Another lawsuit agains the USCF

More of the USCF legal saga: I am not endorsing this lawsuit and I am not commenting on the merit of it. USCF members can make their own conclusion. However, members need to know what is going on before they can make informed decisions.

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS

SAM SLOAN, )
)
Plaintiff )
)
- Against - ) 2011MR000159
)
WILIAM GOICHBERG, )
RANDY BAUER, )
JAMES BERRY, )
RUTH HARING, )
ALLEN PRIEST, )
GARY WALTERS, )
MICHAEL ATKINS, )
MICHAEL NIETMAN, )
BILL HALL, )
CONTINENTAL CHESS ASSOCIATION, INC, )
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CHESS FEDERATION, INC, )
an Illinois Not for Profit Corporation )
)
Defendants )

COMPLAINT

NOW COMES Sam Sloan, Plaintiff, and hereby files this
complaint against William Goichberg, Ruth Haring, Randy Bauer, James
Berry, Allen Priest, Gary Walters, Michael Atkins, Michael Nietman,
Bill Hall, the Continental Chess Association, Inc. and the United
States of America Chess Federation, Inc. (“USCF”) and alleges as
follows:

1. This is a proceeding for Declaratory Relief seeking to restore Sam
Sloan to the ballot as a candidate for Election to the Executive Board
of the United States Chess Federation. It also seeks the removal of
William Goichberg from the Executive Board and a permanent bar against
Goichberg from holding any position as an officer of the United States
Chess Federation or from running slates of candidates for election.
The Plaintiff Sam Sloan is a long standing member of the United States
Chess Federation, having been a member since 1956. Plaintiff submitted
himself for candidacy for the current 2011 election but has been
removed from the ballot this year due to Plaintiffs assertion of
voting regulation manipulation by the Defendants.

2. This Court has personal jurisdiction over Defendants as Defendants
have performed duties as directors or officers of a corporation
organized under the laws of Illinois. 735 ILCS 5/2-209(a)(12). None of
the Defendants reside in Illinois, and therefore venue is proper in
this county pursuant to 735 ILCS 5/2-101. Defendants have previously
filed suit in this county and Court, and therefore provides
indisputable assertion that venue in this Court is proper. The
Defendants previously filed the case United States of America Chess
Federation vs. Susan Polgar and Paul Truong in this same court. This
case should be marked as related to that other case.

3. Defendant USCF is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation in good
standing, with its principal place of business in Crossville,
Tennessee. The USCF is the official, not-for-profit United States
membership organization for chess players and chess supporters of all
ages and strengths, from beginners to Grandmasters. The average or
median age of USCF members is ten years old. The USCF is governed by a
Board of Delegates, composed of a seven-member Executive Board,
Delegates at Large, and over 125 Delegates apportioned among U.S.
States.

4. The seven-member Executive Board ("EB") are tasked with managing
the affairs of the USCF between the annual meetings of the Board of
Delegates who are the true Board of Directors for the USCF.

5. Defendant James 'Jim' Berry is the President of the USCF. Defendant
Ruth Haring is the Vice President of the USCF.

6. Defendant Randy Bauer is the Vice President of Finance of the USCF
whose term expires at the beginning of the next Board of Delegates
meeting in July 2011 to be held in Orlando, FL.

7. Gary Walters and Michael Nietman are seeking re-election to the EB
through the 2011 elections.

8. Michael Atkins is a long term employee of William Goichberg and the
Continental Chess Association, Inc. He has performed significant
compensated duties to William Goichberg prior to Atkins' tenure as a
member of the EB.

9. Allen Priest is a member or chairman of many USCF committees
including the “Forum Oversight Committee” which has acted as a Board
of Censors so as to bar any negative comments about Goichberg or any
positive comments about Sam Sloan from being posted to the USCF Issues
Forum. Allen Priest is currently seeking a position on the EB through
the 2011 elections.

10. Bill Hall is the Executive Director of the USCF who is on
contractual terms of employment with the USCF.

11. Bill Hall's contract is set to expire this year and is a topic of
renegotiation for the EB that will be comprised as a result of the
2011 election.

12. Defendant William Goichberg has been an officer of the USCF as
either President, Vice-President, Executive Director or
Member-at-Large since 1996 with minor gaps caused by being 'termed
out' from time-to-time in accordance to the Bylaws of the USCF. Under
Rule by Goichberg, the USCF has lost more than two million dollars and
is now on the brink of bankruptcy.

