Benjamin Attacks Sam Sloan in New In Chess
Dear New In Chess,
Your current issue contains an attack on me by Joel Benjamin. His
article has absolutely no basis in fact. I would like to be given the
opportunity to respond. However, I do not have your magazine. Could
you please e-mail me the entire article by Benjamin and then I will
respond?
The article by Benjamin states in part:
"Anderson received much criticism from Sam Sloan, a Board member
despite being a convicted felon." He goes on to say that,
"Reportedly, Merrill Lynch lost interest in sponsorship when they
found Sloan's persistent Internet criticisms and learned about his
checkered past (and perhaps his website of questionable content)."
This is all in an article about the US Championship.
Let me just state briefly that in no way, shape or form have I ever
criticized Erik Anderson. However, I was severely critical of a plan
to play the US Championship online over the Internet. It was said that
this plan originated from Erik Anderson. However, since I have never
spoken to Erik Anderson in my life, nor have I ever met the man, I
have no way of knowing whether the Internet plan, which was announced
by Bill Goichberg on the USCF Home Page on October 7, 2006, was Erik
Anderson's plan or not.
What I do know is that of all the grandmasters polled, only one did
not object to playing the US Championship over the Internet. That was
Joel Benjamin. Most of our other top grandmasters, including
especially Hikaru Nakamura, objected vehemently to any plan to play
the US Championship over the Internet. I believe that games played
over the Internet do not count for title norms, ratings or
qualification to the World Championship Cycle and thus would not be
suitable for a US Championship.
The claim that Merrill Lynch was interested in sponsoring the US
Championship was nothing more than a rumor that circulated in May,
2006, three months before I was elected to the board. I know of no
credible source for the claim that Merrill, Lynch ever expressed an
interest in sponsoring the US Championship.
As to the claim that I was ever critical of Erik Anderson, an Internet
search will reveal several postings by an anonymous person known as
"The Fake Sam Sloan". This is a posting by an unknown person who, for
the past two years since June 25, 2005, has been posting scurrilous
attacks over my name. One example is a posting entitled "Erik Anderson
is a Crook". This was posted from email address
That is NOT my email address. That is one of the email addresses used
by the Fake Sam Sloan. An examination of the IP Address shows that it
came from an AOL Proxy Server. I would imagine that Joel Benjamin
should know the difference between the Fake Sam Sloan and the Real Sam
Sloan.
Similarly, a posting dated December 26, 2006 entitled "The USCF must
get rid of Goichberg and Erik Anderson" was from the same email
address of the Fake Sam Sloan. Here I must explain that a trick often
utilized by the Fake Sam Sloan is to take something actually I wrote
and posted to another place and change just a few words before
reposting. This is one such case and the reason why it looks like
something I wrote.
When I demanded that the Executive Board conduct an investigation to
identify the Fake Sam Sloan, the board refused. This has led to
suspicious that the Fake Sam Sloan might be someone close to the
board.
On December 5, 2006 on the USCF Home Page the following appeared:
"Sam Sloan censured by Executive Board". I was censured for three
private emails I sent to board members only which discussed the
original May, 2000 original contract between the USCF and Erik
Anderson. The posting of my private emails sent to my fellow board
members on the USCF Home Page was clearly improper and may have caused
some embarrassment to Mr. Anderson. For that, Bill Goichberg and Joel
Channing must be blamed, not me. Mr. Anderson and the general chess
playing public would never have known about those three emails had not
Goichberg and Channing posted them publicly.
On October 7, 2006, Bill Goichberg announced on the USCF Home page
that the 2007 the US Championship will be a 32 player event consisting
primarily of two-game knockout matches, some of which may be played
online. Goichberg claimed that this announcement had been authorized
by Erik Anderson. In reality, however, Erik Anderson had never agreed
to sponsor this event.
I am hereby demanding an apology from Grandmaster Joel Benjamin. He
should never have published such outrageously false statements in a
wide circulation magazine like "New In Chess" without checking his
facts.
Sam Sloan