IMs and GMs and other players who play in his big tournaments know that. I have spoken to many people over the last few months — from club players, chess parents, well known IMs and GMs. Everyone I have spoken to is voting for Susan Polgar. Some people may differ in their choices of the other three candidates but I am struck by how well liked and respected Susan is in the chess community. I hope that my sampling is representative of the voters and that change is coming. I urge all other Polgar supporters to make sure that you receive ballots. (Remember last year a number of prominent chess people like the Shahades did not receive ballots) and to vote. I hope Bill Goichberg will be able to bury the hatchet and accept Susan and the other new board members.
I think it is great that posts like the first one gets put on this blog because it shows that Susan is an open person and has a strength of character that we should all have, that being to deal with the negative in a positive light in addition to promoting the positive. It is too bad that such individuals are small minded like that but they exist and are a part of life.
If, as some of these posts suggest, Mr. Goichberg is personally attacking Susan that is just him playing politics. When one is in a weakened position as any good chess player knows crazy attacks are sometimes necessary.
I am sure Mr. Goichberg has done some really good things for US chess as Susan herself has stated but obviously his actions in the last little while has shown that perhaps he is no longer capable of doing what is right for US Chess and that a change of guard is needed. I have checked out some of his inner circle in the USCF and if you look closely there you all may find that indeed a change is necessary. That is my personal opinion. I could be wrong.
As for going back to Hungary Susan, please don’t US Chess can only benefit from you staying here. Maybe it is someone else who should go elsewhere.
Ca we please stop the politics and get interesting discussions about chessnews and so?
I’m not gonna read this site anymore if the same record gets played over and over again…
Politics = boring. Especially when the promo is so aggressive. (repeating your points 20 billion times will get people annoyed with your points)
Let’s talk about chess! Who will win the playoffs, Aronian or Carlsen?
i root for Carlsen! Too bad it’s blitz and rapid playoffs…oh well… will be an interesting match!
Magnus has proven to be a very good top player already at 16! What a talent! He’s absolute world top!
I would like to know why Ponomariov and Polgar didn’t play until kings on the board only, if their situation required a win only.
Because the etiquette of chess is that you accept the draw when you have no realistic chance of winning, just as you resign when you have no realistic chance of drawing.
I can’t help but think of the lyrics by the group Genesis when it comes to the USCF and it’s dirty politicians who don’t see scholastics for what it’s for:
Too many men
Theres too many people
Making too many problems
And not much love to go round
Cant you see
This is a land of confusion.
Now this is the world we live in
And these are the hands were given
Use them and lets start trying
To make it a place worth fighting for.
This is the world we live in
And these are the names were given
Stand up and lets start showing
Just where our lives are going to.
Oh well. Our voices will be heard soon. Good luck Susan.
how soon will the list of girls playing in the spni be posted? thanks
Dear Mr. Steven Craig Miller,
Thank you for your questions.
#1 I do respond to USCF members and chess players from all over the world daily, on this blog and via email. I spend at least 1-2 hours daily answering countless questions. It is sometimes impossible to handle it but I do my best.
#2 I married my best friend of over 20 years. We have worked together for the last 6 years. It is a private matter but it was not a secret. At least a few thousand people knew about it.
The reason why it was not publicized is security. I have an order of protection by the family court as well as criminal court. There are 3 trials coming up in June and July. It is the advice of my attorney and the police not to talk about this publicly. I cannot go into details but it is a matter of life or death for my children and I. Chess politics is not as important. I am sorry if people do not approve of my decision but I had to think of my family first.
Yes, I am very much in love. Yes, I am very happy. It is not every day people can get married to their best friends. But as any other couple, we do not agree on many issues, even when we worked together as friends. In addition, we each have our own expertise and the USCF would miss out big time if one of us would not be able to serve.
I am asked why my husband and I need to be on the board to serve. Simple! This board knew what we can do. We had a potential sponsor who wanted to give $1 mil to chess gradually over the next few years. That individual told this board specifically that he is very upset with the way how they treated him. He specifically requested to negotiate with Paul or me. He cannot be clearer than this. Knowing this, the board refused to ask Paul or me to step in and help. Why? Politics!
