A few weeks ago, I publicly stated here that I will run for the USCF Executive Board in the next election. I also asked some people that I feel most qualified to help US Chess and the USCF in various capacities to join me.
My messages are very clear. The USCF MUST be changed for the better!
– The respectability and credibility of the USCF MUST be drastically improved!
– The destructive Chess Politics MUST be stopped!
– The welfare of US Chess and the USCF MUST be the #1 priority!
– The level of professionalism of the USCF MUST be improved!
– The USCF budget MUST be balanced!
– The USCF MUST support and promote all its membership categories! A strong cooperation and partnership between adult, collegiate, youth and scholastic chess as well as military, correspondence, email and Internet chess, etc. MUST be established!
– The USCF MUST establish a strong Professional Marketing and PR system!
Just as we see in the current fiasco between Kramnik, Topalov and FIDE, someone must lead by positive examples. All the personal and unprofessional attacks, responses and open letters did nothing except escalate the animosity and hatred even further. This is precisely what I warned all parties at that time.
That is why I will NOT engage in negative debate nor will I respond to the same garbage in the upcoming election. I also will not allow this kind of nonsense on my blog. My political opponents have repeatedly lied about me as well as attacking me nearly every single day. I have yet to respond once.
Instead of focusing on how to make US Chess and the USCF better or fix all the current problems, they focus on lies and deceit. The same problems occur in MANY national organizations, federations as well as FIDE.
It is time for the chess community to stand up, take control of our sport and make it better. It is time to unite for the best interest of CHESS! Our industry is not big enough to survive this kind of internal destruction.
In the spirit of the Holidays, I ask chess politicians to please think about the welfare of our sport. Let’s work together and do positive things to make chess better! Let’s put CHESS first!
It is Saturday Open Forum! The Forum is yours!
Happy Holidays and best wishes to all!
Horray for Open Forum Day! There’s been a number of comments that I’ve been saving up.
My favorites.
Many of the pictures Susan posts are just eye candy but some of them are really great. My fav pic is Oh no! Endgame study!
On 12/15. You just got to check out the expression on that kid’s face as he ponders the chess board. That’s how I feel.
My second fav pic is Family time posted on 12/21. Susan’s sister Sofia and her two kids are laying on the floor smiling at the camera looking straight down at them. They are so happy!
My third fav pic is One More to Go 12/10. It shows Susan’s son behind a forest of chess pieces. I like that angle. The pieces loom so large in the picture but the kid’s expression is confidence that he will master them. Great pics.
Most frustrating pic: Robin Williams, the hardest working guy in Hollywood posted on 12/22. So who are those people in the photo?
My fav comment was by Mike D. (handle: Newportnexus) to Chess in a real battlefield posted on 12/19. He wrote, “One of the coolest photos I’ve ever seen. Some of the most idiotic responses I’ve ever seen. Draw.” I notice that a few comments above his was one of my own. Oh, dear!
There were a number of posts this month asking Susan to explain who she is against in the USCF and why. I believe that I may have posted one of them.
I was astonished when I surfed into this blog several weeks ago to find all this USCF stuff. And what was all of this about Sam Sloan? I’ve been uninvolved with chess for 20 years and hence, totally ignorant. But I decided to find out what all of the fuss was all about – at least as it related to Sam Sloan.
I surfed the USCF forums, I checked Sloan’s entry in Wikepedia, I read his site, Goichberg’s anti-Sloan web page, and I even watched one of Sam Sloan’s TV shows. I really wanted to sympathize with Sam Sloan. All of my life I’ve sympathized with people who are rough around the edges, are put down by others, but still try to make meaningful contributions to organizations they involve themselves in. I wanted to post on this site and others that people should just chill and give Sam Sloan another chance.
But I can’t.
I’ll leave out the anti-Sloan statements. (Many of them really do go too far.) I’ll even leave out the criminal record. I’ll even leave out Sloan’s statements about USCF practices that were proven wrong. Even taking out all of that, and just considering the rest of Sloan’s own statements, they just cannot be regarded, even by the most sympathetic reader, as credible. What did it for me were the statements made about Polgar and her relationships with men. My biggest problem was that even if one were to take the most generous pro-Sloan attitude possible and assume that his statements were true, gentlemen just don’t say those kinds of things.
And that was the point where I was forced to abandon my attempt to ask for moderation towards Sam Sloan.