13. Defendant William Goichberg is also the sole owner of the
Continental Chess Association ('CCA'), a for-profit corporation, which
is the dominate force in organized, large money stake chess
tournaments ($100,000-$250,000 in prizes) across the United States,
held under the auspices of the USCF. As such he is also the largest
customer of the USCF through advertisement fees, fees for rating his
tournaments, and new membership / renewal membership acquisition.

14. In years past there were spirited election campaigns for USCF
Executive Board with many candidates running. For example, in 1999
there were 17 candidates running. In 2009 there were ten candidates
running. However, in the last few years William Goichberg has become
extremely aggressive about attacking or blocking anybody opposed to
his policies which benefit his for-profit organization at the expense
of all other organizers and the federation, so as to prevent them from
even running. As a result, those not in accordance with William
Goichberg policies have almost all given up, considering running
against the Goichberg machine to be a waste of time and money.

15. Defendant Goichberg, in an attempt to provide a false front for
his motives, commissioned the Governance Task Force ('GTF'), which was
comprised of individuals that he exerts influence over.

16. The GTF was headed by a personal friend of Defendant Goichberg
named Joseph Lux. The deputy of the GTF was Defendant Allen Priest, a
Goichberg sycophant.

17. The USCF and the Executive Board ignored the suggestion of
delegates to have the GTF members be comprised of a group of cross
political parties to ensure fairness. Instead Goichberg sycophants
were the only active members.

18. The GTF proposed by-law changes that were presented to a meeting
of the delegates held in Irvine California on August 8, 2010 after the
election period had already stated and candidates were circulating
petitions. The delegates were not informed of the nature and extent of
the changes and were led to believe that this was a routine measure.
The proposal was not announced in advance and was not in the advance
agenda. No count was made so it could not be determined if the 2/3rds
vote as required in the bylaws was met.

19. The charter of the GTF was to make recommendations for improvement
of the governance structure of the USCF.

20. A crucial change that was the outcome of the GTF and voted upon at
the annual meeting of delegates was changes in election processes.
First it required a new structure of signatures, where 15 signatures
of delegates were required from 5 different states. Second it required
USCF members to register in order to vote.

21. This crucial change was hastily implemented during an election
year, instead of providing time for the new guidelines to become
distributed appropriately to the USCF membership community and the
delegates that were not able to attend the meeting. The next election
is in 2013, only two years away.

22. Meeting minutes from the annual board of delegates meeting were
not made available until December 4, 2010, four months after meeting.
No voice or video recordings have been made available, though they
were made during the meeting.

23. These by-law changes still as of the date of this complaint have
not been posted. No copy is available anywhere. The posted by-laws are
still not reflective of the important changes that have taken place.
They are nearly one year old and are dated May 2010.

24. Election petition due dates were changed from previous years. In
past years, the last day to circulate petitions was January 10. This
year it was moved up to December 31, 2010 without adequate
announcement to the membership and the candidates. Delegates not in
attendance at the annual meeting in Irvine California on August 8,
2010 were not informed of this. Since no communications directed at
the delegates are performed by the federation, those not in attendance
in Irvine are not aware of these changes.

25. In the closing days of the petitioning period, when two candidates
who were members of the Goichberg Slate did not have enough
signatures, Defendant Bill Hall changed the 'received by' requirement
set forth in the by-laws to 'post-marked' by. This was to benefit
members of the “Goichberg Slate”, Allen Priest and Gary Walters, who
were having difficulty collecting signatures due to being unknown in
the chess community. Defendant Hall also should have known the office
was to be closed on December 31 and did not communicate that the
office was closed unless someone proactively asked about it. This
change in Bylaws is not within the power granted to Defendant Hall as
the Executive Director.

26. The Bylaws state that the petitions were to be sent to the
Election Committee, not the USCF office. No information on how to send
the petitions to the Election Committee was provided to any potential
candidates. Instead all petitions were forced to be sent to the USCF
office, the same office whose Executive Director has a vested interest
in the outcome of the election.

27. An appropriate and complete list of delegates were not available
online and to this date the full list is not known. The lack of
knowing who are the delegates (thus the true directors of the
corporation) means that the federation is filing false documents with
the State of Illinois and are only listing the EB members as the board
of directors (which is incorrect as a bylaw amendment exists stating
that the delegates are the Board of Directors, not the EB).

28. Due to the inaccurate and incomplete information on who exactly
are the members of the board of delegates, previous delegates signed
election petitions for Plaintiff Sloan, only to be rejected by the
USCF office.

29. The election committee did not receive physical copies
(scanned/faxed/photocopied) of election petitions or the proof of
receipt of petitions by the due date. They received a MS Word document
with purported names and ID's of people that signed the petitions.
This determination was used to qualify or disqualify signatures. The
USCF staff under the auspices of the Executive Director Bill Hall
validated each signature themselves. This is a conflict of interest as
there is no independence in the verification process.