#3 As to my criticism toward the USCF. I did not want to get personal. But here are some problems. This board blew a lot of money for a website that was not complete. Then they had to bring in another company to finish the job, having to pay twice. In the mean time, it can be done better for 1/2 the price.
Hiring policy: Too many jobs were given for big money without open ads to seek the best candidates. While this federation is fighting for a dollar here and there, tens and thousands went out the door because of poor decisions. I can name many more but I am sure you get the idea.
Next, professionalism. We followed the same type of chess politics for decades and it is not working. Stop attacking and insulting each other! Everything is on Google and it hurts the federation as a whole. This is why we lost one sponsor and supporter after another. This board blew away 3 potential million dollar supporters / sponsors in the past 5 months alone.
Ego and self interest! In any other sport, they promote their stars. If you follow this blog, you will see I promote everything and everyone. I am happy to promote chess positively. The problem with these politicians is their ego is too big. They can’t stand it when anyone becomes too big. I have heard with my own ears insults and attacks toward GM Seirawan, Ashley, Nakamura, Kamsky, Benjamin, Onischuk and IMs Zatonskih, Krush, WGM Shahade, Goletiani, etc. Of course I am on the list.
How can we promote chess and good role models for chess when we keep on destroying any good image that we have?
FIDE: We have a major conflict with FIDE. Our players got hurt because of it. FIDE and Global Chess people invited me to sit down and discuss plans on how to help FIDE and heal the relation between the 2 organizations. We need to treat everyone with respect if we want to be respected.
Even if I am elected, there is not much I can do. I did not recommend members of my team because of friendship. I did it because these are the people who can fill the void in this federation.
My husband and I made this promise many times before. If our team is elected and we cannot drastically improve many aspects of this federation, we will never run again. We are both very busy but we feel that we owe it to chess to fix it once in forever.
Electing one party over another will only create more wars, hatred and animosity. That is why we declined the endorsement from any politician. We run on our own records of accomplishment and experience.
I am at Shea stadium now so I have to close now. Once again, thank you for the opportunity to respond. Others just assume and play politics.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
Susan,
I am other voter who is conflicted on who to vote for.
I dont know any of the candidates personally so all I can go by is what I hear and see on the internet.
I will be playing at the National Open next weekend. I hope I get a chance to meet you and discuss your plans to improve something other than scholastic or GM chess.
Thanks,
Tony West(Michigan)
Dear Tony,
I will be in Las Vegas from Wednesday night to Monday afternoon. Please feel free to introduce yourself.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
This is another reason why we need to get rid of the current politicians. Sam Sloan has made some outrageous remarks to try to destroy scholastic chess, especially for girls. This board sat there and allowed him to lie.
He claimed that the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls was never authorized by the USCF EB and they should cancel this event.
Here is the proof of his countless lies:
MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING OF
THE UNITED STATES CHESS FEDERATION ON AUGUST 7, 2003
…
03-34 (McCrary): The Polgar National Championship for Girls is a sanctioned USCF event. PASSED 4-0.
But of course the board will continue to keep silence so Sloan can destroy their political opponents for them. Unless new blood is brought, the same garbage will continue.
Good post from GM Polgar. I think your decision to leave the USCF issues forum (for now) was wise as it has gone downhill. Every few days someone posts something worthwhile but mostly it seems like it is well on it’s way to becoming the fiefdom (sp?) of five or six middle aged white male whiners. Some stuff is particularly disturbing, however, including accusations about an outside contractor having access to purportedly confidential areas of the website. It makes you wonder who is in charge of the USCF these days. Also, one candidate (a lawyer), who had presented himself as a neutral person, posted a “get out the vote” message the other day which was very clearly partisan so anyone who was planning to vote for him as a neutral party, take your blinders off. (By the way, does anyone know what his relationship is to Hal Bogner — is it attorney/client?) In the meantime, please enjoy the ballgame, newly married life, your children and keep posting all the great chess news that you’ve been posting.
Carlsen was on the ropes almost all day today. I was elated when Aronian played Rg2 allowing the rook sacrifice.
Now susan this shows good drama for TV. We did not know if he would find the sacrifice. It was not really obvious. But Magnus rose to the challege and found the best move when presented with the opportunity. It showed me that he sees much more than we perceive from his moves.
His birthday is after the World Championship in Mexico. It is actually possible for him to become a world champ at age 16. However, that is still a long shot.
