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Chess Forum / General Topics / July 2007The new USCF board
POLITICAL ANALYSIS I have been on the transpacific blower and exchanging e-mails with some Federation politerati. Here is some of what I have heard: 1. A long-time California USCF observer figures that the schism among members of the oligarchy or, as he puts it, "the club," had everyone fighting so much that they failed to notice an invasion from outer space. In this rendering, Susan Polgar and Paul Truong are the space invaders. 2. This same California observer believes that Bill Goichberg could win reelection as president, though Jim Berry is a definite candidate for the office. \o bet on either Goichberg or Berry -- a view that I also heard from an observer in New York, who is on the inside. 3. What about the Polgar-Truong mandate? I buy Sam Sloan's analysis that Randy Bauer and Jim Berry owe a lot to Polgar. Their victories, though they would rightly insist on serving as their own men, reinforce rather than detract from the Polgar-Truong mandate. My New York observer states that the mandate will be ignored COMPLETELY by a Board majority. Bauer has pledged not to support anyone as president who has not previously served on the Board, which likely eliminates both Polgar and Truong from the presidency. 4. A third observer, who is friendly enough with the Polgar-Truong couple, states that neither is interested in the post of vice president or secretary. That leaves only the treasurer's position, which Randy Bauer will likely assume. 5. Neither Polgar nor Truong will hold office on the new Board, though they are the clear winners of this election. 6. The California observer says that this is the first election in which the Old Guard has been unable to keep events under control. (Not quite true. 1990 and 1991 were other examples.) He attributes the sea change to OMOV. 7. One more election necessary? There is general agreement that Polgar-Truong are here to stay, and they will eventually put together a Board majority in the next election or the one following. They are the products of OMOV, which this writer and Larry Evans did so much to bring about and which has empowered those with reputation and enormous energy. 8. Two personal observations: A. For once, an election result ought to be respected, and Susan or Paul Truong should be offered the presidency, if they want the office. B. The victory of Randy Bauer bodes ill for those favoring free speech and basic decency in chess affairs. He is a censorship type who will maneuver behind the scenes with a political knife to ban writers and purge dissidents. He will work hard to ingratiate himself with the FIDE types, including Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is accused by human rights organizations of both torture and murder. Such is the nature of the Bauer person. Yours, Larry Parr On Jul 27, 12:28 am, "parrthe...@cs.com" <parrthe...@cs.com> wrote: > POLITICAL ANALYSIS > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Yours, Larry Parr Larry, Isn't that just a little over the top? What, exactly, would you point to that proclaims me "a censorship type?" Actions speak louder than words - while I was on the Executive Board, I was the strongest supporter of Don Schultz' move to reinstate the BINFO system. Hardly the agenda of "a censorship type." For that matter, I hung around this place and participated when most of the members of the Executive Board had long since gone. This past year, I pushed to get Donna Alarie included in financial meetings in Crossville, even though she is a vociferous critic of many of the USCF's past financial practices. Would "a censorship type" invite the epitome of financials free speech to the table? Of course not. I hope we will shed additional light on the USCF. I, for one, don't understand why the BINFOs have a one week time delay; perhaps there is a need of some sort of filter process to ensure that confidential information isn't breeched, but it seems curious to me to try to follow along with conversations that have often lost their relevance. I sincerely hope the financial reporting becomes more regular and the data more consistant. Come on, Larry, lose the chains of the memories of past disagreements. Don't forget that I, too, was one of those people on the front lines of the fight for OMOV and carried on many a debate here with Tom Dorsch in particular on the subject. Give peace a chance. Let it be. Obla dee, obla dah, life goes on, bra. Oh, and one other thing: I don't have the slightest, even the most minute interest in the current FIDE cast of characters. If you can find even ONE post of mine on the newsgroups that suggests otherwise, I will eat my hat. Randy Bauer > On Jul 27, 12:28 am, "parrthe...@cs.com" <parrthe...@cs.com> wrote: >> POLITICAL ANALYSIS > Give peace a chance. Let it be. Obla dee, obla dah, life goes on, > bra. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Randy Bauer Ah, there you are! I seem to have interviewed most all the winners in the past 24 hours, but I can't loose the goose. Which is better than the rumor mill and something I thought of myself! "I'll just ask 'em!" I thought. Brilliant, no? It was good of you to already inform me of your new title, Sir, by private e-mail, and in fact, good to have an evil-politician among us again. Welcome! Sam has been here a lot, but, he never talked with the likes of us, he jus' talked at us. But enough pleasantries! Here are some questions already, Sir: (1) As the most famous hide-away censorious and brutal politician, government trained and certified, in the entire hystery of American chess [see my new book], how will you prove anything to such as Larry Parr by making arcane references to pop groups he has likely never heard of? (2) And as for the rest of us, how do we know you are going to actually do what you say, and I quote: "Obla dee, obla dah", which I take to be a reference to the title of a painting by Cranach the Elder, and allegory of the broken-mirror of Hysphoraldnees [book iv]; so that on the left of the picture is the real 'dee' but reflected in the broken mirror there is no 'dah'? (3) A poster here, who I shall call The Man in White, who is rumoured to be one of the Rob Mitchells [don't ask why I say this], has said that you actually play chess. And we have a team you know, except our team-captain ran away. Are you in fact intending to play chess, and will you play with the likes of us, Sir? Cordially, Phil Innes A Plain Vermont Fellow BLAST FROM THE PAST >Are you in fact intending to play chess, and will you play with the likes of us, Sir?> -- Phil Innes to Randy Bauer Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.politics, rec.games.chess.misc From: "parrthe...@cs.com" <parrthe...@cs.com> Date: 10 May 2006 07:59:39 -0700 Subject: Re: Evans says name the date! RANDY WANTS TO COME TO RENO Randy Bauer himself suggested using his frequent flier miles to come to Reno and suggested that all four games be played in a single day (12 hours plus breaks in between). Randy also claimed that he intended to win the match [vs. GM Evans] but would be satisfied to draw it 2-2. Angelo predicted that Randy was way over his head. > "Randy Bauer" <randybauer2300@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:185576379.733123.14780@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com... [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] > Cordially, Phil Innes > A Plain Vermont Fellow > BLAST FROM THE PAST > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > but would be satisfied to draw it 2-2. Angelo predicted that Randy > was way over his head. I challenged Larry E to a match once, and you told me not to be so daft!@ LOL You were almost certainly right. So, what else to say? I didn't copy you a note earlier today to two rogues, though should, since it had not a /very/ direct inference to your fortunes, but some, and which will take plenty tip-toe-ing through the tulips before the tree-uprooting. But I do not intend to say more on my new relationship with Sir Randy, because of my new job as CL editor. I do hope this will be okay with everyone here, and no one will cry "foul!"? Since, I think the current modus is, to never actually correspond with anyone on again chess subjects, certainly not with Grandmasters, nor the vox populi, neither! Haughtily, Phil > > Randy Bauer himself suggested using his frequent flier miles > > to come to Reno and suggested that all four games be played > > in a single day (12 hours plus breaks in between). Four games in one day -- does that not favor the younger player? > > Randy also claimed that he intended to win the match [vs. GM Evans] > > but would be satisfied to draw it 2-2. Angelo predicted that Randy [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > LOL > You were almost certainly right. Where were you in the 1950's? A Rook-odds guy, most likely. > Haughtily, [CL editor] Phil Look, just go and fix all those spelling errors. I hear there is a "performance bonus" and that it is based primarily on how many times you can put in references to Suzan Polgar and on how few times you bungle the spelling and dates. A near- perfect record nets you double your base salary, or put simply, a 100K bonus per year. It's a living... . -- help bot GIVE PEACE A CHANCE According to Phil Innes, there is a reference to rock and roll lyrics somewhere in Randy Bauer's call to give peace a chance. Probably the bit about obla dee, obla dah, etc. Never heard it before. I seethe with rage and ravening, chop-slathering anthropophagous hunger toward anyone quoting rock lyrics. Slice up Mr. Bauer as one would a ham and serve him for lunch in the USCF lunchroom. To put the matter another way, it never hurts to put a shot or two across the bow of these USCF politicians -- just to let them know that we are watching. Unless Susan Polgar, who has received a clear mandate, is given a chance by the Board at the presidency, one predicts a period of further battling. We cannot begin anew unless the election result is honored. Randy Bauer -- it is claimed -- stated that he would not support as president a candidate without previous experience on the Board. If true, one urges him to reconsider. The key principle in lieu of earthquakes is to accept an election result. While others swim with the rock and roll trends, yours truly listened to two episodes of the