30. Plaintiff was elected to the USCF Executive Board in 2006 but was
defeated when he ran for re-election in 2007 in part due to the “Fake
Sam Sloan” controversy in which another candidate for election who was
at the time allied with William Goichberg impersonated him more than
2500 times making obscene and scatological newsgroup postings.
Plaintiff is an announced candidate for the current 2011 election but
has been kicked off the ballot this year due primarily to the
manipulations of William Goichberg, the long time control person of
the USCF.

31. This action seeks to restore Sam Sloan to the ballot for the
current USCF election. Secondly, because Bill Goichberg persistently
violates the most fundamental rule involving not-for-profit
corporations in that he runs the USCF for his own personal profit and
benefit by running big money cash prize chess tournaments, Plaintiff
seeks the permanent removal of Bill Goichberg from holding any office
or position in the USCF and further seeks a court order enjoining
Goichberg from running slates of candidates for office in the USCF,
from posting articles on his websites attacking opponents of his
slates, from circulating petitions to get his candidates on the ballot
elected and from in any way interfering in the USCF Election process.

32. Defendants Gary Walters, Michael Neitman and Allen Priest
constitute the "Goichberg Slate" in the current USCF Election. Michael
Atkins and Michael Neitman are current members of the USCF Executive
Board. Gary Walters and Michael Neitman are running for re-election.
Michael Atkins is a long time employee of Bill Goichberg and has
worked as assistant director at many Goichberg tournaments.

33. Defendant William Goichberg is the control person of the USCF.
Goichberg dominates and controls the USCF Executive Board. For almost
every year since 1996, with just a few gaps, Goichberg has been a
control person, holding the positions of President, Vice-President,
Executive Director or Member-at-Large for all but a few of those
years. Goichberg was USCF President from 2005 to 2010 when he was term
limited out and became member-at-large, but he still controls the
board because, for the last three elections since 2007, no candidate
has been elected to the Executive Board without receiving the
endorsement of Goichberg. The “Goichberg Slate” swept the 2008, 2009
and 2010 elections. Under Rule by Goichberg the USCF has lost more
than two million dollars and is now on the brink of bankruptcy.

34. Defendant William Goichberg is also the sole owner of the
Continental Chess Association, a for-profit corporation. The
Continental Chess Association dominates the market for prize money
chess tournaments. During most of the weekends of every calendar year,
the Continental Chess Association holds cash prize money tournaments
around the United States in almost every state except for New Jersey,
where Goichberg is unofficially persona non grata. Goichberg holds
major big money tournaments in the major holiday weekends, such as his
“World Open” held in Philadelphia on July 4th weekend with Guaranteed
Cash Prizes of $225,000, the Chicago Open with $100,000 Guaranteed
Cash Prizes, the North American Open in Las Vegas and Philadelphia
Open with similar prizes, and until 2009 the Foxwoods Open following
which the Foxwoods Casino kicked him out. In addition to these major
tournaments, Goichberg holds minor tournaments on most weekends with
cash prizes ranging from about $4,000 to about $10,000 each.

35. All of these cash prize money tournaments are held under the
auspices of the USCF. They are all USCF Rated. They are all advertised
in Chess Life magazine. Goichberg so dominates the market for prize
money tournaments that it has proven nearly impossible for other
tournament organizers to compete with him. Several organizers who have
tried to compete against Goichberg have suffered severe financial
losses and some have even gone bankrupt.

36. In years past there were spirited election campaigns for USCF
Executive Board with many candidates running. For example, in 1999
there were 17 candidates running. In 2009 there were ten candidates
running. For many years Goichberg was a pariah in the USCF due to his
running exclusively big money tournaments, often in gambling casinos,
especially since the median age for USCF members is 10 years old.
Goichberg, knowing he could not get elected, did not run. However, in
the last few years Goichberg has become extremely aggressive about
attacking or blocking anybody opposed to his policies so as to prevent
them from even running. As a result, those not in accordance with
Goichberg policies have almost all given up, considering running
against the Goichberg machine to be a waste of time and money.

37. Among the things that Goichberg does to stop anybody not blessed
by him from running or being elected is he sends out huge mass
mailings primarily advertising his prize money tournaments but also
telling the voters whom to vote for. Goichberg typically mails 17,000
(seventeen thousand) postcards in a batch. Goichberg also posts on his
tournament websites including http://www.chesstour.com/ articles
attacking and ridiculing any candidate not favored or endorsed by
Goichberg, for example at http://www.checkmate.us/ . Goichberg also
hires assistant directors for his tournaments who also campaign for
his candidates while running his tournaments and while making pairings
and ruling on disputes.

