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Date: 22 Jun 2008 07:30:56
From: samsloan
Subject: Chessville claims Chess Life to "go under"
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The Chessville website, which calls itself the most popular chess
website, has an article this week which states that Chess Life
magazine will go under. This article was apparently written by Phil
Innes.
The article reflects many claims to be found on Susan Polgar's
http://www.chessdiscussion.com website. Innes is known to be in close
contact with Susan Polgar. See, for example, the Susan Polgar "April
Fools Joke".
Many of the claims made by Phil Innes are not true, as far as I know,
or a least they are not true yet.
Still, there should be concern about this article, in view of the wide
readership of the Chessville column plus the lack of any official
public response from USCF President Bill Goichberg.
Here is what the Chessville column says at
http://www.chessville.com/Editorials/AlekhinesParrot/Index.htm#squaawk
"Chess Media =96 Chess Life optional
"USCF announced last week that the flagship print chess magazine Chess
Life will become an optional purchase with USCF membership. USCF will
also terminate its scholastic magazine Chess Life 4 Kids. The plan is
the mind-child of President Goichberg and is receiving severe
criticisms in the chess community.
"Chess Media =96 More Trouble from ChessCafe
"One upshot of these draconian measures is that the principal of
Chesscafe who retails USCF=92s book and equipment business has made
several complaints including the mention of lawyers =96 Hanon Russell is
himself a lawyer and is probably not kidding around. He seems to have
taken great offense at President Goichberg=92s actions, not only cutting
back the magazine but also by using other retailers without any due
process, or notification to himself; behavior he says which hurts his
business prospects representing USCF.
"Interactions between Russell and board-member Bauer are in danger of
becoming more than a little uncivil, and the confrontational tone can
surely only end in tears. Here is Bauer=92s comment to Russell:
'You and I have had this discussion about what actually
happened at the US Amateur Team East, and you know for a fact it is
true. You are an attorney - put up or shut up.'
"Since these acrimonious interchanges are with USCF=92s dedicated
trading agent, it would surprise me to hear about any mediation
services taking place before law-suits are engaged in earnest, and the
inevitable ending in divorce.
"I selected on of many options to add to the tool-bar including a
direct Wikipedia button in case I ever want to find anything at
Chessville. [In-house joke]. The truth is Chessville is perhaps the
most quoted source at Wiki, and there is so much stuff on this site =96
its hard to find, no?
"TheParrot Squaawks=85.!
"Chess Life Gone Out Of It.
"Considering the past debt of about $100,000, and estimated $200,000+
this year, no equity yet in the new building, having exhausted cash
reserves, and despite nonsense law-suits, serious new ones are
appearing on the horizon, possible initiated by its only main partner,
Chesscafe, encouraged and stimulated by Diplomat Bauer and Buffalo
Bill in responses to Hanon Russell of ChessCafe, this sea of disasters
hardly needs mention of the likely forthcoming counter-suit from
Polgar & Truong... <gasp, pause for breath >
"The unexplained 'award systems' catastrophe for the national rating
system which are not just demonstrated to be without any quality
assurance, but without any sense of needing any.
"Confidential board memoranda are leaked to agents with no official
role at USCF, and even personnel records show up on the internet.
=91Unclear=92 relations with long time cronies of board members seem to
empower these un-elected outsiders to work directly against current
board members in a world which is all politics.
"Then there is, according to whatever the rules were, if any, and
indeed if this was even chess at all - the resolution of the Women's
championship this year. Popular sentiment was that this was either
cheating or 'monkey business' =96 degrading the national championship.
That's wasn=92t true of the men's competition, but then again, many top
players didn't even show up.
"The discontinuance of the communication vehicle to USCF=92s main
market, scholastic chess, coupled with the proposition of Chess Life
standing on its own commercial legs [pause for hilarity] are eye-
wateringly bad decisions to not even serve those who are current
members, never mind reaching out and checking someone=85
"Its sad when a long-time public institution goes under, usually.
