According to IM Jack Peters in his latest column in the Los Angeles Times, USCF President Beatriz Marinello "ordered the firing of 17 employees, more than a third of the staff ." Click on chess at latimes.com for the complete column. George Mirijanian

Subject: The Alternative Chess Groups Are Here, More on the Way From: "Jane Addams" Date: 8/27/2003 7:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time Message-id: Checking with some friends, it looks like there are already several viable alternatives to USCF. Perhaps we should start looking at using USCF AND another...

Although I know I am asking this question to a potentially hostile audience of chess players, it is a legitimate question to which I hope someone has a legitimate answer, or at least a reasonable opinion. Why do chess players manage the business of chess? The Commissioner of the NBA is not a basketball player, but rather the former lawyer for the former-commissioner. The Commissioner of the...

Just received a flier from the CCA for a big tournament to be held in Colorado in a few weeks. I note out of interest that this CCA event offers thousands of dollars in prize funds and comes only two weeks after the Colorado Open, the most important local and historical chess event in the state run by friend and longtime organizer, Buck Buchanan, who has been working his ass off for Colorado...

Dear Grandma, Although I know that Grandpa hates chess, I have decided to pick some wonderful chess related gifts for him this year, that I know you will approve of. First has Grandpa ever heard of the Amazing Turk? I didn't think so. The Amazing Turk was really not a person and he wasn't Turkish. In fact he was an automaton. There's this really great book that I got a fabulous deal on, all...

Orwell or Botvinnik? 200 Words by Lev Khariton It is no secret that today we are living with a host (I would say a myriad) of myths that we ourselves have built up over the years. For example, George Orwell, doubtless an outstanding writer and in no less degree a visionary, in his iconoclastic utopia “84” predicted the break-up of the Soviet Empire. He is being remembered now, the year of his...

Just got this from the ChessBase site: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1142 Looks like CNN will cover all the games of GK's upcoming match against the computer. This supports what I've been saying about chess having the potential to be a reasonably popular leisure activity, and USCF thriving from it. CNN, last time I looked, doesn't waste time or money on things people don't...

PROPHET WITHOUT HONOR By Larry Parr These two newspaper columns by GM Larry Evans were reprinted with permission from THE CHESS BEAT (Pergamon Press, 1981, page 57). Bear in mind that they were written in 1978! The chess politicos were extremely unhappy with these reports by GM Evans. Does anything sound familiar? USCF IN TROUBLE (#147, 1978)

The lawsuit is a public document filed in the State Courts of California, so none of my limited knowledge on the suit is confidential. Although I have not had an opportunity to read the suit, it is my general understanding that one of the many counts of the complaint is that Peterson's USCF affiliate was allegedly denied certain so-called contractual rights to receive mailing labels, have TLA's...

I've been paying the USCF dues for years. I've followed the politics in an off-hand kind of way & usually did not like what I was seeing - Especially with some of the ED's who got huge golden parachutes when leaving their job, without the organization doing much better. Over the years, each time the USCF raised the dues, we continueing members 'swallowed it', whether we thought the magazine &...

One of the things that is interesting about history, is that it gives us lots of examples of what works and what doesn't in particular situations. There are certainly times, where democratic decision making is greatly desired and preferred, but there are also times when we need to invest some trust and a little prayer in a benevolent dictator(s) who will come in knock some heads, shake up some...

Those in power won't step aside so that those who know what they're doing can take charge.

On 27 Aug 2003 16:33:26 GMT, (Jeremy Spinrad) wrote: Another poster mentioned a Canadian provincial leader who was a former chess federation member; let me introduce a US politician-chessplayer you may never have heard of. John J Crittenden, an attorney general under 3 presidents, governor of Kentucky, and possibly the most important influence in keeping Kentucky...

I have seen that name FOREVER in chess but couldn't tell you in a million years who the @#$)(*@)#$*@#$ he is. Help!

Why I quit!

I went on their site today, and there is no contact address, anywhere. Just a lot of e-mail links to titles, no names. This is an online trend with a lot of businesses...suddenly there's no brick and mortar anymore, just cyberspace... Where is FIDE? Where are the offices? Are they swank, with fountains out in the front and hot young secretaries answering phones from hairy old grandmasters? I...

How much emphasis does the USCF and/or U.S. Chess Trust put on "planned giving?" I know we have serious immediate needs, but it's a lot easier for people to give in their wills for example than to give during their lifetime. I think I have seen a small blurb in ChessLife about this, but does someone go out (like most colleges do through a Director of Planned Giving), and visit potentially...

$1000, but no 2200 floors.

Ponomariov-Kasparov? Another "no-match" - like Alekhine-Botvinnik Well, there was the small problem of Alekhine's death... or Fischer-Karpov? Instead of the "match of the millennium" chess fans will be left guessing which of the two is the stronger (or the weaker!) player. Does ANYONE seriously think that Ponomariov is the stronger player?

USCF Fires 17 staff members, but no big deal I was shocked to read that on August 20 the USCF fired 17 members of its staff, but on closer look it might not be that big a deal. In my postings last month entitled "Problems with Frank Niro" I predicted that Chess Life Editor Peter Kurzdorfer would be fired and my prediction has proven correct. Peter Kurzdorfer never came into the office. He...