May Flowers

Aronian! Aronian! Aronian!

Aronian takes Game 2, outplaying Kramnik in the endgame, to even the match 1-1.

It's a shame about Joel--that's a really cool record, a testament to his status in American chess.

I thought it wasn't in the endgame, it was in the transition from midgame that Levon outplayed Kramnik. The endgame he gets is on the winning side.

Man, Kramnik is really heating things up in the rapid chess. Lets just hope his classical time control chess is just as good.

Yes, it is a shame that Joel withdrew from the US Championship and his play will be missed but he is a good guy and we must respect his decision to do so.

Action finally being taken by Bessel Kok and Global Chess BV and also a big website coming? Interesting stuff...

Thanks for all the updates Mig!

Kasparov made Time's 100 most influential people in the world? I wonder if he is even among the 100 most influential people in Russia. Or even 100 most influential people in Moscow? But then again, according to the magazine, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are on the list, too, so it is not like it is to be taken seriously.

After Aronian-Kramnik game 2, I nominate Levon Aronian's light square bishop as one of the 100 most influential chess pieces in the world.

Mig wrote: AF4C sponsorship totally broke down when a member of the USCF board accused the AF4C of distributing pornography.

I haven't followed USCF politics in a while. Was the board member in question the likely suspect? (I.e., the one with the felony conviction.)

mig you seem to be forgettng that the soviet union was once part of armenia, and not the other way round.

An additional comment Mig:

Global Chess is 100% owned by Kirsan, not Kok.

Mig, two questions: 1. How is your ear? 2. You really make no money from the stuff you do for Gary?

We need to actually support the uscf, change the board members and improve chess in general. Joel is a great guy, he should reconsider. If I can help joel in any way to change his mind mig let me know.

I have the same concern as d_tal - Has your ear problem been fixed now?

I am real. Dont listen to that imposter.

mig, as you know we have a email gig going, whoever that jerk is that is pretending to be me, will get some interesting visits,

great victories by both players. Am extremely happy to see Kramnik showing the way against the Marshal. And then what a game by Aronian, whew. This guy can play, and how. These kinds of games always impress me, because I really didnt see anything for W except some pressure. Even more impressive is that its the great positional maestro Kramnik on the receiving end!

Aronian won both todays games. The second game looked great-Aronian attacked in the kingside. It's unbelievable-such an event happens in Armenia once in 10 years, and I have JUST moved to Germany.

I did not withdraw, pull out, or back out of the U.S. Championship. I declined my invitation in the first place. [The Chess Life report on the players was erroneous] It is not a sacrifice for me to NOT play. It would be a sacrifice for me TO play. I would have had to shirk other responsibilities--paying jobs--and expend lots of time to prepare. It's not worth it for me.

yes yes yes !!! or Aronian Aronian Aronian !!!

Aronian is the most creative chess player in the world.

Oh no, Joel ended the streak :(

U.S. Championship questions:
Where is Ben Finegold?
Where are the other women? All I see is Irina Krush.
Where is the official list of participants?
Is there an official website?

Thanks.

Here's the official list. She had it posted a few days ago.

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2007/05/2007-frank-k-berry-us-championship.html

Whatever happened to Daily Dirt?

That Aronian beats Kramnik twice a day, and Mig has no immediate comment may be forgivable.

But Aronian showing up with Arianne Caoili...

Haha Bartleby true. We need another newsitem for it.

Game 5 drawn, so Kramnik loses the match...

I must say, Aronian is playing very well. Spanked Kramnik almost nonchalantly.

I'd feel sorry for Kramnik for losing, but I'm sure he'd rather lose than having someone like Caioli sit next to him.
Aronian is a creative player with an awful taste.

having=have

Aronian! Aronian! Aronian!

Another May flower, a Kamsky interview before the MTEL Masters: http://www.mtelmasters.com/en/interviews&article_id=23.html

Congrats to Garry on making the Time list, but really, how can you take seriously a list which contains Leonardo di Caprio but not George W Bush?