38. Not satisfied with the fact that he already has a virtual monopoly
on big time cash prize money chess tournaments and he has such a lock
on the elections that almost all would-be candidates have given up
trying to run against him, Goichberg now is trying to avoid even
having to go to the trouble to run candidates for election by changing
the election rules so as to make it virtually impossible for anybody
not nominated by Goichberg even to get on the ballot.

39. In order to do this a “Governance Task Force” was created
dominated by Goichberg himself plus Goichberg sycophants Joe Lux and
Allen Priest. Joe Lux was made the Chairman. This “Governance Task
Force” was originally set up to try to address the problems created by
the fact that Goichberg had the USCF in his iron grip. A fatal error
was made by allowing Goichberg to serve on a committee which was
supposed to deal with the problems caused by Goichberg. Goichberg
proceeded to take control of the committee.

40. The result was a proposal by Goichberg to disenfranchise the
30,000 voting members of the USCF and to give control of the election
process to the 125 delegates. Since a high percentage of the delegates
are employees of Goichberg working as assistant directors in the prize
money tournaments held by Goichberg around the USA and all the
delegates from New York State are personally appointed by Goichberg,
this meant that Goichberg would virtually control who got on the
ballot. The original Goichberg proposal was that in order to get on
the ballot a prospective candidate would need to obtain the signatures
of 40 of the 125 delegates from 15 different states. Since Goichberg
holds tournaments in more than 15 different states and more than 40
delegates either work for Goichberg or are beholding to Goichberg and
since nobody else does this, this meant that Goichberg would decide
who got on the ballot.

41. At the USCF Delegates meeting in Irvine, California in August
2010, in response to objections to the Draconian Rules proposed by
Goichberg, Goichberg agreed to reduce the number to 25 delegates from
15 different states. Goichberg stated at a by-laws committee meeting
chaired by Goichberg sycophant Allen Priest that 25 delegates should
be required to sign because in the past some of the candidates had
been “rather poor”.

42. There were still grumblings about this so as the USCF Delegates
meeting held on August 7, 2010 in Irvine, California a motion was made
to require that candidates for election obtain the signatures of at
least 50 voting members of whom at least 15 must be delegates
representing at least 5 different states. The maker of this motion was
Allen Priest who himself was a candidate for election. This motion
passed with virtually no debate or discussion. Several delegates who
were present and who voted in favor of the motion have since stated
that they did not know what the motion was as it was not explained nor
was in announced in advance and they would never have voted for this
motion had they known what it was.

43. The by-laws require that there be a 2/3rds vote for any by-law
change, especially those not included on the advance agenda. This
by-law change was not in the advance agenda. No count was taken or
show of hands to see if the 2/3rds requirement had been met.

44. Since the election campaign was already underway and several
prospective candidates including Gary Walters were circulating the
meeting room asking delegates to sign their petitions, this by-law
change should not have taken effect until the next election cycle,
which will be in 2012. However, the Goichberg controlled USCF office
has allowed this by-law change to become effective retroactively so
that it controls the current election campaign which had already been
started before this by law change had been voted upon.

45. Prior to this change, in order to get on the ballot, a candidate
needed the signatures of 30 adult voting members of which there are
about 30,000. After this change, one needed 50 signatures of adult
voting members of which at least 15 must be delegates representing at
least 5 different states. With only 125 delegates assuming all the
positions are filled (which is not the case) this made it vastly more
difficult.

46. In spite of the extreme difficulty of meeting these vastly more
difficult requirements, Candidate Sam Sloan circulated petitions and
obtained the signatures of 90 members of which 70 ruled valid. These
70 signatures including 16 delegates representing 11 different states.
Thus Sloan easily met the requirements.

47. Nevertheless, Goichberg Stooge Bill Hall ruled that 4 of those
signatures were invalid and thereupon has kicked Sloan off the ballot.
Most of those allegedly invalid signatures are from the State of New
Jersey where Goichberg is persona non grata. The three New Jersey
delegates whose signatures were ruled invalid were former USCF
President Leroy Dubeck, Steve Ferrero and Aaron Kiedes. They also
invalidated the signature of Gary Alan Fine of Illinois and Eric
Johnson of Pennsylvania.