Now having got that Sam Sloan business off my chest, there is an issue that was raised that ought to be looked into: USCF’s policy/procedures for re-rating of tournaments. Disregard Sam Sloan’s statements and just look into the issue itself.
The disclosure that tournaments are re-rated years after completion and players ratings changed as a result is a serious one. I can understand the re-rating months later – but years later? The USCF explanation that this is standard procedure and that it results from the computer program, only makes this more serious. Let’s accept the USCF explanation as factually correct.
Why is the software changing the ratings years later? And on an automatic basis? It seems to me that the program needs to be changed in this regard. Why can’t there be a time limit on re-ratings? Or any changes in ratings after a certain period – say one year – have to be approved by the ratings director and the reason for the change documented.
Just for context, imagine if today the Football Superbowl’s stats of 2004 were re-ran and the players’ stats changed. Can you imagine the outcry?
I worry that because the issue has the odor of being a Sam Sloan issue, it will be ignored. Even the most odious people can sometimes bring up legitimate points.
Footnote: USCF officials were wrong to criticize Sam Sloan for bringing the matter up in public. Public discussion of ratings policy and procedures is a good thing, not a bad thing. Sloan was wrong for the bad way he treated this matter and the outrageous things he said about it but not for just simply bringing it up in public.
Happy Holidays to you and your family and may the New Year bring much happiness and Executive positions to and your running mates on The USCF Board! I have a question for you Susan that I think is the most important thing for the future of American chess. In order to encourage young U.S. players to go all out and try to have a career in chess as a professional, America needs to generate revenues through PR and Marketing like you have suggested. If elected can you and your team get sponsorship and create high level tournaments for the Super Grandmasters to compete in. I think this would help create an environment of interst in chess and make The United States someday be a World Power in Chess.
Thank You John
Jack,
The answer for the re-rating is simple. There used to be a time when all ratings were done manually. Sometimes, a clerk enter the wrong ID by 1 digit. That means that the wrong person got the rating change.
However, because of lack of technology, many did not find out about the mistake. It could be that 10 years later, a mistake was discovered. Therefore, when one change is made, it could affect 50 tournaments or hundreds of players.
That is one possible scenario. By the way, that happened to me personally. The USCF entered my ID for one tournament that my sister Sofia played in. Because of the same initial Zs. Polgar, someone entered the wrong ID number.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Questions for Mr. Goichberg, Channing, Schultz and Hough (2)
Gentlemen,
I apologize for asking this question again. What is your official policy regarding deliberate lies, deceit, misinformation and personal attacks? As I said, I will not respond to these outrageous, malicious and false charges and I will not participate in any discussion in this forum until serious actions are taken against such individual(s).
How many chances does one get before losing the privilege to post on the OFFICIAL USCF forum?
Important issues are being drowned out because of the same nonsense daily. Are we an organization of 83,000 members or just a few unethical and unprofessional people? We are supposed to be a professional organization. For the sake of the USCF and US Chess, can something be done please?
Thank you!
Susan Polgar
Another year is over and new one is about to begin. What a year it has been for chess. Things are looking very positive now that Bessel Kok will take over World Championship selection process. He has the experience, skills and money to do so thanks to FIDE president’s money. Now the USCF needs to follow suit. It is time for a change for the betterment of chess in the USA which has been stagnant. We are so fortunate to have a person of such great stature as World Champion Susan Polgar who gracefully has agreed to get on USCF with her professional staff of friends to help our chess grow with dignity and grace. She has proven in the last 4 years what amazing and great things she can accomplish and has many companies (corporate sponsorship) behind for she embodies what they like, ROI (return on investment) so they do not mind pouring money to a positive person and organization which benefits both parties. Last World Champion we had Fischer created a boom but unfortunately he abandonded ship. This one won’t. I hope we all take suggestion I read of going to each one of our local clubs, tournaments and work to get Susan and her team elected. This is for chess and each one of us. I had the immense pleasure of meeting her in Las Vegas National Open this year and she is GREAT! Thank you so much for all you are doing for us, I for one am greatly appreciative for your diligent work on our behalf. Thanx :o)
In the spirit of the Holidays, I ask chess politicians to please think about the welfare of our sport. Let’s work together and do positive things to make chess better! Let’s put CHESS first!
