The view from a USCF Life Member

I am new to US Chess Forums. I have been a member of USCF for over 10 years. This is my first post on US Chess Forums. I like what Paul says. I want to vote for a person like him. He sounds like a true professional who is willing to give to chess. My kind of candidate.

I feel we all should be grateful that a person of Paul's ability is willing to help chess. Of course I have to review everyone with an open mind before my final choice of who to vote for. I just arrived. This is the first thread I have read. Sounds good to me. Thanks for helping chess Paul. I appreciate that. We need help. I always read good things about you. I feel strongly that you will get one of my votes.

Thank You Paul
George

It has taken me a long time to get over here to the forums. I have been a long time uscf member. I very strongly support the Susan Polgar team. I read the opening posting here about some candidates being good chess players etc,

I am a business man. I do not think that being a good chess player qualifies for EB. What is needed by USCF is strong corporate sponsorship and money coming into uscf. The team that Susan has put together will do just that.

I have not personally met any of the 10 candidates. However, I have been reading about them for a long time. I get the feeling that Paul Truong can help chess maybe even more than Susan Polgar. Paul is a super professional. He is the kind of person that we need on the EB. Mikhail is another person who will help get solid sponsors. Randy Bauer everyone likes.

I say for the last 50 years the USCF has wallowed in the mud. Now for the first time we have an opportunity to elect a really professional group to give them a chance to turn chess in American into a profession. I say lets give them a chance. We need to have all 4 of them elected so they can do the greatest good.

I guarantee that their election will not be worse than what I have seen over the years.

I am not going to vote for chess players. I am going to vote for people that can run the USCF Professionally and raise serious sponsorship money for chess. I hope everyone will join with me and vote for all 4 of Susan Polgar's slate. Let us stop playing games with chess in America. Let us give 4 great professionals a chance to show what they can do.

Susan, Paul, Randy, Mikhail is the team that will turn USCF around into a professional organization with money and sponsorships. Let's do it right. Let's take advantage of the talents of these 4 professionals.

George

This is my 5th post. I just noticed my USCF number is posted. I bet very few people have a lower number than mine. I have been on the chess scene for a very long time. John Curdo must have a lower number. LOL.

Anyway chess is ready for some real change and some real action. Susan Polgar is our best opportunity for that to occur. She needs all 4 to be elected so she can accomplish the task given to her. I hope everyone votes for her and her team.

I just want to make a few statements of gratitude.

I am very grateful that USCF allows all members to vote for EB. I believe that is an important post and when I first joined USCF back some 35 years ago, we were not allowed to vote.

I have watched USCF for some 35 years. Back when I first joined one of my major desires was to see chess having the professionalism that would allow chess players to be professional. I wanted to see chess players making the same kind of money as baseball players and other athletes. I wanted to see lower rated but good players able to make a good living by teaching chess. I wanted to see a US that appreciated chess in all its wonderful aspects.

I wanted other things like the ability to watch major chess events like the fischer spassky match live on tv with good commentary.

My one big desire back in 1970 was to see the USCF hire a full time person to get sponsors for chess events. In the early 1970's with the Fischer boom, the public was ready for chess. The sponsors should have been easy to convince to sponsor chess events. However, the USCF did not seem to be able to get its act together and get any sponsors. I could not understand that. It seemed so simple to do.

Over the years I have seen no progress or very little progress in uscf in terms to making chess a professional sport and gaining sponsors.
Today from my perspective of 35 years of seeing no real progress I have lost faith in the leadership of uscf. I know they are all good people. But we need more chess promotion.

I see a tremendous chess promotion happening today because of the efforts of Susan Polgar. She is doing an incredible good job. Her blog is kept up to the minute with interesting chess information and I get to see so much professional chess promotion and her ability to get sponsorship for chess. America has never had such a person. No one can compare to Susan Polgar in making chess popular after of course Bobby Fischer. Although Fischer did not get things organized. Polgar does organize chess.

I see today as a rare opportunity to put the most dynamic person at promoting chess into a leadership position within the USCF. I want everyone to appreciate this opportunity and to grab it. Please do not let this opportunity pass us by.

Will Susan transform chess in America if given the chance. Well I believe she has a good possibility of doing just that and I also very strongly believe no one else has that possibility today. I believe it is important that she come into USCF EB position with the power to carryout her policies and her ideas to transform chess into a professional sport with many strong sponsors.

There is no sense in bringing her in and then leaving her with no power to carry out her ideas. Therefore I see it as very important that her slate of 3 other candidates also be elected. It is just as important that Paul and Randy and Mikhail be elected as it is to elect Susan. With these 4 in place, there will be no excuses for failure. They will have the responsibility to fix USCF and the power to carry out that assignment. Only by electing all of them can we accomplish what we are setting out to accomplish.

I read on this forum all kinds of negative things. I want to avoid the negative by simply voting for Susan and her entire slate.

Let us look at the remote possibility that Susan might fail. Well we have failed for 35 years. All other paths are guaranteed to failure. So we really risk nothing. Things will not be worse with the Polgar group then with other people. Therefore the only way to have a chance for big time positive change is to have Susan with all her slate elected by a landslide to the EB and give her and them full support to change things.

This is where I stand. I am going to ask everyone here to help me get her elected. Please add your posting ideas about how we can get them elected.

Those who wish to post opposing my idea or who want to be negative on my ideas. I ask the moderators ahead of time to please simply delete all those posts. I hope this thread will remain positive and successful in coming up with ideas to make sure Susan Polgar and her entire slate is elected to the EB this coming election.

I must add that I am so very grateful that Susan Polgar a former incredible Womens World Chess Champion has decided to live in America and work so hard to help promote chess right here. We in America are so lucky. All of us should be so grateful for this lucky opportunity of a lifetime. Please support Susan for the good of chess in America.

I also ask all of the other 6 candidates for election to drop out of the election and throw their support to Susan. If all 6 opposing candidates drop out then we will have a united USCF working toward the goal of a united professional chess association with the goal of getting as many good sponsors as possible into chess. I will be very grateful to all candidates who can put their personal desires aside and drop out of the election for the long term good of chess in America.

Thank You
George
USCF Life Member

A response by Paul Truong

Thank you George for your confidence. However, I think it would give a much bigger message when we have a fair election with all the candidates. The USCF members can then speak up through their votes. They can send a loud and clear message that the status quo is just not acceptable any more.

Many of us will work hard to get out the votes. If we are fortunate enough to earn the trust of the USCF members, I can assure you that we will not let them down as others in the past. We have our lifetime professional reputation on the line and that is why we will not engage in these relentless destructive political games. It is time we put the best interest of US Chess and the USCF first!

Thank you again! Please help us get out the votes!

Best regards,
PT
Time to clean up the USCF!