48. At the same time a member of the Goichberg Slate, Allen Priest,
did not have enough signatures even though Goichberg was going around
the North American Open where he was the director on December 30, 2010
(the day before the deadline) twisting the arms of delegates to get
them to sign for Priest. Bill Hall extended the deadline for the
benefit of Allen Priest and Gary Walters (neither of whom are
tournament chess players and are only candidates as a result of being
Goichberg stooges) by extending the deadline so that the petitions did
not have to be received but only mailed by December 31.

49. Candidate Sam Sloan has never to this day been notified that he
has been kicked off the ballot. Page 10 of the February Chess Life
states that nominating petitions have been received from five
candidates, Sevan Muradian, Mike Nietman, Allen Priest, Sam Sloan and
Gary Walters. However, the April Chess Life, page 11 only lists the
names and candidates of four candidates, omitting Sam Sloan.

50. Having eliminated one candidate by having his signatures ruled
invalid, Goichberg is now attacking the remaining non-Goichberg
candidate by stating that he is not “loyal” to the USCF because he
scheduled a chess tournament to be held on the same weekend as a
Goichberg tournament, the Midwest Class tournament. See
http://www.checkmate.us/muradian.htm

WHEREFORE, for these any other reasons more fully set forth in the
accompanying affidavits and exhibits, Plaintiff demands the following
relief:

1. An Order Restoring Sam Sloan to the ballot for the coming USCF election.

2. An order removing William Goichberg from the board and permanently
barring William Goichberg from holding any office in the USCF or from
running slates of candidates or influencing the results of elections
through post card mailings, websites and other means as long as he
continues to hold large cash prize big money chess tournaments for
profit associated with the USCF.


Respectfully Submitted,
Sam Sloan

A message from Mr. Sevan Muradian

Disclaimer: As a matter of fairness, I will publish articles and information from all credible parties when I receive them.

Registering to Vote Requirement
2011 USCF Executive Board Elections

You are receiving this email as you are an affiliate of the US Chess Federation and I am requesting from you a call to action to assist in a very important matter facing the USCF membership community.

This year in order for members to vote, members MUST register, or their voice will be lost in the election. This new rule was approved at the 2010 Delegates meeting. No Vote, No Voice!

I am requesting that you forward this email to your chess email lists, post the content on your websites, make Twitter and Facebook posts - anything to get the word out. Normally there are over 35,000 voting members that would receive ballots. So far only 1216 people have registered to vote!

Voters must be 16 years of age or older to register. Remember family memberships are entitled to vote for anyone that is 16 or older in that family membership!

To register to vote, members will need their USCF ID, Date of Birth, and their PIN number. Their PIN number can be found on their Chess Life mailing label or on their TLA Newsletter. Once this information is handy visit this website - https://secure2.uschess.org/voter-registration.php and they will be able to register to vote.

For those of you that do not know me, I am Sevan A. Muradian. I am a candidate in the 2011 USCF Executive Board Elections. You can follow my campaign at http://www.youruscf.com. The website is operational and there is a feature to sign-up to automatically be notified of new content.

I urge you to visit the website and communicate it out to your chess network.

Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Alexander Bakh

Disclaimer: I received this article from various parties. As a matter of fairness, I will publish articles, letters, and information from both parties when I receive them. If the USCF or other members of the Karpov camp would like to address these issues, I would be happy to publish their response as well.

No queen in the head

Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Alexander Bakh are connected by common corruption interests
Timur Vassiliev, Alexey Bondarev

There are plenty of versions on the real background of the “chess war”, artificially inflated by liberal media. Nevertheless, analysts say that the main reason of the illegitimate nomination of Anatoly Karpov for the position of the FIDE President is exclusively about commercial interests.

We remind you that on the 14th May this year, some members of the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation, in a serious violation of the Statutes of the RCF, decided to “nominate” from our country the candidacy of Mr. Karpov. And the most active role in this “ plot of the doomed” was played by the closest Karpov’s associates – ex-Champion Garry Kasparov and Chairman of the RCF Board
Alexander Bakh.

Experts indicate that the law representatives have had serious questions to each of the above-mentioned persons. And the revolt in the RCF is called first of all, to distract the attention of the media from a serious of criminal scandals, where this troika of leading conspirators were involved.

Karpov – impostor and criminal lobbyist

Anatoly Karpov adores telling journalists about his “great experience of a public figure”. Especially frequently he mentions “large-scale fruitful activities while being the Head of the Russian Peace Foundation”. The interviewers are moved by this. Real employees of the RPF are tired of denying that they have anything to do with this pushy impostor.

Let’s cite extracts from the letter of Deputy Chairman of the Russian Peace Foundation Elena Soutormina dated 22 May 2010 (the scanned copy is attached), to the Russian department of the “Voice of America”:

“Karpov has never been Chairman of the Russian Peace Foundation. Karpov is a head of the International Association of Peace Foundations, uniting Peace Foundations of the CIS countries.

