From Dr. Redman, 2-time USCF President

Dr. Redman offers his opinion:

Dear Paul,

I am sorry to say that your story is all too familiar. When the University of Texas at Dallas offered scholarships to the winners of the Denker and the Polgar in Oak Brook in 2006, I made a point of speaking to Bill Hall at length that these scholarships needed to be featured in Chess Life.

We did not give one to the winner of the Polgar because that young lady had already won one. But we did give one to the highest-finisher among juniors and below (our custom) in the Denker. The value was more than $50,000.

There was not one word about the award in Chess Life. When I learned of this, as you can imagine, I went ballistic. The result was that the University of Texas at Dallas declined to offer scholarships last year in Cherry Hill.

Under the new Director of the Chess Program, Jim Stallings, we will offer a scholarship in Dallas to the winner of the Denker (again, for our purposes, junior and below), but it is no longer automatic as it used to be. It will need to be renewed on a year-to-year basis according to whether or not the University believes that the publicity is commensurate with the value of the award.

I don't wish to dwell on the past nor engage in fingerpointing. But your general point that the Federation has been extremely negligent is valid, and we need to recognize our problems in order to fix them.

That being said, let's move forward. I appreciate all that you and Susan have done to bring resources (money, time, and energy) into chess.

And bringing a FIDE Category 15 event to Texas is a major achievement. Congratulations!

Cordially,
Tim Redman