"Sam Sloan" wrote

(Miriling) wrote:
In the view of Grandmaster Nigel Short, Sam Sloan is a chess journalist.
Responding on December 16 in the ChessCafe.com Bulletin Board to a discussion
of the late GM Tony Miles, Short comments about Miles' actions at the 1986
Chess Olympiad in Dubai, where Miles, a member of the team selection committee
put himself on top board for England, even though he was ranked at the time no
higher than fourth among British players and Short was England's top-rated
player.
Short writes:
"After the American chess journalist, Sam Sloan, accused Miles in the bulletin
of having abused his authority, Miles punched him to the ground."
GM Short is not the only one who considers Sloan a chess journalist. There are
many others, including myself, who also view him as one.


Thank you for pointing out this article by Short, as I had not seen
it.

In the first place, I certainly was an "American Chess Journalist" at
the time of this article. I was working for a newspaper, The Gulf
News, and writing daily reports on the World Chess Olympiad which then
taking place in Dubai.

Here is what Short writes, as published in the Telegraph at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main...2F11%2F30%2Fch
:
"Moving on to Mr Horton's point : The Dubai Olympiad in late 1986
was, in my opinion, a pivotal moment in Tony's career. He had been
Britain's number one for around a decade or so but by then it was
clear to most people apart from himself that his time was up. On the
most recent July 1st 1986 rating list I was rated 2615 (ninth in the
world) Nunn 2590 (sixteenth) and Miles 2570 (equal twenty-fourth). I
might add that I had become Britain's first ever Candidate the
previous year, a feat Tony never achieved. Nevertheless I found myself
playing on board 3 behind Miles (1) and Nunn (2) , both of whom,
incidentally, were on the selection committee (I wasn't). Garry
Kasparov, for one, was speechless when I informed him that he would
not be facing me. After the American chess journalist , Sam Sloan,
accused Miles in the bulletin of having abused his authority, Miles
punched him to the ground. This was clearly a touchy subject. England
eventually won the silver medals. Miles scored an unimpressive 4½/9 on
board 1 whereas I won the gold medal on board three."


Sam, take note of this point forward. See below.

What actually happened is as follows:

Nigel Short was playing third board for England even though Short was
ranked number nine in the world and the two players above him were
ranked below him on the world ranking list.

In the match England vs. USA, Short was playing Lubamir Kavalek. I
happened to walk up to Jon Tisdall who was covering the Olympiad for
UPI and asked him why Short was playing Board Three. Tisdall
wisecracked: "Whoever shouts the loudest gets the highest board."

Short crushed Kavalek in fine style and I decided to use that game as
a feature in my chess column the following morning. In my lead-up to
the game I wrote:

"The English are said to have a very rational system for selecting
board order. Whoever shouts the loudest gets the highest board. That
is the reason why Nigel Short, who is ranked ninth in the world, is
playing board three for England. Here is his game yesterday against
Kavalek".

My remark was just a newspaper columnist's quip. I did not think
anything about it. I did not even think about who was on board one or
two for England.

The hosts to the Olympiad had set up a bar across from the playing
hall with drinking and dancing available. I did not usually go to the
bar but I did the following night which I believe was a rest day.

I was sitting next to David Goodman, the AP Reporter from England.
Tony Miles came up to me and said, "Are you the person who wrote the
chess collumn in the Gulf News yesterday?"

Thinking that he was going to congratulate me for my fine work, I
replied "Yes, I am."

He immediately slapped me very hard.

I am a big boy. I went to a tough school where I was often hit. So, I
did not cry or anything like that. However, several other people at
the table where we were sitting became hysterical, especially David
Goodman who was sitting right next to me. I do not remember who else
was at the table, but the table was full of chess journalists and
famous chess personalities.

I started asking the others why Miles had slapped me. I could not
understand it. I had not written anything, good or bad, about Miles. I
had not even mentioned his name.

Finally, it was explained to me. I had written, "The English are said
to have a very rational system for selecting board order. Whoever
shouts the loudest gets the highest board."

Tony Miles was playing first board for England. Therefore, he had
taken my remark as a personal insult.

At the time, I did not remember where I had heard this. I knew that
somebody had said this, but I did not remember that it was Tisdall.
So, I asked around. I remembered speaking to Tisdall that day, so I
asked him.

"Yea, I said that", was Tisdall's reply.

Sam, from the previous mark, this writing of yours is lucid, concise and actually makes sense. I enjoyed reading it. If your posts
always followed this type of structure, you would not receive as much guff on this forum as you normally do. Based on this, you may
actually have a talent for written communication, provided the related incidents are actually true, which I have no reason to doubt
(other than previous experience reading your stuff). Even if not true, as fiction it is quite readable.


I still would like to know: Was Tisdall's quip, which I published
without attribution in the Gulf News, based on his actual knowledge of
the situation in England, or was it just a sarcastic remark or a joke?

Sam Sloan

Yet the last paragraph is a microcosm of your ineptitude. Are you really naive enough to assume that such an outlandish statement
is fact? The average ten year old has better grasp of irony than this. Are you so unprofessional as to not check out such a
comment before publishing it, given the inflammatory aspect and the fact that you insinuated it to be true? You said yourself it
was a wisecrack, man, and that it was just a quip. Leave it at that! It is this type of thing that makes people think of
derogatory words to describe you: Sleaze; Scum; Slimebag. Why do you court this type of image?

REC