Great Gildersleeve over Sunday breakfast. Once again, I urge any of you who cannot stand attitude, crudeness and obligatory racial and sexual quotas in today's entertainment to visit such sites as www.theradiolady.com and www.downunderdvd.com for some tremendous bargains in the popcult from the past. A typical mp3 radio disk may have a hundred or more half-hour programs. The cost is six bucks or less if orders are for 11 or more disks. The dvds from the Australian dealer at downunderdvd are beautifully prepared, and both of these dealers are highly reliable. We may not be able to rollback the cultural decadence, but we need not participate in it or lend our dollars to it. > > BLAST FROM THE PAST > > [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > Haughtily, Phil > GIVE PEACE A CHANCE > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Never heard it before. Anyone who can write about "Bob Dyland" is excused any blame :))) > I seethe with rage and > ravening, chop-slathering anthropophagous hunger [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > put a shot or two across the bow of these USCF > politicians -- just to let them know that we are watching. I am not at liberty to say what he told me this weekend - but I think your previous guess was a good one, and he by far the best candidate for the role. > Unless Susan Polgar, who has received a clear > mandate, is given a chance by the Board at the [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > him to reconsider. The key principle in lieu of > earthquakes is to accept an election result. Its not a bad principle to uphold, in this instance somewhat alleviated by experience heading up two other foundations - the SPF for a long time, and the new Spice, in Tx. I also spoke another candidate this weekend, and was surprised by the response - but I wrote an editorial before that, and post hoc, etc, decided to let it run... --- It is remarkable that we, who had rather different ideas on this election, should both concur in analysis of the strengths weaknesses and desirability of the 'slate' candidates. Should this be considered a conspiracy by the fishwives among us, it is no more matter than if they think all those who say the sky is blue are... &c AS FOR MR B As for Mr. Bauer, of course one must keep a weather eye on the Grand Auditor. I think in his chessville interview he himself raised the subject of competency testing of USCF staff, so that they can be seen to be doing what they say they do, or what is expected. I thought it was a sincere comment at the time - and surely an absolutely necessary one, since how can you [to mix a metaphor] contain all the beans if you have a leaky bucket? So I think Mr. Bauer will need to demonstrate by example how to go about things - and to be fair to him, since during his last terms neither you nor I agreed with him much, he did show up here and brave it out - and though we might wish for greater 'glasnost' he actually seemed to be the least offending character in the line up! As you may or may not know, there are already 'petitions' which address some central factors of fairness in USCF business, in fact, as initiated overseas -- though nothing can happen until these people get their feet firmly under the board-table in a month. RE- Su PPOLGAR Your comment re. Su Polgar are probably the most potent of all, since it will have greatest immediate and long-term effect - and "re-starting" some sort of board-coherent activity will be the challenge for her, or for anyone. I rather doubt that the heretofore tacit remodelling of the USCF board along he lines of the CCA will be seen as a successful experiment, and 'strong-leader' in that sense cannot work in government, since what is really means is singularity as best [or emergency] procedure method, rather than any plural effort.. A better sort of 'strength' will be that which can bring the board together on identified essential activity, and then deploy their talents to best effect. Cordially, Phil Innes > While others swim with the rock and roll trends, > yours truly listened to two episodes of the Great [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > decadence, but we need not participate in it or lend > our dollars to it. In answer to "Corplawyer", who wrote of rated and non-rated chess;- U.S. Chess needs both categories: The second, to keep it afloat. The first, to make it interesting. --- I agree - even if the first category of blitz or non-ratable chess serves no other purpose than to get people into the ratable-category. Should we dare separate chess playing from ratable chess, the ratios of interest approach extremes. Larry Evans estimated that 40 million Americans play chess at some sort of level - and the comparison is with [of adults] 15,000 who play any rated chess, and only 7,500 who play more than at a provisional level. Ratable chess isn't what even active and strong players do most of the time - which is typically to play somewhat faster, at 20, 10 or 5 mins, at clubs or on-line, and quite evidently [just from ICC's online membership] the ratios are still extreme, of games played, being something in the order of 1 :: 10,000. Now - while I do not [please note] argue