A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a friend to let me know that HB will be closed down. A few days ago, the Daily Dirt (Chess Ninja) confirmed the sad truth.
The website is no longer up and this is what was posted by Mig:
“Unfortunately, the HB foundation went completely out of business as of Nov 30. Their 2 million dollar endowment now has nothing in it. There are a group of concerned folks doing a letter writing campaign to get it started again…let me know if you are interested in helping.”
Brian Ribnick — HB Foundation Advisory Board Member
This is sad news for the entire chess community. I met Brian Molohon (HB Executive Director) a few times in the past year or so. He seemed to be a very nice person. My friend GM Maurice Ashley introduced Brian to me at one of the National Scholastic Events.
I know they worked very hard to make the HB Challenge happen. Unfortunately, I disagree with the model of the event. I felt that the event was too costly and it had very little chance to break even in money. It sure was a wonderful spectacle for U.S. chess but a lot more could have been achieved for the same money. In addition, I don’t think the event was targeted to the right people.
In order to succeed in promoting chess, proper marketing has to be one of the most important and vital areas. This is what the chess world sorely needs, serious and comprehensive marketing plans. I don’t claim to be the #1 expert in marketing. That is why I make sure to consult the experts. The problem that I see is chess players usually do not have the proper marketing experience and marketing people usually do not understand much about chess.
Brian did ask to consult with me about some ideas but there was no follow up from HB. I wish I would have had a chance to share with him my opinion. We all need to stick together and help each other to help chess. Thanks Maurice for giving it your best shot with HB. Maybe next time! 
Thanks Maurice! It’s really too bad!
Jack
I wish you could have helped too Susan. While it’s a good idea, they needed a lot of help.
Janusz
They did a great job with the event. The PR and marketing could have been better. It’s really too bad.
Why dont you write what could have been done better?
The media coverage was not nearly enough. They should have done a lot more. There were no live coverage with the media either. Someone should have done a round by round summary like Susan had done with the World Championship.
Maca
Yeah, and we can give the next winner of the HB all those letters people wrote as the prize. Thats so much better than the $50,000 the last winner got!
GM Ashley, if you read this, thx for the great tournament. I live in Hawaii and may never have become so interested in chess if not for the HB global tournament. In addition to a fantastic tourney, I got free instruction after my games from an IM, and met both FM’s and GM’s who were lots of fun to speak with. They also signed copies of their books and chess CD’s for me. Now I plan to arrange for more trips to the mainland for chess tournies. I hope they are as good as the one you organized. Great job!
There were a number of things wrong with the tournament. The Twin Cities lacks sufficient players to make a tournament with this kind of prize money a viable proposition. Chicago or New York would have been safer bets. An out-of-state player is going to factor in the expense and inconvenience of travel and stay to his calculations. The prize money was way too much. There wasn’t a clear understanding of how exactly this would benefit the Twin Cities (in fact, it’s done the opposite: many college youngsters who might have received HB scholarships now find themselves bereft). The advertising wasn’t targeted. There was scant local coverage. The event was ill-conceived and ill-implemented.
If the director — Brian Molohon — had been an experienced tournament player, and been to some of the major open events in the US, many mistakes could have been avoided.
What ended up happening is that out-of-state players (in many cases out-of-country players) vacuumed up the major prizes and took off. There was no positive impact on the Twin Cities, and I still can’t figure out what purpose this event served.