RPF as a founder of IAPF, for several years is in a serious conflict with Karpov, accusing him of his total inactivity and gross violation of the IAPF Statutes. It is not incidental that the name of the Association headed by Karpov, is unknown to all. It is not the first time when Karpov self-appoints and self-calls himself Head of RPF.

When Karpov was elected (2006) to the Public Chamber of RF, he wrote himself in an application form, that he is “Chairman of the RPF Board”, which caused a real scandal. This lie caused resentment of the RPF active participants, and was disavowed. The RPF Board absolutely protests against this serious radio-station’s using of a non-reliable facts as the basis for “great experience of Karpov in public organizations”, although Karpov in fact destroyed IAPF, which you can read about and get proof if you read the RPF documents for the last six years..”

We need to note that Mr. Karpov has been a member of the Public Chamber for one only term, after that he became a non-grata person. But he is not ashamed of calling himself Head of peaceful Foundation.

Another myth is Karpov’s well-known statement that he “opened 700 chess schools for kids in Russia”. In fact according to the numerous evidence of eye-witnesses, these “schools” were meant for “milking sponsors, distributing budget or public money”.

“International achievements of Mr. Karpov, who is a UNISEF Ambassador (UN Children’s Foundation) are also strongly inflated, if not more than that. However, by all indications, they are as profitable as the mentioned “children’s chess schools”.

In 2003-2005 the former Champion was actively travelling around the world, bravely “fighting” with the illnesses caused by iodine-deficiency. He was widely advertising a very expensive medicine “Iodomarine”, manufactured by a German Pharmaceutical company “Berlin-Chemie AG”. That is he was a commercial lobbyist. According to the experts’ opinions, such “public activities” is remunerated in the amounts of millions of USD.

As for the money raising for the Haiti people, victims of the destructive earthquake in January 2010, Karpov made a crushing defeat out of this. The Russian branch of UNISEF managed to raise miserable 500, 000 rubles to help people in Haiti. For comparison, all the world raised more than 0,5 billion, and in London a 7-year old boy raised 50 mln pounds.

Commercial activities of Karpov is also accompanied by big corruption scandals (details in the article Endgame of a naked king).

Briefly, Mr. Karpov, during various periods of time, has been involved in criminal bank activities, in realizing “forged schemes” of selling gas fields and in promoting in large scales to the Russian market of some commodities which were not in accordance with any standards.

Besides, he is incriminated with participation in a swindle with “people’s cars”, in illegal deals with budget monies, provided for the destruction of chemical weapons, and lobbying of commercial interests of North Caucasus vodka barons. So it is not an incident, as media noted, that “there is a suffocating corruption tail” behind Karpov, and in this connection the ex-Champion required an urgent “image correction”. Despite more than sizeable income, fantastic parsimony of the FIDE Presidential candidate is very impressive.

On the 17th May in New York there was a fund-raising event for the “electoral foundation” of A. Karpov. In the “charity soiree!” G. Kasparov took part. He is now a bosom friend of Karpov (this surrealistic tandem, formed on the principle of pullpush) has been named by some journalists as Karkas).

The show organizers providently hid the exact number of donations, raised in favour of the millionaire. But from some scarce data, which became public, the entire world learnt the real price of “KarKas”.

The main auction lot – dinner for 8 with Kasparov in a 5-star hotel was sold for a miserable amount of 4.100 USD. A pair of paupers in the Moscow center during rush hour, is able to raise more money, provided they are not lazy.

Kasparov – international conman

It is common knowledge that another former Chess Champion Garry Kasparov (Weinstein) is a political failure. But very little is known about his business career. Which, we should note, is very peculiar.

During Communist times (1990), Kasparov infiltrated the co-founders of “Echo Moscow” radio station, when he bought cheaply a large number of their shares. In the mid 90s he profitably sold his shares to the odious media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky.

At the same time, approximately, Mr. Kasparov founded and led the company “Kasparov-Consulting” with a head-quarters in London, “to consult Western investors” (most likely regarding capturing of Russian property during the gangster lawlessness period) and at the same time, to organize freight air charters.

In 1996 together with Max Dlugi, US citizen, Mr. Kasparov founded an investment foundation “Russia Growth Fund”, two years after this foundation purchased 50,42% (controlling stake) of the Solikamsk magnesium plant.

Information: “Russia Growth Fund “ – an investment interval foundation, registered in the offshore in Virgin Islands. The managing company Allin Blitz&Co, “received registration” in Bermuda (also in offshore). The size of their actives was never made public. Main investments of RGF were made into “medium size companies in the CIS countries, which were underevaluated by market”.