"But what America needs is an organization established to vigorously
promote chess to the general public, to mainstream education, and to
mainstream media. That is in fact USCF=92s own mission statement, but
not its behavior, not this year, nor for the past 35."
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Date: 23 Jun 2008 06:36:45
From: SBD
Subject: Re: Chessville claims Chess Life to "go under"
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On Jun 23, 8:25 am, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> "even personnel records show up on the internet."
>
> This is a claim that Rob ("The Robber") Mitchell keeps making. Rob
> says that when I complain that USCF Executive Director Bill Hall often
> is out sick or fails to come to work for a variety of other reasons
> such as "had a car accident", "fell in the shower" or "wife is in the
> hospital", that I am revealing confidential medical information about
> Bill Hall. Of course, I have no confidential medical information about
> Bill Hall. I only know that he often misses work.
To be fair, didn't he claim this when you were on the board and did
have access to such information?
> This again apparently refers to claims by Susan Polgar about "leaks"
> of information to Jerry Hanken. It is noteworthy that Susan Polgar
> promised to run an open administration, but now she constantly
> complains about "leaks".
Well, of course. That's the only way the scared mommy brigade knows
how to operate, making claims of high morality and then excusing their
own bad behavior.
>
> "Then there is, according to whatever the rules were, if any, and
> indeed if this was even chess at all - the resolution of the Women's
> championship this year. Popular sentiment was that this was either
> cheating or 'monkey business'"
>
> Another fantasy by Phil Innes. Nobody is complaining about "cheating".
> The question is whether an Armageddon playoff should be used to decide
> an important title like the US Woman's Championship. International
> Master Ken Regan has done a frame-by-frame analysis of the video on
> the Chessbase.com website and has concluded that the result, under the
> rules, was correct.
That was quite a good analysis and quite convincing. The bad taste in
one's mouth over staging such photo finishes is not relieved, but that
the actions in doing same were correct, yes. However, that won't
change Innes' fantasy world; he hates facts and ignores them
fervently.
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Date: 23 Jun 2008 06:25:27
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Chessville claims Chess Life to "go under"
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On second thought, I do not believe that Phil Innes wrote the
Chessville article.
This is because the article contains no grammatical or spelling
mistakes. Phil Innes is not capable of writing a complete paragraph
without making a serious grammatical or spelling mistake.
However, the Chessville article contains statements that only Phil
Innes would make. Therefore, I feel that Phil Innes wrote the initial
draft and then somebody who knows English cleaned it up.
Here are a few examples of dubious statements in the Chessville
article.
"Confidential board memoranda are leaked to agents with no official
role at USCF"
This claim is made on the Susan Polgar http://www.chessdiscussion.com
site. Susan claims that confidential board documents were given to
Jerry Hanken and also reached me. Hanken denies this.
"even personnel records show up on the internet."
This is a claim that Rob ("The Robber") Mitchell keeps making. Rob
says that when I complain that USCF Executive Director Bill Hall often
is out sick or fails to come to work for a variety of other reasons
such as "had a car accident", "fell in the shower" or "wife is in the
hospital", that I am revealing confidential medical information about
Bill Hall. Of course, I have no confidential medical information about
Bill Hall. I only know that he often misses work.
"=91Unclear=92 relations with long time cronies of board members seem to
empower these un-elected outsiders to work directly against current
board members in a world which is all politics."
This again apparently refers to claims by Susan Polgar about "leaks"
of information to Jerry Hanken. It is noteworthy that Susan Polgar
promised to run an open administration, but now she constantly
complains about "leaks".
"Then there is, according to whatever the rules were, if any, and
indeed if this was even chess at all - the resolution of the Women's
championship this year. Popular sentiment was that this was either
cheating or 'monkey business'"
Another fantasy by Phil Innes. Nobody is complaining about "cheating".
The question is whether an Armageddon playoff should be used to decide
an important title like the US Woman's Championship. International
Master Ken Regan has done a frame-by-frame analysis of the video on
the Chessbase.com website and has concluded that the result, under the
rules, was correct.
Sam Sloan
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