Congrats to Aronian! I guess the result is good for Kramnik as well, so he doesn´t feel omnipotent before Mexico. Was it the hybris after winning the game one with 1.e4 and allowing Marshall that made him lose three games in a row?

I think it was superlative play by Aronian, especially in the 2nd game. Hard to read much into rapid games though. Completely different animal to classical chess. In rapid chess, Aronian is clearly superior to Kramnik.

"I think it was superlative play by Aronian"

I don't know how to reconcile Aronian allowing forced mates in the last 2 games (Mind you Kramnik didn't see them) with superlative play by Aronian.

The turning point was clearly the moment Kramnik allowed ...Qa4 in game 3, showing quite uncharacteristic carelessness. This seemed to unsetle him quite seriously in the second game of that day, when he continued to play for the point even when Aronian had consolidated and began to assume the upper hand. I don't think anyone doubts that a saner Kramnik would have been quite content to draw game 4 and try to level the match in the final day. Perhaps this is what happens when one tries too hard to impress one's girlfriend...

As for Aronian, very good and practical play throughout. I suspect he will be most pleased with his Kramnik-like dissection of Black's position in game 2; a most instructive win. But I don't think we should read too much into the result...

Hey Mig! You touched off a firestorm in the USCF forums with the "AF4C sponsorship totally broke down when a member of the USCF board accused the AF4C of distributing p***ography. (Really.)" comment. Some folks (myself included) inferred that this tidbit was the result of your discussion with Erik Anderson 2 days earlier. Sam Sloan disagreed, though, stating that you provided no interview notes and no explicit connection between your May 2 and May 4 posts. (Sam also described you and your veracity in quite unflattering terms, which I dare not repeat in the open.) Since you are a reputable journalist, would you kindly enlighten us as to the source of your info on the cause of the total breakdown in USCF-AF4C relations?

Thanks!

Just to clarify: Did the USCF director point out (in a wee bit sarcastic way) that the site used by AF4C was now pushing porn (AF4C having let the site lapse), rather than actually accsuing them of publishing porn?

The US Championship has recently been increased to $70,000. Additionally there are daily $100 most interesting game prizes decided by a vote of the public over the Internet and the return of the Crenshaw special game prize. The first five finishers advance in the FIDE World Championship cycle. The next five receive free room and board at the Continental Championship. The National Open is offering several prizes.

The hotel in Stillwater is half the cost of San Diego and the organizers are ferrying the players 70 miles from Tulsa to Stillwater.

Only 3 spots were assigned to women ( there will be a ten players womens event in July - also in Stillwater. We are very lucky to have the Berrys).
Krush accepted immediately. For various reasons, principally work and school, many declined until Iryna Zenyuk and Chouchan Airapetian accepted.

Considering that two months ago it looked like there would be no US Championship things look very good, particularly as it was not easy for many folks to make arrangements on such short notice. They will be treated very well by Jim and Frank Berry. I hope that Joel Ripken-Gehrig Benjamin returns next year!

Splendid performance of Aronian, what a match! Many interesting games, a little mistake here and there, but that's rapid. However, I fail to see why this proves that Aronian is clearly superior to Kramnik in rapid chess. Only 6 games in three days - one cannot draw that many conclusions from that. Who is the stronger rapid player will probably depend on the form of the day, in Monaco Kramnik still outscored Aronian in the rapid tournament.

Why Kramnik allowed the Marshall only once is still a mystery to me.

- offtopic -

Speaking of May errors, here is a PM to greg koster:

Hi greg, the mailer daemon has been interfering with our fruitful correspondence in the last few days, I can't get anything through to you. Hope that Mig's Internal Server Error will let you read this post eventually.
Oh, and greg: interpol got Diego, he didn't fink but I suggest you don't put the white in the truck, fuzz will be watching.

Sorry everyone.

- ontopic -

"Perhaps this is what happens when one ties too hard to impress one's girlfriend..."

