Mig Greengard recently had a conversation with Mr. Erik Anderson of the AF4C. This is what Mig Greengard has posted on ChessNinja.com:
“AF4C sponsorship totally broke down when a member of the USCF board accused the AF4C of distributing pornography. (Really.)
GM Joel Benjamin will break his record streak of participating in an amazing 23 consecutive US championships, withdrawing over frustration with the USCF (with no slight intended to the Oklahoma organizers, who are doing their best).”
Source: ChessNinja.com
The problem is chess politicians still do not get this. Their continuous petty and destructive political games are destroying this federation for years. That is why I am determined to change this. I care only about promoting this game properly for the benefits of the entire sports from kids to adults, college, correspondence, military and Internet chess, etc. We need to promote chess and the USCF and not the disgusting politics.
What is your take?
It’s too bad that some chess politicians decided to vote in a convicted felon to the board and destroyed the best sponsors. But Goichberg doesn’t get this. He still continues to play politics with his foes to protect CCA. How can you be the President of the USCF and CCA at the same time? Now we know why the USCF is in this condition.
I am totally on Joel’s side on this. It seems the USCF keeps trying to “polish a turd”. I hate that phrase by the way, but it fits so well here.
I like Joel’s idea of making this event an elite event. 16 players only with men and women separate, unless a woman qualifies under normal condtions.
Also as Joel stated at http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/askGM_24_55.php, the USCF needs to forget the Swiss format. Round Robin or Knockout would be better. Maybe a combination of the both.
Most people don’t realize that Sam Sloan has super powers, like a comic book villain.
In this case, we see Sam’s evil “reverse causality” power at work. Most people are limited to causing events to take place in the future. However, through the little-known and mysterious power of reverse causality, Sam can cause things to happen in the past, twisting the arrow of time.
In this case, on March 6 2007, Sam posted a link on the US Forums demonstrating that the AF4C had let its former Internet domain name fall into the hands of pornographers. Through reverse causality, this caused AF4C to announce in Jan/Feb 2007 that it wasn’t sponsoring the 2007 US Championship, and for the USCF to announce on March 1, 2007 that it was awarding organization and sponsorship of the tournament to Frank K Berry, five days before Sam’s criticism of A4FC on the USCF Forums.
It is hard to see how our heroine, Ms Polgar, is going to be able to straighten out the USCF, or even get elected, when her powerful nemesis Mr Sloan can control events from the future.
Here is how I think it should be. Here is a fictious tournament…
Phase 1 Double Round Robin
Group 1
Nakamura, Hikaru NY USA 2755
Ehlvest, Jaan NY USA 2675
Gulko, Boris NJ USA 2661
Ivanov, Alexander MA USA 2646
Group 2
Kamsky, Gata NY USA 2752
Ibragimov, Ildar CT USA 2675
Shabalov, Alexander PA USA 2656
Stripunsky, Alexander NY USA 2638
Group 3
Onischuk, Alexander MD USA 2712
Christiansen, Larry M MA USA 2670
Akobian, Varuzhan CA USA 2652
Novikov, Igor NY USA 2632
Group 4
Kaidanov, Gregory KY USA 2686
Shulman, Yury IL USA 2662
Benjamin, Joel NJ USA 2650
Fishbein, Alexander NJ USA 2616
Phase 2 Knock Out
Semi Final
Nakamura, Hikaru NY USA 2755
Kaidanov, Gregory KY USA 2686
Kamsky, Gata NY USA 2752
Onischuk, Alexander MD USA 2712
Final
Nakamura, Hikaru NY USA 2755
Kamsky, Gata NY USA 2752
Champion
Nakamura, Hikaru NY USA 2755
I thought the Berrys had guaranteed enough of a prize fund to make the trip worthwhile for participants. Or was that dependent on big donors buying their way onto the roster?
Susan, if Mr Anonymous’ post is accurate (and a quick check suggests that it is) then you should post a correction to your comment that the AF4C withdrew their sponsorship because Sam Sloan pointed out that their old domain name was being used for porn.
Sam Sloan is quite capable of digging his own grave. By bending the truth in this way you will only help him.
A couple of things to consider:
A) It wasn’t Susan’s comment, it was a ChessNinja comment.
B) Just because it was posted on March 6, doesn’t mean it wasn’t brought up earlier in another manner, like verbally or directly.
C) AF4C pulled a very nice sponsorship so something needs done. They obviously don’t want to deal with the current USCF no matter who said what when.
Aren’t you promoting chess because you are ‘growing your market’?
I accept that you want chess to thrive in the USA and elsewhere, but do you not have a direct financial interest in it so doing?
No. I lose money for doing it. The time that I spent promoting chess, I could be producing 5-10 more DVDs or write another 2-3 books.