Magnus got a bad draw in having to play Aronian in his first match. I figure Aronian is the strongest player of the 16 in these 8 matches. Many people seem to wish both Aronian and Carlsen could have moved on to Mexico.
My view is some players will go to Mexico who will not be as strong as Aronian and Carlsen.
Too many of the players in Mexico were chosen years ago now for past performance. Fide needs to have the present best players in Mexico not the best players of years ago.
Tomorrow’s playoff games for Magnus begin at 5 am New York City time. So get up out of bed. Get to bed early tonight.
On the politics.
My personal view from reading the uscf forums is that there is just much more corruption than most people could ever guess. They all seem to oppose scholastic chess. If anyone is interested in the young kids in chess we better all vote for the 4 team members.
My ballot has not yet arrived. I am not the first to receive the magazine in past months. Mail delivery seems a bit slower than some places. But it comes soon enough. I plan on voting the same day it arrives and getting right back down to the Post Office. I am not missing out on this one for sure.
Yes a favorite tactic for the Polgar attackers is to claim neutrality. That way they avoid a lot of criticism. They play the innocent bystander. When in reality they are full all out attackers. They simply attack for the sake of attacking.
And of course the Polgar attackers are focused on Susan and Paul because they are the ones who might break up the cozy party they have had for upteen years.
One of their clever little attacking workers is Donna Alaire. Watch out for her. She works hard at getting your confidence. She went to knoxville to get some financial figures and they immediately were in Sam’s hands and others and used to attack Susan and Paul again.
Bogner put Jones on the ballot. He is hand picked by Bogner. Bogner said he put Jones on the ballot as if it was something to be proud of.
I wonder if south Texas will get ballots. They know there are a lot of Susan supporters in Texas.
The whole crowd is united against Susan. I do not trust any of them. I do not trust Jim Berry because he fought with the Scholastic people in Oklahoma. I do not trust him to support Scholastic chess in USCF. I want to see him prove himself first. We have 4 candidates and do not need more.
If we lose this is going to be terrible. The battle will only intensify.
I got the famous post card from Bill Goichberg today. I’m disappointed that a sitting USCF President would stoop to this level. I can understand if he disagrees with Susan or Paul. But to attack them on the personal level is uncalled for. Whether he likes Susan or not, she’s the face of chess in this country and she’s a hero for thousands of young players. How does it look when the USCF President insults their hero this way? This is why the USCF is sinking. I’m very frustrated with the negative politics by these board members. This is not helping chess at all.
The previous poster raised a good point. What if we don’t receive our ballots (as happened last year to a bunch of people)? Who do we call? By the way, who counts the ballots and where? With avowed anti-Polgar people like Hal Bogner apparently getting access to confidential/classified areas of the website and six-month member Brian Lafferty getting appointed to work on finance issues when he’s not writing lawyer letters to intimidate USCF volunteers, I think it is reasonable to get organized in case there are any questions about the fairness of the election process. We all remember Florida in 2000.
I think you can contact the USCF / Pat Knight for a ballot if your do not receive it by June 15. That is the deadline to request. If you do not request by June 15, you can’t vote.
I don’t want Polgar to be elected. I don’t want anyone from her slate elected. We must protect the USCF from any foreigner. I support Joe Lux, Stephen Jones, Don Schultz and Mike Goodall. They will keep the Denker and Polgar events with the USCF and they will get rid of Polgar. We don’t need her name or sponsorship. The USCF shouldn’t have a problem paying $100,000 annually to host the US Championship as Joe Lux said. I agree with him. If we raise the scholastic dues by $3 per kid, we can easily afford this.
This is important enough to post here.
USCF phone number:
931-787-1234
Pat Knight’s extension is 133
USCF fax number:
931-787-1200
pknight@uschess.org
(Note this is all published information on the USCF website but people may want to jot it down and keep it handy in case their ballots don’t arrive by June 15th.)
I’m concerned about the attitude of this board toward GM Polgar. Why do they not want her to help? Why do they want to chase her out from scholastic chess? I only stayed with the USCF after the election of Sam Sloan because of GM Polgar. I hope this board will understand that they’re making a big mistake with what they’re doing.
