US Chess Discussion

Welcome! This blog has no connection with the USCF. It's a blog where I provide chess fans with general information about US Chess as well as the USCF. It's also a site where everyone can productively discuss or ask questions about various USCF issues! Your contributions and comments are welcome! PLEASE KEEP IT CIVIL & RESPECT OTHERS! Enjoy! All posts that do not meet this guideline will be deleted -- WIN WITH GRACE, LOSE WITH DIGNITY!(TM) --- 2006 Susan Polgar©

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Updates on the USCF problems


Ron Suarez on Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:41 pm

I am personally very happy for the opportunity to present something that favors Paul Truong and Susan Polgar in this whole issue. I am aware that Gregory, presently snowshoeing, says that I am against Paul and Susan no matter what. I am happy to prove Gregory wrong in this.Susan posted this on chessdiscussion.com in response to Bill's posting here. I must say that Susan's points do apparently have merit.

As to #1 my response is that there is evidence that Paul has denied the charges and as I read Susan's point on this, I must ask if the attorneys asked formally or explained to them exactly what and how they wanted?

On #2, if Susan and Paul did ask for Bill Goichberg to not be on the subcommittee due to possible conflict of interest, I see nothing wrong with that request. I also see no reason why Bill Goichberg's absence on the committee would lessen the quality of the proceedings.

Finally, Susan is asking for complete disclosure of all the facts. Wow, that is great. I do believe that all facts do need to be made public as Susan requested. This argument of Susan's does seem quite a good one to me.

I guess it is now time for the rest of the Executive Board to cough up the facts.I also must say here that these points Susan brings up in no way distracts or obfuscates the situation, in fact quite the opposite. Good job Susan.


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Ron,

Thanks for your input. Unfortunately, there is no winner in this case and the members stand to lose the most, again!

The bottom line is I hope this board will agree to open everything up (starting with the NDAs, correspondence, confidential BINFO and everything else relating to this matter, etc.) or get back on track to do what we were all elected to do. We have wasted enough time and money already.

In the mean time, we will continue to promote chess, organize events to benefit our game, support scholastic, college, military and correspondence chess as well as our professionals and talented juniors.

In the upcoming months, I will propose to have a thorough independent review of how this federation spends money. We need to know why we wasted money to revamp the website TWICE and how the contracts came about. Were there fair and open biddings? I would like to know who approved this and who we can hold accountable for the finances.

We cut the budget for college chess and we cannot afford to finance the US Championship or the Olympiad teams like we used to. We cannot even afford to help our top players like Kamsky for a shot at the World Championship. What happened to the money we were supposed to save? Where did it go? Why are we still financially weak?

Fiscal responsibility is a must if this federation wants to get back on track financially. We need to get back to the basics to find out the real problems and fix them immediately. Our members deserve better. Our members are entitled to know what the board is doing with their money and what direction is this federation heading to.

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar

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Ron Suarez on Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:59 pm

I have said this before and more than once, the USCF needs to make this issue go away so that we can get on with the business of chess and all its activities.

Looking at this whole thing from a distance, we see it is nothing more than people getting upset by someone anonymously posting negative and vulgar statements on the rgcp usenet, where vulgarities and anonymous postings abound.

Even if they prove that ANY one individual was this false poster, what real damages have occurred? The only damages have come from people reading this specific "forum". The Sam Sloan lawsuit appears to have no real life because there is no jurisdiction and because of other legalities. So, what is everyone getting all upset about?

I really like Susan's latest suggestion regarding the total opening of all "confidential" things so that the evidence will show what matters and what doesn't.

So, I guess there is and has been a lot of arguing and debate going on, while the chess wheels have either slowed extremely or even stopped in a lot of areas.

I am going to post these exact comments on both the USCF and ChessDiscussion.com Forums. It is time we get on with things.


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Ron,

Thanks again for your comment. I would like to point out some facts:

Paul and I did not stop doing what we were elected to do. We still promote chess on a daily basis since August 2007. We organized major chess events which brought a lot of attention to chess and the USCF. We visited Seattle, Roanoke, DC, Brownsville, Chicago, Aberdeen and Mexico City, etc. for the same purpose.

We had meetings with representatives from more than 90 schools and ran a number of free chess workshops to help teachers incorporate or bring chess into the schools. We offered to raise money to help Gata Kamsky and we are raising money to help our Olympiad teams this fall in Dresden, Germany. We sponsored prizes for various college chess, military chess and scholastic chess events.

All of our activities did not cost the USCF a penny. I know that Joel Channing contacted a lot of schools and organizations to partner up with the USCF to promote this federation. He also donated money to help our players. Jim Berry and his brother are involved in the US championships and other events in Oklahoma.

If the other board members would like to point out what they have done for chess and the USCF since August 2007, they are welcome to do so. Shouldn’t the members know what all board members and the ED are doing to benefit chess and this federation? And how much did this board majority and ED authorize to spend since that time? And how much more are they willing to go?

When we questioned how questionable contracts were awarded and how to improve the efficiency within the USCF in all facets, an "investigation" suddenly took place. I believed then and I still believe now that my colleagues have made many errors. These errors have caused many problems for the USCF and it will continue to cause problems for the USCF for many years to come unless they change their course of actions. Many chess organizations continue to thrive, why not the USCF?