Hahaha; here's the solution to the "draw problem": bring the girlfriends! :D

Grim Reaper -

Sam Sloan, a member of the USCF Executive Board, published the following on the usenet group rec.games.chess.politics:

"Seattle Chess Foundation has removed the #### from its Website"

This seems to imply that the SCF (predecessor of the AF4C) put the noxious stuff there in the first place.

Also, Sloan made a post to the USCF Issues forum that said the noxious stuff was a new fund-raising strategy for the SCF. The rest of the Board censured Sam (unanimously) as a result of the post.

Grim Reaper -

Sam Sloan, a member of the USCF Executive Board, published the following on the usenet group rec.games.chess.politics:

"Seattle Chess Foundation has removed the #### from its Website"

This seems to imply that the SCF (predecessor of the AF4C) put the noxious stuff there in the first place.

Also, Sloan made a post to the USCF Issues forum that said the noxious stuff was a new fund-raising strategy for the SCF. The rest of the Board censured Sam (unanimously) as a result of the post.

So Chris falter, my original question:

"Did the USCF director point out (in a wee bit sarcastic way) that the site used by AF4C was now pushing porn (AF4C having let the site lapse), rather than actually accsuing them of publishing porn?"

can be answered as "yes".

Removing unwanted porn from a website you have rescued control back of does not mean you are guilty of putting it there in the first place.

Also, the comments by Mr Sloan about fundraising obviously slipped below the humor radar of his colleagues!

USCF Board member Sam Sloan calls Mig "a known Internet gadfly with [a] poor reputation for veracity."

http://tinyurl.com/2qzzk8

BEGIN QTN

samsloan
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More options May 5, 11:00 am
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.politics, rec.games.chess.misc, alt.chess
From: samsloan
Date: 5 May 2007 09:00:59 -0700
Local: Sat, May 5 2007 11:00 am
Subject: Chris Falter Allowed to Make Outrageous Accusations on USCF Forums
Reply | Reply to author | Forward | Print | View thread | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
If the moderators were unbiased, this entire thread would be deleted
and Chris Falter would be suspended for at least a week if not
permanently.

It is to be recalled that Chris Falter once quoted me as saying
something that I have never said. He put my supposed words in
quotation marks. His supposed quote by me was about Polgar and her
reply indicated that she was upset.

I believe that Chris Falter was suspended for one day for this.

Here, the posting by Chris Falter is entirely false. His headline is
"Mig Interviews Anderson, Reveals Why AF4C Quit Sponsorship."

However, there is no interview of Anderson anywhere. Erik Anderson has
never said any such thing. The only Executive Board member that has
even been able to speak to Anderson in the past 4-5 months is Don
Schultz and what he reported was that Anderson had said something
entirely different from that.

Bill Goichberg reported in two different meetings of the Executive
Board that he had tried but had not been able to get Erik Anderson on
the phone. Unfortunately, again, the tapes or transcripts of the
meetings have not been posted on the website, in violation of the by-
laws, so the general membership cannot hear what Goichberg said.

If even the USCF President cannot get Erik Anderson on the telephone,
how is it possible that a known Internet gadfly with poor reputation
for veracity can get to interview him?

The question now is why is Chris Falter freely allowed to post this
false garbage on this forum, while oldtimer and Brian Lafferty are
frequently suspended.

Sam Sloan

END QTN

LOL @ Sam Sloan, the king of attention whores, calling Mig a "gadfly."

Just back from Seattle. I'll catch up tomorrow. I'm not sure my stomach is up for reading a thread with multiple mentions of Spam Sloan's name. He's a leading example of why I and so many other sane people abandoned the Usenet chess forums, which were subjected to dozens of his off-topic demonstrations of lunacy on a daily basis and probably still are. Amusing to hear that he's poisoning the USCF forums with his bile. Surely they deserve it for allowing such a creature to remain on their board. I'm quite sure anything he says about me I would consider a compliment coming from something like him. The difference is that the many cases against his sanity, probity, veracity, and morality are all best proven by his own words (and deeds) and not those of others. Case in point.

