Some follow-up to Stan Kriventsov's letter and related comments. Thanks to Carol Jarecki and Ernie Schlich for their help. The short version is that things are backed up, attributed by Carol to the main USCF guy on this stuff, Walter Brown (not the GM with the 'e'), falling ill and taking some time off. USCF volunteer Ernie Schlich and USCF employee Chuck Lovingood in Crossville are currently doing the work for the USCF rating department.
Mr. Schlich's reply said that they had already sent some events in on the 24th and that "I hope to be 99% caught up by Monday [the 29th]. We are placing a heck of a workload on FIDE and I hope they have time to rate them all. The US Open and the HB are going to take much time." Some notes from Carol on the process and its state.
A great deal of time and combined effort has been spent on getting the new USCF ratings program up to the super standard where it is currently. TDs can now submit a tournament rating report online the same day the event is finished and it will be rated within hours. Perfecting this program has taken untold man hours but it has been well worth it. FIDE rates electronically now so once they get the reports, in correct format, they should be able to rate them quickly.
In other words, things do appear to be moving forward. Much of this highlights the typical weakness of the USCF and organizations like it. You can't have a professional level of accountability when you have to rely on volunteers who are doing their best. It's not like there are loads of people clamoring to do this sort of work for free or very low pay. Or are there? I've gone on here before about the importance of setting up a good volunteeer infrastructure. Many people would like to help but they don't know how. Yet another top priority for the new board...
Sorry for double posting. I pressed the post buttom a little too fast. Congratulations to GM elect Finegold.
Norms eluded Ben for a long time. I know an IM personally, who has similar problem, the other way around. He completed his norms a couple of years ago and reached 2490+ while doing so. Instead of reaching 2500 he slipped and he is around 2450 now.
What a mess! Mig, could you transfer the previous post to GM Finegold thread and delete this message? Thanks n sorry for the inconvenience
People, wake up and smell the coffee. US Chess interests are not served by a not-for-profit group. In the US, it's about business and profit. As soon as we get that, we will be the better off for it. All these nattering nabobs of negativism who say that corporate sponsership isn't going to happen are full of crap. Where there's a even just a buck to be made, there is business.
I heard "Poker" is now the third most watched sport on tv! To me that is ridiculous, but it does show what is possible. Chess can be promoted in such a way that is highly popular (on tv daily) and profitable.
To compare chess and poker is ridiculous. The reason poker is so popular is that it is gambling and people like to earn an easy buck. It is only slightly harder to learn than scratch tickets (of course, harder to truly master), which is why so many people like it.
The average person out there thinks that learning how the "horsie" moves is so hard that they should tackle brain surgery as the follow-up to learning that.
"The reason poker is so popular is that it is gambling and people like to earn an easy buck."
I don't watch televised poker, but from the little I've seen of it, I'd guess that the appeal lies in (to those who don't feel like reading the entire post, just read the last sentence for the gist):
1)the fact that hands are over relatively quickly, and new ones begin immediately afterwards. Attention is grabbed, tension mounts, then is immediately resolved... followed by "just one more hand"
2)the fact that the viewer can see all the cards every player has, while the players can obviously only see their own hands and common cards. There's a sort of godly feeling to it, a bit similar to the oafish "looking down on titled players during games while you have Fritz running in the background" phenomenon that we see on chess servers. What's more, I have to admit that it was compelling to see some sap go all in when he had the 2nd best hand possible given the common cards. I got to watch in semi-horror, knowing that he was going to lose the tournament to his opponent, who just happened to have gotten the best hand possible...
So I feel that it boils down to quick, understandable action as well as omniscient rush viewers get when they can see everyone's cards.
certain tournament directers\ arbiters are much better than others at tournaments because some such as Dave Mehler still submit tournaments by mail.