Not all of us do things for money. Some of us do things for chess because we care about this sport.
If it is about money, I could be playing for Hungary.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
Yesterday I was reading the USCF Forums and became overly disgusted with the situation there. I am a Life Member of the USCF for over 35 years and I am ready to resign my membership which now costs me nothing. The only thing keeping me going is to vote for Susan, Paul, Randy, and Mikhail and hope and pray that they win.
Everyone must get out the local vote for Susan with full support of her 3 team members.
Until yesterday, I never realized that an organization can become so corrupt. Although I must say that in all the past 35 years the USCF never fully seemed to have its act together but it has definitely gone down the drain in recent years.
The only way to fix a rotten bushel of apples is to throw out the rotten ones and bring in fresh new shiny apples.
Right now I am very depressed by the state of dirty filthy politics at the USCF.
Susan and her team are such wonderful people I really hope they are given a chance to straighten out the mess. It will not be an easy job. But Susan is the best qualified to accomplish the task.
Go Susan, You are my last hope for the future of chess. Do not let the forces of evil win this battle.
Susan, I support you and your slate of candidates for the upcoming USCF Executive Board election in June, 2007. I do agree with Jon that the information is incorrect about Mr. Sloan posting the infamous pornographic link before AF4C pulled out of its deal to sponsor the USCF championships. That was done afterward. This does not excuse Mr. Sloan’s behavior in making such a post or providing such a link.
Janet Newton
Janet and Jon,
I believe it is 2 different situations. I think the AF4C pulled out this year because they lost their big sponsor due to his website.
I believe that all talks about the future were halted after he posted the link and blasted them publicly.
I was told that there is a decent chance that the AF4C would be interested to sponsor again if there is a different relationship between the USCF and the AF4C.
I know Mr. Anderson very well and he has told me many times in the past few years about his frustration with this federation. He is not the only one who said this.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
“Anonymous said…
Aren’t you promoting chess because you are ‘growing your market’?
I accept that you want chess to thrive in the USA and elsewhere, but do you not have a direct financial interest in it so doing?
Friday, May 04, 2007 6:52:00 PM”
Mr. or Ms. Anonymous,
Some of us love chess and try to promote it to the best of our ability – and there is no financial incentive involved. Susan Polgar answered you. Let me add my two cents. I have SPENT hard earned $$$ each and every year since 1999 to publish ad-free websites devoted to the the discussion of the origins of chess, women in chess and women’s chess, and lots of other chess-related articles, essays and publications that aren’t generally featured on the “chess news” websites so prevalent on the internet. It is a labor of love, not a labor for profit.
Janet Newton
Hey here’s a crazy thought.. If Af4c was doing a better job anyway.. would it be feasible to just disband the uscf, and have af4c (or some other better organization) as the offical US chess organization? I mean really it’s not like it’s been handed down from God that USCF has to run things. It can’t really even be about money since USCF is in the hole or close to it anyway.
These are the people who nominated Sam Sloan for the election this year:
12462863 PRINCE, HOWARD
12655385 LLOYD, STEADROY A
12407354 PRIVMAN, BORIS
10104874 SCHNITZLER, GABOR J
12924840 KAN, PENG FEI
13024036 NARANJA, RENATO C
12713319 FIGLER, ILYE
12693373 PRESSMAN, LEIF
12287160 POLYAKIN, VLADIMIR L
12834803 ESCHELBACH, KARL
12680785 CHERNICK, STEVEN
12435108 GARCIA, ROBERT C
12670285 HARDING, ANDRE E
10101301 CONTICELLO, NICK
12724150 TOWSEN, JOHN
12809190 RAMANUJAM, SRINIVASAN
11017134 PACIULLI, FRANK R
10078954 TANNENBAUM, JEFFREY ALAN
10105544 FITZKO, MITCHELL
13102976 JOSEPH, MITCH M
12197010 BROWN, LARRY A
10074819 RIGONO, GABRIEL
12768106 DIGREGORIO, ROBERT
12395472 PACCHIANA, DOUGLAS
12791591 HASAN, SHAHZAD
13411328 SHADIEV, MURODJON
13553190 NICOLAS, JEAN
11099599 ZUKOFF, LEON
12774231 SLOAN, GEORGE RANKOTH
10074258 TEASLEY, DOROTHY
13457195 SMITH, KASHIFE
11115292 SLOAN, SAM
10489032 GOODALL, MIKE
Naranja is the Filipino master who had Fischer busted at Palma 1970.
Signing a candidate’s petition in the election of a 501(c)(4) organization should not subject one to public villification. Some of the signers were aware of Sloan’s conduct; some were not.