I'm glad there are at least a few people who can make four from two and two. Erik Anderson wasn't going to get into a 100-meter sewer swim with someone like Sloan, whose entire mission in public forums has always been to drag others and the debate in general down to his level. Of course few others can go that low, or want to, at which point he declares himself the winner, the sewer's King Turd. He doesn't realize most don't want that crown. Regardless, it was quite clear that Erik didn't feel it was safe to expose his board and the mission of the AF4C to an organization with someone on its board who would accuse the AF4C of distributing pornography. (As has been well known for a long time, the old domain name of the AF4C's prior incarnation, the Seattle Chess Foundation, was hijacked by a porn site. This is hardly unusual for one, obviously not their fault beyond domain renewal negligence, and mostly harmless because they'd already stopped using the domain. At the time Sloan posted his slander it had been around five years since they'd used it from what I can tell. It is still registered by porn and link-pushing squatters. The USCF couldn't come up with anything better than censuring Sloan on the wrist for accusing the AF4C of distributing pornography, even while he defended (and still defends) his actions.)

Not to be cliche, but Erik is a serious person and he has substantial responsibilities he takes seriously. He wants to stay positive and focus on the good things the AF4C is doing, such as doubling the size of their scholastic enrollment for next fall. The AF4C remains committed to promoting professional chess and even the US Championship. But as long as the USCF is the gatekeeper and as long as they have such, well, let's call it poor quality control, on its board, it's very unlikely to happen. Maybe next year if things change. If this seems petty, ask yourself how long you would want your non-profit, kid-friendly, organization to be associated with a group that produced such episodes. Just stop and imagine "US Chess Federation official accuses Seattle-based chess education charity of distributing pornography" in the Seattle papers. With your name mentioned throughout and your board members interviewed about it. The ones who donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote chess in schools across the country. And what could be next? As for my sources, maybe it helped that 1) I've worked with the AF4C off and on for years and 2) I'm not a psychopath. Just a guess though.

Sloan is what he is. You could sooner blame a slug for its slime. But his arrival to the board and subsequent lack of ways-changing should have been a loud warning that the system was fatally flawed. Live and, we would hope, learn. His continued presence on the board is an entirely separate crime for which he is entirely blameless.

Not to defend Sam of course, but I think Mig's love affair with Af4C is just what it is, a love affair. He gets a nice all paid trip to Seattle (a free dinner I assume as well) and comes back here gushing all over how great a person Eric Anderson is. We know that already.
Kid-friendly, what a gimmick. From what I know there's nothing special about the AF4C scholastic program, as similar ones exist all over the country without the millions of dollars fund raised by Eric Anderson. Some of these, by the way, could have been used to hire a Grandmaster (Greg Serper, who lives in Seattle comes to mind first) to write a chess curriculum for the teachers to follow.
AF4C meant something when they sponsored US Championships - what have you done for me lately would be a healthy attitude towards them now.

The USCF will remain "the gatekeeper" simply because it is our national Federation. We're free to criticize them, and Sam Sloan has to go - there are no two ways about it. Nevertheless, I am not too eager to have them replaced by a United Way kind of outfit with a typical huge overhead and complete lack of transparency.

I was on vacation with family on the Washington coast and it had nothing to do with Anderson or the AF4C. But I do love my wife (whose family lives in Seattle), so you're half right. Or maybe 1% right. Or an idiot. Multiple choice. I'm sure you've pocketed a lot more AF4C money than I have, btw. So has Greg. And I've disagreed publicly with them on various issues on the Championships over the years anyway.

I was only adding some context to the situation by explaining why what Sloan did was not trivial, nor simply malicious and stupid. "Kid-friendly" just meant an organization working with children and any other scholastic chess group certainly would qualify. I'm sure they would all react just as happily to being accused by someone on the USCF board of distributing porn. I'm equally sure they eventually will be if Sloan sticks around.