In August 2003 Max Dlugi was fired from the position of the Board of Directors Chairman of the Solikamsk Plant. Next may a criminal case was started against him with an accusation of very large theft of the plant’s financial means.

As it is written in the site of the Moscow Arbitrage, the basis for the case of M. Dlugy’s prosecution was a bill operation of 2003, when a Cyprus company sold bills for 3 mln USD to three St. Petersburg companies. The Solikamsk plant was a guarantor in this transaction, and it had to pay the bills, if the St. Petersburg companies cannot do this. They did not do it, and the bills were produced to be paid to the Solikamsk plant. A typical scheme of theft and criminal export of the actives abroad.

In April 2005 M. Dlugy who was hiding from the investigation, was stopped in the Sheremetyevo airport by the FSB officers, and then he was sent to the Perm prison. However, the same year’s December Mr. Dlugi was acquitted by the Solikamsk city court. They say that it was Garry Kasparov who used all his connections in order to save his accomplice from prison, and he “made an agreement” with a judge.

This is not all. In 1998 Kasparov Chess Online Inc (the title speaks for itself) received a loan of 1.6 mln USD from First International Bank of Israel – for the development of the world chess Internet-portal.

According to the Business Week magazine, the establishment of the company and its site cost 9 mln USD. The major part of the means was given by the Israeli investors. Flashy offices were opened in New-York, Tel-Aviv and Moscow.

However, at the end of 2002 the portal suddenly “stopped working”. The deceived Israeli citizens filed a suit in the court of the US Delaware state (where the Kasparov company was registered- again an offshore zone), with a request to return the loan, but as a result, they failed to get even one shekel from the debtor.

Next year Kasparov declared that he has moved all his Russian business-actives abroad. In 2005 he stopped participating in chess tournaments, engaging himself in the “struggle with the Putin regime”. But Kasparov always treated politics as some special type of business, according to his own confession. But from such “business” he only has damages.

If we make minimal calculations, the organization of just one Marche of Dissidents” cost him in average 10,000 USD. Another 50,000 USD was a monthly budget for bodyguards, an extensive staff of Other Russia, United Citizen’s Front, oppositional sites and other “current expenses”. Of course, a runaway oligarch Leonid Nevzlin still provides him with some peanuts. But only peanuts.

There is information that lately Mr. Kasparov has overspent a lot. So at the meeting with the members of the Moscow branch of Solidarity movement (24 March 2010) “this implacable fighter against the regime” said that he is tired of personally “sponsoring the organization” and called on regional branches for “self-financing”. After this there has been a mass exodus of activists from Solidarity, as they are used to doing nothing, empty chatter and sweet freebies.

Probably, participating in the Karpov-Bakh intrigues, Kasparov thinks to attract additional financing for his “opposition activities”. (and it is even scary to think what possibilities would open in “dividing” FIDE money in case Karpov wins). However, by all indications, the matters with the”conspirators” are going from bad to worse. And if it continues like this, they will most unlikely to earn their Big Mac in the New York Macdonalds.

Bakh – efficient distributor of stolen

Alexander Bakh is as active in criminal commerce as Karpov and Kasparov. During Soviet times, A. Bakh, originating from Latvia, was an ordinary employee of the Leningrad Sports Committee. Until his fate brought him together with the “official chess player” Anatoly Karpov. Which whom, according to the rumours, Bakh was connected for a long time by some not-platonic relations.

After his transfer to Moscow, Bakh is employed by a Soviet sports Committee chess department. In 1990 – he is Executive Director of the USSR Chess Federation, and after the USSR collapse he is Head of the Association of Chess Federations. In the Russian Chess Federation Mr. Bakh occupies offices since 2003 – at the 9th Congress (19 February 2010) he was elected Chairman of the Board.

On several occasions the documents from regional chess federations appeared in the internet, and their representatives expressed their dissatisfaction with the “politics of A. Bakh, as a result all the money attracted to chess, stays in Moscow, in the vicinity of the RCF direction”.

Occasionally there is some other information which becomes public knowledge, which causes some speculations. For example, the “chess fuhrer” (as 10th World Champion Boris Spassky once called Mr. Bakh, in his interview to the Freedom radio station) every time refuses to present a financial report on the organization of the annual Mikhail Tal memorial, as he considers this “incorrect”.