They are threatened by GM Polgar for all sorts of reasons. Here are a few off the top of my head. One, despite Beatriz Marinello, the board is a boys club and always has been. (Let’s face it, until recently so was the chess world.) Even the USCF issues forum is an overwhelmingly male bastion. Two, I’m pretty sure that she is a substantially stronger chess player than any of them. That’s got to be threatening. Three, she is obviously not content with the status quo but the status quo is paying the rent of some of the current board members. Four, she is a gazillion times more popular than any of them in both the adult and scholastic chess community. I could go on.
So if she’s that powerful, why not embrace her to help chess and the uscf? Isn’t that logical? Why would they want to destroy her? That just doesn’t make sense. I just don’t get their motives? The whole chess world is watching this election. Do they think that everyone is that gullible?
I don’t want to see her win. I want to see the Goichberg slate win. I believe this federation is doing fine the way it is. We have the greatest USCF President in Goichberg. We have the greatest VP in Don Schultz. We have a great financial wizard in Joel Channing. Why would we need her or anyone in her team? I’m not sure what Randy Hough and Beatriz Marinello do but I’m sure they’re OK. Even Sam Sloan is better than her. I don’t see any need for changes.
I just checked my mail box and I’m one of those lucky recipient of Bill Goichberg’s post card. I’m sorry to say but this is the reason why I’m voting against anyone that Bill endorsed. The language that Bill used in the post card is completely out of line, especially coming from a USCF President.
Hi Susan
I really want to vote for you, but I’d like to know what your position is on the controversy between Mig and Monroi. Also, on the rule change mandating that we have to write down our move only after we’ve played it. Some say that this change was commercially motivated.
What do you think, and would yopu vote to change it back?
There is a thread on the USCF Forum.
Congratulations on your marriage!
When you call a dog by his name, the dog’s ears will stand up erect pointing into the air.
The same can be said of the dirty politicians, everytime their names are mentioned in this blog.
Their days in power are coming to an end, and a new era where chess prevails and prosper are but a few days away.
Get ready to get synergized folks. Susan and her team will do away with the boring status quo.
To the NY Jets fan, my Dallas Cowboys will have a better season than your Jets. Pretty much just like my chess team will have a victory over your chess team.
Greetings to Susan from South Texas 🙂
Anonymous said…
I don’t want to see her win. I want to see the Goichberg slate win. I believe this federation is doing fine the way it is.
I am not a USCF member, I am not even a good chess player, just an amateur who is observing chess from outside.
This federation is doing fine? It depends what the word “fine” defines. I find it peculiar, that since Bobby Fischer (35 years ago) there is no “american chess” to speak of. If it wasn’t for the immigrants, there would be no top level american chess players. Please tell me, how this federation is “doing fine”, not being able to popularize chess, so out of 300 million people they could find a few who can stand up in world level competitions?
We must protect the USCF from any foreigner…
Oh really? As if americans really knew how to run a chess life. The tiny little Hungary with a population of 10 million (where Susan Polgar is from) have more famous chess players then the 30 times the population USA. If it wasn’t for Bobby Fischer, USA wouldn’t even be mentioned when the issue of chess comes up. You know, the Bobby Fischer who denounced himself as an american.
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I love USA as a country (I am a foreigner myself), USA knows many things what other countries don’t, or less well than America. But chess is not amoung those things.
Therefore, what USA needs to organize a real chess life, yes, it is foreigners. Especially from those countries where it is proven that they know how to have a chess life, such as Hungary.
Gabor
This was posted by Pete Tamburro:
As has been demonstrated in the past Bill Goichberg’s political skills are lacking. Organizing tournaments is a uniquely different skill from leadership of an organization. I have to agree with you on this one, Sam. Imagine that! The postcard could just as easily have been “written” by some other high profile politico. (As an aside, the uscf might well consider doing what real politicians have to do: report who’s paying for the campaign!). As president, he will have to deal with whomever is elected. For those that he hit on the postcard, he has created a negative environment should any of them get elected. When you are a president you have to work with everyone and gain a consensus. It’s hard to do when you’re insulting people. The best advice I would have for him if any of these targets of his attack get elected is to approach them one on one, regret the remarks, and offer to start off with a “new understanding” of how to respect each other and an agreement over no personal attacks in the future. I have noticed a distinct lack of people skills in most of the board members, and it contributes greatly to much of the dysfunction there is on the board.