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THE HAPPY TALK COMMANDMENT
<Do you have any evidence that Bill Goichberg told the editor not to
publish your name? Evidence would be a statement by Goichberg, a
statement by the editor, or something in writing. No? I thought not. >
-- John Hillery
>es. Your friend Jerry Hanken told me that Bill Goichberg ordered Dan Lucas not to publish my name in Chess Life and to remove my name from any articles submitted by journalists for publication. Since you are quite close to Jerry Hanken and live near him, why don't you ask him?> -- Sam Sloan
<Lord Chancellor. Ah! but, my good sir, you mustn't tell us what she
told you -- it's not evidence. Now an affidavit from a thunderstorm,
or a few words on oath from a heavy shower, would meet with all the
attention they deserve. > -- - W. S. Gilbert, Iolanthe, Act One (quoted
by The Historian)
Excerpt from THIS CRAZY WORLD OF CHESS by GM Larry Evans (page 160)
Some editors waged lonely struggles on behalf of readers kept in the
dark as various USCF regimes buried mistakes and misdeeds in the pages
of what they regarded as their magazine. Too often editors were caught
in
the middle, lacking support and independence, serving at the pleasure
of
petty bureaucrats with agendas of their own.
A good example is what happened after Yasser Seirawan won the U.S.
Championship in 1986 and decided to run for USCF president. Editor
Larry
Parr was ordered to remove Yasser's picture from the cover of Chess
Life.
Parr told them to put the order in writing. They refused. Parr ran the
cover
in February 1987, as planned. He was axed about a year later but
extracted
a large settlement.
The job is a minefield. A rekable 10-page letter from Frank Elley
summed up his watch as editor before Parr from 1982 to 1985. His
testament
was solicited but predictably omitted from a comprehensive review of
Chess Life in 1987 by a board member. Here's an excerpt from Elley's
suppressed report:
THE HAPPY TALK COMMANDMENT
"I have many times stated that Chess Life is not the Time
magazine of the chess world. I was wrong. Whether we in
positions of influence like to admit it or not, we do not have
the right to take someone's dues money and then feed him only
what we think he needs to know. His money pays our salaries.
His votes put us in office.
"You may think I'm barking at shadows, but we've already
cast our fear of information into stone for all to see. I call it The
Happy Talk Commandment-thou shalt not speak unkindly of
chess. A true embarrassment. I'm certainly glad not to have been
editor for the past two years. World champion Garry Kasparov
called a press conference and labeled the FIDE president a
Mafiosa. We sent a team to an Olympiad at Dubai in 1986 that
barred Israel. And so it goes."
The respected British magazine, Chess, reported that the American
team should have walked out in protest at Dubai, as mandated by USCF
delegates, when our officials failed to strike a FIDE statute allowing
such
boycotts to happen all over again. Instead these worthies just
declared
victory and stayed.
The USCF spent $10,000 (it took months to pry this figure loose) to
send four officials to the United Arab Emirates while funds were said
to
be lacking for the custoy team coach. A coach might have made a
vital
difference because our team narrowly missed the gold in a field of 108
men's teams after defeating Russia in our individual match. The USA
took
the bronze behind Russia and England. Several countries, but not many,
boycotted this team championship because Israel was excluded.
Instead, a cargo of four chess politicians enjoyed a pleasant junket
to
the FIDE congress in Dubai, all expenses paid courtesy of the USCF.
But
the only way fans could find this out was in a British journal-not in
Chess Life.
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Date: 29 Oct 2007 04:38:19
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Unwritten Orders
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You will notice that Bill Goichberg remains silent on this subject
(just as Paul Truong remains silent on the question of whether he is
the Fake Sam Sloan).
Don't you think that, were this not true, Bill Goichberg would have
come here and denied it immediately?
Hanken makes his living writing articles for Chess Life. One cannot
imagine that he would come here and make a statement about this in a
public forum.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 28 Oct 2007 15:11:45
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Unwritten Orders
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[quote="rfeditor"][quote="samsloan"]The directive not to publish the
name of Sam Sloan in Chess Life was issued by Bill Goichberg back in
July 2006. I have brought it up several times over the past 15 months
and Bill Goichberg has never denied that he issued such an order, and
that the order is still in effect.
In addition, reviewers of books who regularly have their reviews
published in Chess Life have submitted reviews of several of my new
chess books and none of these reviews have been published in Chess
Life. My books are very good, according to everybody who has seen
them.
Sam Sloan[/quote]
OK, Sam. I assert that Bill Goichberg ordered the editor not to
publish the name of Alfred G. Packer in Chess Life. Bill has never
denied it, and the name has never appeared, so it must be true,
right?
[i]Chess Life[/i] currently publishes [i]one[/i] book review per
issue. I suppose you think that policy was adopted in order to avoid
running reviews of your public-domain reprints? They may be fine
books, but [i]CL[/i] is under no obligation to review them, and --
once again -- the world doesn't owe you a living.
Tell you what, Sam. Do something worthy of publication in [i]Chess
Life[/i] (like winning a tournament). Then we'll see.[/quote]
Only two of my five chess books are public domain reprints. One book
is completely new, "Pal Benko's Endgame Laboratory", and my book
"White to Play and Win" has nearly double the material of the
original. The four problems in "What's the Best Move" this month are
all from the games I added, not from the original book.
The way this came up was Jerry Hanken wrote an article for Chess Life
about the 2006 World Open which had my name in it. Bill Goichberg is
allowed to read articles about his tournaments prior to publication
and when he saw my name in the article about the World Open he ordered
the editor of Chess Life to take it out. Jerry Hanken, who wrote the
article, got into a big argument with Goichberg and Lucas about this
and that is how he and I found out that Goichberg had ordered Lucas
never to publish my name in Chess Life.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 28 Oct 2007 14:21:51
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Unwritten Orders
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The thread from which this came has been locked, but I find the
comment below sufficiently offensive to reply anyway. I am not "close"
to Jerry Hanken. In fact, I am barely on speaking terms with him. And,
I do not consider him a reliable source, for this or anything else.
Since you have now admitted that you don't have any evidence (just
questionable gossip from a dubious source), I will regard the issue as
closed.
John Hillery
The directive not to publish the name of Sam Sloan in Chess Life was
issued by Bill Goichberg back in July 2006. I have brought it up
several times over the past 15 months and Bill Goichberg has never
denied that he issued such an order, and that the order is still in
effect.
In addition, reviewers of books who regularly have their reviews
published in Chess Life have submitted reviews of several of my new
chess books and none of these reviews have been published in Chess
Life. My books are very good, according to everybody who has seen
them.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 28 Oct 2007 17:17:53
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Unwritten Orders
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On Oct 28, 10:50 am, "[email protected]" <[email protected] > wrote:
> THE HAPPY TALK COMMANDMENT
>
> <Do you have any evidence that Bill Goichberg told the editor not to
> publish your name? Evidence would be a statement by Goichberg, a
> statement by the editor, or something in writing. No? I thought not.>
> -- John Hillery
>
> >es. Your friend Jerry Hanken told me that Bill Goichberg ordered Dan Lucas not to publish my name in Chess Life and to remove my name from any articles submitted by journalists for publication. Since you are quite close to Jerry Hanken and live near him, why don't you ask him?> -- Sam Sloan
>
A few minutes after I posted the above question to the USCF Issues
Forum, the moderator locked the topic so John Hillery will not have to
answer it.
The directive not to publish the name of Sam Sloan in Chess Life was
issued by Bill Goichberg back in July 2006. I have brought it up
several times over the past 15 months and Bill Goichberg has never
denied that he issued such an order.
Sam Sloan
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