"What have they done for us lately?" is always valid, but so is "why aren't they doing what they did anymore?" The USCF allowed the AF4C's organization of the Championship to expire. Their proposed new format was definitely controversial. The AF4C announced they were going to provide a chunk of money toward the 07 championship anyway as a sort of parting gift of good faith. They were soon met by Sloan's latest outburst, which left Anderson feeling like they'd be rewarding bad and dangerous behavior if they followed through with the gift. They would also be publicly and formally associating themselves with an organization and event directly tied to the person making these accusations, which was deemed unacceptable.

On to more important things. Are there any game prizes this year? Would my offering one or two that turn out to be more than some of the actual place prizes be rude? Probably. So I'd divide, say, $500, into a $350 and a $150 second prize. Actually I have a better idea, a matching funds prize. Mebbe some good-hearted folks would donate and I'll match up to $500. Call it the "2007 US Championship Brilliancy Prize that has nothing to do with the USCF." Hmm, "brilliancy" and "USCF" in the same sentence makes my eyes burn. I'll put something up on it today.

Yes, Yermo and Serper have probably pocketed more of AF4C's money, but they are also GRANDMASTERS, who have worked hard at chess, and qualified to play in the US Championship. One ought to be able to make money at what one has devoted one's life to, and such opportunities should go to those who HAVE before they go to those who HAVEN'T.

If you want people to continue playing chess seriously throughout the world, then you should want that possibilities of income go to the better players. Otherwise, what reason is there to strive? What reason is there for people to take chess lessons? Better to take BS-ing lessons in that case. The scholastic organizations should also take note that if there was no NBA there would not be as many kids taking part in basketball camps, nor buying Nikes, basketballs, etc. This is why it is in the interest of the amateur chess players who are making a killing off of chess to see that top players get at least something (beyond the moral reasons, of course).

Oh, and AF4C not honoring its pledge to give $30,000 does not punish Sam Sloan or the USCF. It punishes struggling chess players. AF4C withdrew from the tournament very late (in January), at which point it was too late to find much sponsorship. I know that there were signs it would pull out much earlier, but they kept the US chess in limbo, with promises of an internet knockout, etc.

At the very least, it should return the 'qualifier fees' paid by players at the US Masters, rather than ignoring emails by players wanting a refund (as I have been told). Collecting qualifier fees to its US Championship, and then not sponsoring said championship, is like selling lottery tickets and not giving a prize to anyone. It looks really bad for a company making money off of chess to be doing this to chess players.

Yea, what anon(a) said X 4!!

Some people don't want to donate their money to Grandmasters. They do want to donate it to educational programs for children. Argue with them if you like. To my memory, it was mostly Yasser and then Erik's initiative that 1) supporting pro chess (and bringing it to Seattle) was a good thing in and of itself and that 2) having chess be successful at the pro level would trickle down to more kids playing than can ever be reached by coordinated school programs (aka the Fischer Effect).

By the way, being a GM doesn't mean you have a divine right to be supported by anyone, as most GMs will tell you. It's a sport. Probably lots of fabulous handball players giving lessons in the park for a few bucks. I have tremendous respect for the people who excel at chess, but nobody owes them a living for the choices they made. They do, on the other hand, have a right to complain about how things that affect their income are run.

First off, the amount the AF4C later said they would donate to this championship was $25,000, so let's get that settled before it's 100K and lollipops for everyone.

Next, the AF4C didn't withdraw from anything. Their right to organize the US championship, a right bestowed by the USCF, was up for renewal at the end of 2006 and the USCF declined to renew it. That formally severed the AF4C's relationship with the event. The abovementioned 25K was then mentioned by the AF4C as what I described at the time, sarcastically, as a parting gift. This was put on tenuous ground when the USCF quickly announced that much of that money would go to the USCF directly and not to the event or the prize fund. This infuriated many players as well as the AF4C, where they were always only concerned about the players. The donation/association was discontinued entirely when a member of the USCF board publicly accused the AF4C of distributing pornography on their website. Try that with a corporate sponsor and find yourself in court fighting to keep your last gulp of Tennessee whiskey.

Yes, the players are the ones who suffer most, as usual. But other people have interests, too.

