The same USCF political tactic

No One Is Bigger Than Chess
By WIM Beatriz Marinello
Former President of the USCF

Why didn’t the U.S. Chess Federation support my decision to accept the invitation to be part of Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s Presidential Ticket?

I will answer this question matter of factly.

Back in February (2010), I was approached by Mr. Michael Khodarkovsky who is the President of the Kasparov Chess Foundation and a U.S. Chess Federation’s FIDE Delegate. At that time, Michael Khodarkovsky informed me that GM Ron Henley wanted to talk to me about GM Anatoly Karpov running for FIDE President. He told me that Mr. Henley also asked for a meeting with him. I mentioned to Michael Khodarkovsky that I could not meet with Mr. Henley at the time, but maybe later. Early in March, I agreed to meet with Mr. Henley since I have known GM Henley for a long time and I always thought he was a nice person.

The same week, I received a letter from FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov inviting me to be part of his electoral ticket. When I meet with Mr. Henley, he offered to appoint me as FIDE Vice President in Mr. Karpov’s Presidential Board and compensation for actively campaigning.

After carefully reviewing the situation, I considered that FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was the best candidate as FIDE President, and I was highly supportive of his team as well.

I did not think that Former World Champions Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, both great players and important members of our community, were the best people to run FIDE.

In the past they were both chess enemies, and I considered how this could create potential issues between them, in case that GM Anatoly Karpov became FIDE President. I also thought, that their motivations were not in the best interest of FIDE and GM Karpov was lacking the necessary experience to run an organization such as FIDE.

Something just didn’t quite fit or feel right about this situation and I held firm in this belief.

Additionally, I also did not wish to divide the Americas, since we have been working for 10 years in building a block in the American Continents.

During this time it also became clear that the Karpov team was going to try to split the continent by dividing the Americas in hopes of gaining ground in that region.

My vision is for a united chess community, which is best represented by Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s Ticket and his team.

Once I made the decision, I asked the U.S. Chess Federation’s Executive Board for a meeting, innocently I also included Michael Khodarkovsky as FIDE Delegate to join us in a conference call.

At the conference call, all members of the board (5) were present: President, Jim Berry; Vice President, Ruth Haring; VP of Finances, Randy Bauer; Members at Large, Michael Atkins and Bill Goichberg.

Mr. Goichberg is a former U.S. Chess Federation President and the main tournament organizer in the United States. Mr. Goichberg is very anti-FIDE and especially very anti-Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. I presented the situation to the Executive Board, Mr. Bauer got disconnected from the conference call, so he did not hear everything and did not vote. However, the Board took an unofficial vote. Mr. Berry and Ms. Haring voted ‘Yes’ to endorse me as a candidate in Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s ticket, Mr. Atkin said that he did not know enough, but was initially agreeable to support me, but decided to abstain, and Mr. Goichberg voted ‘No’ to my endorsement.

Acting on Mr. Khodarkovsky’s advice the Board postponed the meeting for two days later. At the time, I did not know that Mr. Kasparov was the person running the campaign for Mr. Karpov and Mr. Khodarkovsky clearly had a conflict of interest, since he works for the Kasparov Chess Foundation and he is also serving as USA FIDE Delegate.

During those two days, Grandmaster Kasparov and Grandmaster Henley made several phone calls asking the Board members not to endorse me in order to prevent me from joining Kirsan’s ticket and to only support Mr. Karpov. He even called a very influential person in U.S. Chess, who is also a major sponsor of the U.S. Chess Federation.

This whole situation reminded me of the 1994 Presidential FIDE Election, when the U.S. FIDE Delegate was Mr. Fan Adams and in a meeting held prior to the Chess Congress in Moscow, the U.S. Chess Federation decided to support the candidacy of Mr. Kouatly, but then after GM Kasparov’s phone calls to members of the U.S. Chess Federation’s Board, the United States changed their position at the last minute in favor of FIDE President Mr. Campomanes, resulting in the resignation of Mr. Adams. Back then, many promises were made but nothing happen in the end.

Now, back to March, 2010, two days after we had a conference call, we met again over the phone with the members of the Federation’s Executive Board, Mr. Khodarkovsky and GM Henley. Karpov’s team made a new offer to me in exchange for me not accepting Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s invitation to be a member of his electoral ticket. The offer was an appointment in GM Karpov’s Presidential Board (in the event that he won the election) and full support to become Continental President. In addition they would not require that I campaign on behalf of Mr. Karpov.

I told them that I would not accept the offer. One hour later, Bill Hall, USCF Executive Director and Ms. Haring called me to tell me that I should accept the offer or else they would not endorse me and that they would even remove me as Zonal President.