Lovely words, but we know very well that a certain “gadfly” and his backers won’t do that, ever. The only hope for USCF is to put in a new board that changes the direction of the organization and changes the culture of US Chess politics by taking power away from the old factions. “Gadfly” will never go away, but at least he’ll be out of power.
Maybe he can get a job on Danailov’s staff. 😉
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to everyone – I hope that 2007 will bring goodwill and happiness.
As a non-US person I am finding a lot of recent issues on the blog less than fascinating, however I hope that things will return to “normal” once Susan has been returned victorious 🙂
Then I will re-post my various questions regarding DVDs and coaching.
Once again ENJOY the festive period and holiday
Kind regards
Trefor
I share your opinion that too many personal attacks are used in the ‘USCF Issues’ forum; and I also wonder why Mr. Sloan did not get the boot from the forums long ago. The level of personal acrimony is quite high, and you end up reading the same attacks over and over again. I can understand if someone has a serious issue that they want to raise, but a few of the members (i.e Sloan) do not go about it in a gentlemanly way, and every issue is argued over to the bloody nth degree.
I also wonder why the forum is not opened up to include games and personal discussions. Currently, you can’t share a game, or have casual personal discussions with one another. The current moderation policies seems to be quite backwards.
Happy Holidays!
Gregory
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to everyone – I hope that 2007 will bring goodwill and happiness.
As a non-US person I am finding a lot of recent issues on the blog less than fascinating,
Same to you Pal..and your comment is very true …a lot of good comments are deleted so why bother
Jack Le Moine said…
Horray for Open Forum Day! There’s been a number of comments that I’ve been saving up.
My favorites.
Many of the pictures Susan posts are just eye candy but some of them are really great. My fav pic is Oh no! Endgame study!
On 12/15. You just got to check out the expression on that kid’s face as he ponders the chess board. That’s how I feel.
My second fav pic is Family time posted on 12/21. Susan’s sister Sofia and her two kids are laying on the floor smiling at the camera looking straight down at them. They are so happy!
My third fav pic is One More to Go 12/10. It shows Susan’s son behind a forest of chess pieces. I like that angle. The pieces loom so large in the picture but the kid’s expression is confidence that he will master them. Great pics.
Most frustrating pic: Robin Williams, the hardest working guy in Hollywood posted on 12/22. So who are those people in the photo?
My fav comment was by Mike D. (handle: Newportnexus) to Chess in a real battlefield posted on 12/19. He wrote, “One of the coolest photos I’ve ever seen. Some of the most idiotic responses I’ve ever seen. Draw.” I notice that a few comments above his was one of my own. Oh, dear!
Saturday, December 23, 2006 12:16:20 PM
Thanks for being a Susan type of guy can’t wait for your next comment bless you
Jack Le Moine said…
Horray for Open Forum Day! There’s been a number of comments that I’ve been saving up.
My favorites.
Many of the pictures Susan posts are just eye candy but some of them are really great. My fav pic is Oh no! Endgame study!
On 12/15. You just got to check out the expression on that kid’s face as he ponders the chess board. That’s how I feel.
My second fav pic is Family time posted on 12/21. Susan’s sister Sofia and her two kids are laying on the floor smiling at the camera looking straight down at them. They are so happy!
My third fav pic is One More to Go 12/10. It shows Susan’s son behind a forest of chess pieces. I like that angle. The pieces loom so large in the picture but the kid’s expression is confidence that he will master them. Great pics.
Most frustrating pic: Robin Williams, the hardest working guy in Hollywood posted on 12/22. So who are those people in the photo?
My fav comment was by Mike D. (handle: Newportnexus) to Chess in a real battlefield posted on 12/19. He wrote, “One of the coolest photos I’ve ever seen. Some of the most idiotic responses I’ve ever seen. Draw.” I notice that a few comments above his was one of my own. Oh, dear!
Saturday, December 23, 2006 12:16:20 PM
A very good point of view about time some very good remarks..10/10 keep it up
Give credit when it’s due Jack Le Moine would be very good for the USCF maybe Susan could keep him in mind as a reserve member for her team ,,Happy Holidays
Does McDonalds sponsor chess?
I checked the forum this morning and lookee what I found! Thanks for the complements – and three of them – oh, wow! Now my head is going to explode from my swollen ego. Thanks, people. Those complements really made my day.
Oh, and I should say that I am really not available for any USCF work. I’ve really got too much to do. This blogging is about the extent of my involvement.
HaHa Susan Just love you blog HaHa merry xmass