that rated chess is in any way unworthy of our attention - in fact the opposite, see below: for any federation to only base its fortunes on that horrible ratio, which is incidentally a stable one, or even mildly declining, is not to place itself anywhere near the centre of chess activity in the country, since 'serious player' has at least the other meaning of those who play very much - and is not even a fair indicator of playing strength. NEW BOARD'S Re-ORIENTATION Where I strongly support some of Delegate Johnson's ideas about the worth of rated chess, is from the experience of that in England, which per capita, has massively outperformed US in %age of active players, and all the rest, including the generation of GMs. The distinction between US and UK is not serious rated club-chess as such, but //interclub chess leagues//. They hardly exist in this country [perhaps are even impossible?] and the isolation of chess clubs with only internal formats for attendees does not, by any evidence, produce or evolve home-grown talent. Furthermore, but almost finally, federating the entire country's chess activity around this very questionable foundation, is seen heretofore to be a POLITICAL means of establishing individuals in national chess management, rather than any objective form of worth as answer to the question; "What forwards us?" Cordially, Phil Innes > Anyone who can write about "Bob Dyland" is excused any blame :))) He wrote "Mr. Tamburine Man" for the Birds, a bad chess opening but a Beatles' inspired pop song. Hey Jude, imagine across the universe, here there and everywhere Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, Julia, lovely Rita, Mrs. Vanderbilt, lady madonna, Sgt. Pepper and Lucy in the sky with diamonds twist and shout give peace a chance, come together... let it be. > Anyone who can write about "Bob Dyland" is excused any blame :))) He wrote "Mr. Tamburine Man" for the Birds, a bad chess opening but a Beatles' inspired pop song like the following: Hey Jude, imagine, across the universe, here there and everywhere Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, Julia, lovely Rita, Mrs. Vanderbilt, lady madonna, Sgt. Pepper and Lucy in the sky with diamonds, twist and shout, give peace a chance...come together...let it be. > >> POLITICAL ANALYSIS > > Give peace a chance. Let it be. Obla dee, obla dah, life goes on, [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > find even ONE post of mine on the newsgroups that suggests otherwise, > > I will eat my hat. Hat-haters everywhere will leap at this chance to retain Dr. Louis Blair -- for a small fee -- to fetch any possible evidence as described above. "One small hat for a man, one less hat for mankind!", they will chant. > Ah, there you are! I seem to have interviewed most all the winners in the > past 24 hours, but I can't loose the goose. Which is better than the rumor [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > It was good of you to already inform me of your new title, Sir, by private > e-mail, and in fact, good to have an evil-politician among us again. Mr. Sloan left us? When? Why? > Sam has been here a lot, but, he never talked with the likes of us, he jus' > talked at us. But enough pleasantries! Here are some questions already, Sir: [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > [see my new book], how will you prove anything to such as Larry Parr by > making arcane references to pop groups he has likely never heard of? Good point. It is highly unlikely that a man living half- way around the world would ever have even heard of The Monkees. > (2) And as for the rest of us, how do we know you are going to actually do > what you say, and I quote: > > "Obla dee, obla dah", That's selective quoting, Mr. Innes. The real point of the song is where they cover this: "EBITDA", which as everyone knows is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. It's all about cash flow, don't you know. Oh-- and their other songs were really about doing drugs. (Or was that the Beagles?) > (3) A poster here, who I shall call The Man in White, who is rumoured to be > one of the Rob Mitchells [don't ask why I say this], has said that you > actually play chess. Well, Rob Mitchell would know; he's seen it done, though never quite learned how himself. > And we have a team you know, except our team-captain > ran away. Halitosis, probably. Have you tried brushing your teeth every week? > Are you in fact intending to play chess, and will you play with the likes of > us, Sir? I think he should play your whole team, simultaneously. Rob Mitchell is a Rook-odds player, and of course IM Innes and the rest would need only a Knight, or since it is a simul, how about pawn-and-move? -- help bot On Jul 27, 1:28 am, "parrthe...@cs.com" <parrthe...