By then it became clear that I was dealing with a very undemocratic organization, and the way in which they were pressuring me and trying to force me to accept Karpov’s offer by use of threats, convinced me more than ever that I was making the right decision.

I did not accept the offer, the board did not remove me as Zonal President, but the U.S. Chess Federation sent me a letter denying me the endorsement and making a statement that they would not support anyone who is on Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s ticket.

Fortunately, the National Federations of Chile and Brazil gave me an endorsement since I am also a member of these Federations.

Full article here.

Welcome to the USCF racist, sexist, homophobic, and deplorable standard

I apologize upfront for having to make this post. Unfortunately, USCF members must be aware of the pitiful standard of the organization which they pay their hard earned money for dues each year. I tried my best to fight against the corrupt individuals who played a major part in destroying the USCF for years with their incompetence, unprofessionalism, and unscrupulous pattern of conduct. Unfortunately, I was not able to overcome this corruption machine.

Here are some samples (just from the past month or so) of the language and behavior of an individual who either was or still is a USCF delegate, someone who I was told is / was a trusted advisor to the USCF, someone who has direct contact with the USCF ED Bill Hall and other USCF board members, someone who Bill Goichberg, Randy Bauer, Jim Berry and the USCF EB voted to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars (of USCF members' money) to defend (similar behavior and conduct), someone who even ran for the USCF Executive Board, etc.

OMG

* Dude, look at the photo of Susan. Note the multiple rolls of fat. I hope Paul is into BBWs. The stress must have gotten to her. I think ******** should send her some good San Francisco Ghirdelli chocolate when a superseding indictment comes down--assuming it does.

* IMMHO, Suszie is a pompous ass. Now she's become a very big pompous ass in another way. There's nothing wrong with becoming a BBW. If Paul likes that, bravo!

* ****, you are truly an obsessed imbecile. Her chess accomplishments are not the mode by which I would ever compare myself to anyone, least of all Susan or you. Thus, your comment is complete, sophistic nonsense. You know, ****, I'm beginning to think the cause of all your bile must be that you haven't gotten laid in a long, long time. Having trouble locating willing boys?

* Listen Fucktard, this isn't a courtroom. It's Usenet. Love it or leave it. Thanks. And have a great day.

* Thanks you chiming in with your 1 cent, Fuckwit.

* Fuckwit, the photo is not from the BBC. Polgar was in the TTU media studio participating via a live feed to the BBC. The photo was probably taken by the BBW's owner--er, I mean, husband--Paul Truong.

* Right, Paul would use Photoshop to make Susan look like a fat cow and then publish the photo. You're not a Fuckwit, you're a Fucktard.

* I have this disgusting image of Paul putting a funnel down her throat like a goose and plumping her up with feed.

Source: RGCP

Welcome to the Middle Age Spread

* Now http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhytbexanOOT0RiiYrMXaf6mXPnfwRj26OpGwlluPNPZQPRGxeJDSiJcOdw7zcL7xLAYV2sT0XWyFvjsj7W_10BsCl48XRuni13AZCQAxawLHxxo3xb5QzHuyGsDU_CVY2-qdZS/s1600/SPGI+Blitz+2010+165.JPG&usg=AFQjCNEyjujiM2AcC4YCTxuHz-hv-O-Q1Q

2006 http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1741/1141/1024/Kealing%2520Simul%252013.jpg&usg=AFQjCNEtKivtAQji7GHaK5Mazw0z6Hc3YQ

* It's really directed toward Paul. He did a great job making Susan attractive, but even he can't stop the weight gain of stress and unhappiness for which he's responsible.

* Susan's fashion adviser has been increasingly dressing her in loose fitting black outfits to make her appear less heavy. That's too bad. She looked much better in lighter colors four years ago. Maybe they just need a good spa vacation in Europe to set them on the right path.

Source: RGCP

Note that these are not the first two incidents. Things like these posts have gone on for a few years already. Also not that none of the USCF EB members or USCF ED publicly spoke out against this kind of language and behavior. No action was taken, period. They were quick to smear and lie about me and attack my family and children. But they have no problem accepting this kind of language and behavior.

This individual is not the only one. There are many more people who behave the same way for a long time. Some of them even served on the USCF Executive Board and have been a part of the "good ol' boy" network of this corrupt and incompetent organization for decades.

In the past few years, there were dozens of racist and sexist posts on my blog and other places telling me (and my family) to go back to where I (we) came from and a f***g female Jew has no business being on the board.

I have never heard any of the USCF EB members or the USCF ED speaking out against it. They simply accepted it or chose not to speak out publicly against this sort of appalling conduct to protect each other. Even convicted felons are allowed to be USCF delegates and / or USCF Executive Board members. And the USCF Executive Board even offered to use USCF members' money to defend these people.

Welcome to the USCF standard!