Something is just the same

The part below was written by GM Larry Evans about an interview with GM Lev Alburt, one of the nicest GMs you can ever meet. GM Alburt ran for the board and won many years ago. He wanted to help the USCF. He told me it was the biggest mistake of his life and he would never do it again. GM Alburt and many others collaborated with what I said. This is not the USCF Executive Board. This is a small group of people doing unethical things under the table to harm anyone who stands in their way to protect the status quo. This is why so many supporters, members, and sponsors have walked away from the USCF.

With the written consent by Jerry Hanken, I will soon publish some of the facts regarding confidential information that some of the current board members leaked to him. I told the board numerous times that I have the absolute proof that they leaked the confidential information to Jerry Hanken to publicly attack and harm me and my family. I am confident that I can prove this in court. They also leaked information to other USCF insiders.

I sent numerous emails to the board about this issue. I told the board that I know for a fact that board members forwarded confidential information from me to the board and their attorney, my attorney's letter to the EB and ED, their lawyer's response, and much more to Jerry Hanken and others. The way it works is some board members forward the confidential info to him and he then forwarded to other USCF insiders. The problem is he does not remember who he forwarded the info to and cannot control what others will do with that information.

This is the pattern of conduct by some of the chess politicians for the last 30-40-50 years. When I brought this up, they basically laughed at my face and took what I said as a joke, including the letter from one of my attorneys. Instead of apologizing for what they have done, the USCF President and other board members challenged me to take them and the USCF to court because they do not believe that I can prove their misconduct. Some even insulted me.

They rather spend tens and thousands of dollars of members' money and perhaps even into the hundreds of thousands to defend in court something which they are caught red handed instead of apologizing and stopping this kind of unethical behavior.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

ALBURT: I felt a great temptation to be more conciliatory. You see, after all, they are not evil people. Personally many of them are very nice. When you’re in the same room and spend a lot of time together, exchange jokes and try to solve problems, you develop a sort of camaraderie. It’s natural. But I had to remind myself that although we were friendly, the things they were doing in secret were plainly wrong. The system which existed, a system of secrecy, could be easily abused. It certainly invited corruption.

EVANS: Board member Harry Sabine said all that the reformers would accomplish by trying to open things up is to force the board into doing more things behind closed doors.

ALBURT: Okay. It just shows their type of mentality. A siege mentality.

EVANS: I was under the impression that the board only had the right to go into closed session to discuss things like sealed bids or legal and personnel matters.

ALBURT: They do many other things that should be discussed openly. For instance, they went into closed session to discuss candidates to replace Don Schultz as FIDE delegate. They argued it was necessary because otherwise they could not say nasty things about other candidates in public, like so-and-so is a drunk. My position was that if someone wanted to say something derogatory, they could stop briefly to go into closed session.

EVANS: But doesn’t much of this information get out anyway?

ALBURT: Of course. They leak information all the time to their friends. For instance, when executive director Gerard Dullea was given authority to fire Larry Parr as editor in closed session, it was supposed to be a deep dark secret. But when I came out of the meeting I was met by Jerry Hanken who told me how sorry he was, that if only he had been elected instead of Sabine such a dreadful thing never would have happened. Probably some board member broke the news to him on the way to the bathroom.

EVANS: Why should there be such a need to classify information? Chess is not the Pentagon.

ALBURT: The board is playing with its power. I can hardly ever recall when any justification was given for going into closed session. Often they just wanted to bad-mouth people not being considered for jobs. Especially people who were my friends, but even some I didn’t know. When I challenged them and asked for proof, they said they were merely speaking their piece and giving their opinion.

EVANS: But, Lev, you say these are decent people. Decent people don’t do these things.

ALBURT: I agree. But people are not all black and white. I think the problem is they created an artificial environment. It creates a bankrupt mentality. It creates a sense of belonging to an exclusive club. They feel they can do almost anything, and that others are beneath them—even grandmasters.

But when Ed Labate sued them, they immediately retreated. So what I am saying is that they are not evil people, they are not bad people. But the system is so bad that even normal people are encouraged to act wrongly.

THIS CRAZY WORLD OF CHESS (page 132) by GM Larry Evans