The situation with the RCF financial accounting is very stressful. Mr. Bakh personally deals with the money (both coming from sponsors and state resources) – privately doing this – he is both accountant and auditor. Despite the fact that the RCF is a public organization, and not a private enterprise of some spicy services. Last year 500,000 USD were given for the Tal Memorial organization. The prize fund was 200,000 USD. The rest (60% is an unbelievable amount even in the scale of bureaucratic “bribes”) the organizers have named as “organizational expenses”. And Tal Memorial is not the only chess event organized in the country.

The dissatisfaction of the work by the RCB Executive Board is heard from respected Grandmasters, including Alexandra Kosteniuk. The current Women’s World Champion has not received a single ruble for her preparation for tournaments from the Federation led by Mr. Bakh. What can we then say about poor chess players from the regions?

There is total mess in children’s chess. The experts state that in the youth and junior chess Russia is gradually stepping behind former USSR republics. Official championships turn into commercial open-tournaments. The participation in these “competitions” can be simply bought, and this is what wealthy parents do, if they want to see their spoilt brats as “champions”. Very often talented children from poor families have no possibilities to reach the chess Olympus.

Those who criticize non-effective policy of Mr. Bakh think that the structure of the current chess training of children is based on grass root principle, and is not aimed at reaching some top professionalism. The majority of trainers want to “train” those boys and girls who have some potential for some openings knowledge, and then – they do not care. This means a mass aiming at making quick money. Nobody is interested in future fate of such half-trainees.

Besides , youth events very often are organized with gross violations of security and safety norms. In May 2007 in Kostroma there was a terrible case. A ceramic statue fell on a 5-year-old daughter of a chess trainer Elena Razboinikova, in the hall. The child received serious traumas of her skull. This unfortunate tournament was taking place in the building of philarmony – an old building which was restored last time in 1986.

Interesting to note: when Bakh came to power to the RCF, the number of the victories of Russian chess players reduced drastically. In February 2005 around 30 heads of regional chess federations wrote an angry letter to the RCF President. We allow ourselves to cite this letter:

“Further to the undigested decision of the Russian national team a real team was not created, able to strive for gold medals. As a result, Russia for the first time did not win the Chess Olympiad. First in several years Russia did not win gold medals in team results in youth World and European championships. One of the reasons of the negative events in the RCF is that Executive Director A. Bakh for a year and a half of his work did not manage to create a system of effective interaction of the leaders of regional and interregional federations, professional chess players. All this negatively affects the rhythm of chess development in Russia, and does not add any authority to the Russian chess in international level, and does not allow to increase the level of the popularity of chess, and, as a consequence the level of payment of professional chess players, trainers and chess organizers”.

The letter is about the results at the Chess Olympiad 2004 in Calvia (Spain, Mallorca). Russian men’s team was 2nd, and women – 3rd. The further Olympiads – Turin 2006 and Dresden 2008 showed that the Russian men did not get into the three prize winners , Women were 2nd in Turin, and in Dresden were 5th. Of course there was the last drop…

Nevertheless, at the Dresden Olympiad Mr. Bakh was at the same time a coach and men’s team captain. And this is when Mr. Bakh (a Math teacher) did not bring up and could not have brought up any single student.

In his interview to the Sport-Express newspaper A. Bakh gave the following reply on the reasons of loss of the Russian teams – “ although I do not like this term and understand even it does sound convincingly, however in some sense we were not lucky”.

To comment this – is not to respect themselves. Chess circles it is not a secret, that following the instructions of Mr. Bakh, the members of large events are selected “on the OPG principle”. As for the RCF documents, regulating the process of selection to the Russian teams, are in fact, secretive.

What is more shocking, a series of shameful failures was not an obstacle for Mr. Bakh to receive a Friendship award (President’s decree dated 28.12.09) – “for contribution in the development of physical culture and many years fair work and on the occasion of 70th anniversary” (read about his “merits” above). It is not surprise that in chess environment another series of gossips about so-called “gay lobby” which is said to support Mr. Bakh.

It is funny that two years ago Mr. Bakh became “a full academician of European Academy of Sciences”, and besides “awardee of a silver medal of Peter Kapitsa”. Besides, false “regalia” in this self-made “Academy” can be obtained by anyone on available price.

After the elections of new leadership of RCF at the congress there was a detailed auditor’ check. According to some information, the auditors found out in the financial activities of Mr. Bakh some gross violations. Soon the results of this audit shall be made public. This very unpleasant fact according to the opinion of analysts, and became the main reason of Bakh’s participation in the “plot of the doomed”.

We have the only to hope that very soon the situation around scandalous events in the RCF, will be clear. And the Supervisory Board of the Russian Chess Federation will succeed corruption rubbles, made during long years of the “chess fuhrer’s” power and his closest entourage.