Things took a turn for the worse once my fellow board members crossed the line and made inaccurate public statements. I had no choice but to ask for full transparency and corrected their misstatements. The last straw was when people want to use my children as pawns in this vicious political witch hunt. Is this what people are willing to do for political power?

As I said earlier, either end this nonsense and get back to what everyone was elected to do for the benefit of chess and the USCF or open everything up for the members to see. We proposed to show all USCF members any evidence we have of who leaked what to whom, who made what deals under the table and for what reasons, etc.

The members should know the severe conflict of interest in various decisions made by the board and they deserve to know how contractors can get their big contracts without fair and open biddings and how non-board members can obtain confidential information to spread out false rumors for political purposes. After all, it is their money and their federation.

Horrible decisions have cost the USCF year after year. Once everything is opened up, everyone can clearly see why the USCF has failed for so long. I have fought the system and won since I was 4 years old. I ran for the board to clean up the problems and I will continue to do so. The USCF cannot continue to survive if we continue to same path of failure. How can we expect different results when we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

Best wishes,
Susan Polgar

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2 Comments:

  • At Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:05:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I would like to know what Goichberg is doing as well. I want to see all his correspondence with Jerry Hanken and Harry Payne. These 2 guys seem to know what is going on behind the scene.

     
  • At Thursday, January 24, 2008 6:21:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Brian, you've been quite disingenuous with your posts here... too clever by half though. You've repeatedly attacked Paul & Susan with information that only presents one side of this matter. As I've pointed out (and you've avoided addressing), we all know that experts for one side of an issue will certainly present evidence supporting that side. It's easy to make any side of an issue quite convincing if you present only your side of it and cherry-pick your evidence though. That's why reasonable people and courts don't make decisions on important matters without hearing BOTH sides. It's why your attempt to sway us by presenting a biased, one-sided view of this matter is so transparent and intellectually distasteful, and is only serving to drive people away from your side of this issue. In the interest of fairness and finding the truth as you claim you want to do, let's look at a few things.



    You've called for Truong & Polgar to refute your experts and made a point of how long you've been waiting for them to do so and "wondering" why they won't. However, you & I both know that they've been denied access so far to the same IP logs and information the experts you cite had, thus making it impossible for them to do so. If you're so interested in the truth, why have you not pushed for the USCF to make ALL relevant information publicly available so everyone can see it and determine what's true and what isn't, as Susan has repeatedly requested? Don't even bother answering that. We already know the answer.

    In fact, the more important legal issue in all this is the violation of several people's privacy in obtaining and sharing that private info inappropriately. The USCF board voted unanimously to release the following on this matter:



    Recent events have led to charges and counter-charges about false postings on chess websites that may involve USCF members and improper activity by independent contractors working for the USCF. At this time, it must be stressed that none of these claims can be independently substantiated, and the USCF does not support them. The USCF apologizes for any unintended resulting actions.

    The USCF takes seriously its need to protect the privacy of its members and is actively investigating the charges of violation of its privacy policies and actions of its members. The individuals who may have violated these policies have agreed, as of today, to suspend their duties with the USCF until these issues are resolved.



    The USCF is in the process of hiring an independent subject matter expert to determine the validity of the claims expressed above. After their review of all relevant information, the Executive Board will determine whether further action is warranted.



    Your "experts" and those involved are suspended from their duties and may face charges for their conduct. Note that the USCF board insists on the use of an independent expert to determine the validity of these charges and will await such to determine if further action is warranted. Exactly what I've pointed out to you numerous times as the only acceptable way to solve this.



    You've ignored my warning that you were in violation of our rules here concerning conduct towards others and making personal attacks. You've been asked to discontinue this, but have refused. Either you don't understand the rules or you simply choose to ignore them. I've been more than fair, but I've had enough.



    You've shown a history of these same tactics before (think Lance Armstrong and the cycling federation), and have publicly stated more than once that your goal is to bankrupt the USCF. What a noble goal and now we have a clearer view of your motives & agenda. I have a VERY low tolerance for intellectual dishonesty and your methods. When a person has to resort to using smear campaigns, personal attacks, innuendo, dishonesty, etc., etc., to advance a particular agenda or point of view, it's a safe bet that they do so because their case is weak and honest discussion and presentation of the facts will fail to win.



    Now, you can wring your hands about what a horrible thing it is for someone to have posted material at another chess forum under a fake name, but guess what I've discovered? You yourself got nailed for doing so recently. While not using your hal@2001.com address to pretend to be any specific person, you did use it to represent an anonymous third party in discussions that "agreed" with your points, to make distasteful personal attacks that you didn't want to be personally associated with, to support your position, and so on & so on. When you got caught with irrefutable proof, you finally admitted to it, so please spare me your moral outrage over the accusations against others. Hypocrisy is not a quality I find attractive in others. http://www.webservertalk.com/message2274313.html.



    Anyone interested in the matter of whether Truong posted under Sloan's name or not should read the following analysis by Robert Bennett. It casts serious doubt on the charges against Truong and strongly suggests that his IP address was spoofed (which is not all that difficult to do by a qualified techie). In fact, the expert suggests that you yourself are likely the guilty party, Mr. Lafferty. It also points out another smear campaign by you against someone you dislike, Kevin Bachler, accusing him of being jailed for child molestation, which isn't true at all. Nice tactics there, Mr. Lafferty. I'm sure we're all impressed with your character and methods now. http://www.gamesforum.ca/showthread.php?t=264740)

    Chessville

     

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