@cs.com> wrote: > POLITICAL ANALYSIS > [quoted text clipped - 69 lines] > > Yours, Larry Parr Just checking in to see how bad Sam got his tail kicked and I figured that he would finish either last this time or at least in the bottom half after being elected last time. Elect him once shame on him, elect him twice shame on you :). Congrats to the winners. My big question is what exactly is going to get better about USCF? I think the only thing that finally happened that I can see is that USCF finally got out of upstate New York, finally ditched the huge payroll boondoggle and finally started facing reality that it is a mostly shrinking organization filled with mostly people who think they are way more important than they really are. I will also say that I enjoyed meeting and talking with many of these people in the years I was in the fray but I have no desire to go back and rejoin, particularly given the fact that the dues kept on going up for adults and kids were getting all the breaks and most people didn't seem to give a rats about adult chess in this country, only kiddie chess. I saw adult chess in this country as a dying animal resembling duplicate bridge tournaments with average age going up and up. I think that the fundamental problems with American chess remain unsolved because under whatever system the brilliant minds of the world like Mr. Parr's devise, the people elected mostly don't have a great deal of impact on changing things a whole lot. The political players now are the same ones mostly that have been around since 2004 when I left here. Truong, Polgar, Goichberg. Even Sloan and Bauer are political insiders now. I heard that Sloan won because Leroy Dubeck backed him in the last election and everyone thought let's give Sloan a chance what do we have to lose? So Sam got the "What do we have to lose?" vote last year, but this year he got the "What the hell were we thinking vote?" :) > Congrats to the winners. My big question is what exactly is going to > get better about USCF? I think the only thing that finally happened > that I can see is that USCF finally got out of upstate New York, > finally ditched the huge payroll boondoggle and finally started facing > reality that it is a mostly shrinking organization filled with mostly > people who think they are way more important than they really are. Boy, you have been gone for a long time, have you? Otherwise you would know that the payroll is higher in Crossville that it was in new Windsor. In almost every case, the new hires in Crossville are being paid most than the people they replaced who were laid off in New windsor. > The political players now are the same ones mostly that have been > around since 2004 when I left here. Truong, Polgar, Goichberg. Even [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > the "What do we have to lose?" vote last year, but this year he got > the "What the hell were we thinking vote?" :) Not true. The people who keep saying that are the people who dislike me or Mr. Dubeck. I never spoke to Mr. Dubeck last year on any subject. I was shocked when I heard through the grapevine that he had recommended to the NJ State board that they vote for me. However, looking at the election results it easy to see that at very most, Dr. Dubeck's support got me 40 votes in New Jersey, which was not enough to change the election results because I finished 80 votes ahead of the third place finisher Mike Goodall and 250 votes ahead of the darling of the insider establishment Grant Perks. Sam Sloan > > Congrats to the winners. My big question is what exactly is going to > > get better about USCF? I think the only thing that finally happened > > that I can see is that USCF finally got out of upstate New York, > > finally ditched the huge payroll boondoggle and finally started facing > > reality that it is a mostly shrinking organization filled with mostly > > people who think they are way more important than they really are. > Boy, you have been gone for a long time, have you? Otherwise you would > know that the payroll is higher in Crossville that it was in new > Windsor. In almost every case, the new hires in Crossville are being > paid most than the people they replaced who were laid off in New > windsor. If it is.... prove it. Don't just spout it off without providing proof. > > The political players now are the same ones mostly that have been > > around since 2004 when I left here. Truong, Polgar, Goichberg. Even [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > the third place finisher Mike Goodall and 250 votes ahead of the > darling of the insider establishment Grant Perks. Love it... the "what were we thinking vote" was one of the most accurate descriptions I have heard. Voting in Sloan was akin to applying "leeches" and "blood letting" of bygone days! > Sam Sloan >> > Congrats to the winners. My big question is what exactly is going to >> > get better about USCF? I think the only thing that finally happened [quoted text clipped - 35 lines] > >> Sam Sloan 'Leech' isn't an accurate description for Sloan - 'Dung Beetle' is much better. On Jul 27, 1:28 am, "parrthe...@cs.com" <parrthe...@cs.com> wrote: > POLITICAL ANALYSIS > [quoted text clipped - 69 lines] > > Yours, Larry Parr Larry, Kirsan is accused of political murder of opposition figures, not just murder. If you post out here about it, you might get killed, becasue you are part of the opposition. Don't make it sound like a carjacking or home invasion murder. This is murder to silence questions about his budget............................... Marcus Roberts |
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