Is not the AF4C program different from most that the chess is part of the regular classroom day once a week and for 2nd and 3rd graders.
Understand there is a WSJ story on scholastic chess. I have not read it yet but it is on my list fo things to do, along with cutting the grass and working parttime.

--offtopic (sorry)--

PM to Linux fan:

I think the problem has been resolved. If not, I´ll be back in the great man´s birthplace in a few days, and will call Bud and pest.

--ontopic--

--offtopic (sorry)--

PM to Linux fan:

I think the problem has been resolved. If not, I´ll be back in the great man´s birthplace in a few days, and will call Bud and pest.

--ontopic--

What Chris Falter has done above is post his own version and his own opinion of me, including some edited quotes of things I actually wrote, and elicited Mig's response to those quotes.

Nowhere in the entire list of quotes above is there anything actually written or said by Erik Anderson.

Mig has been a Sloan basher on the Internet for the last ten years.

Here are a few facts:

In February 2006, Erik Anderson met with Bill Goichberg in Seattle, with a few other chess personalities present or on a telephone conference call and informed them that he would be down-grading his involvement in the US Championship and the money would have to come from somewhere else. It would not come from him.

In March 2006, Erik Anderson did not show up at the prize awards ceremony and did not announce him plans for the next US Championship. This was the first time ever that he had failed to appear.

In May, 2006, Erik Anderson allowed his option to hold the 2007 US Championship expire.

I took office on August 13, 2006 and my first board meeting was the next day, August 14. At that board meeting Bill Goichberg informed the board that he had not been able to get Erik Anderson on the telephone and did not even know where he is. Nevertheless, Bill said that he would continue to try to reach Erik Anderson and "Erik Anderson will do something".

At the board meeting in Stamford on November 17-18, Bill Goichberg informed the board that there had been no progress and he still had not been able to reach Erik Anderson. Hearing this, the board voted over the strenuous objections of Bill Goichberg to give Bill a final deadline of December 31, 2006 to conclude a deal with Erik Anderson or, failing that, to open the US Championship for bidding.

Just prior to December 31, Bill Goichberg wrote that although he still had not reached Erik Anderson, he was in contact with John Henderson and he wanted an extension of time for one week and he was confident of concluding a deal within that time. This request for a one week extension was granted.

On January 7, 2007, Don Schultz informed the board that he had spoken to Erik Anderson and that Erik Anderson would not be sponsoring the 2007 US Championship.

On February 25, 2007, in a telephone conference call, the board directed Bill Hall to call Erik Anderson and try to get him to agree at least to provide some money for the US Championship. Bill Hall agreed to do that. The board postponed a vote on this issue for three days to give Bill Hall time to make this call.

The following week, Bill Goichberg reported that Bill Hall had been out sick and therefore had not been able to discuss the subject with Erik Anderson.

After hearing no word from Bill Hall, Bill Goichberg insisted that we go ahead and vote on the Frank K. Berry bid to hold the US Championship. The motion passed on February 28, 2007 by 3-1-2. I voted against. The two abstainers said that they were basically against the motion but did not want to be on record as opposing the US Championship.

A week or two later Bill Hall came online and wrote that he had been out sick "with a bit of the flu".

The claim made by Chris Falter that I in some way caused Erik Anderson to withdraw from the US Championship in late March, 2007 is entirely without basis.

Sam Sloan

@ Sam Sloan:

1. Did Erik Andersen pledge $25,000 of support to USCF, earmarked for the 2007 US Championship?

2. Has this pledge been received?

3. Do you believe that there is any causal linkage between your AF4C "porn" remarks and any (shall we say) "delay" in receiving the pledge?

4. If you believe that there is no linkage, do you believe that Mr. Andersen had independently decided not to honor the pledge?

On another subject:

5. On July 27, 2006, Susan Polgar (on susanpolgar.blogspot.com ) wrote that when she was sixteen years old, "[Mr. Sloan] made a number of completely inappropriate solicitation [sic] to me, a minor at that time, and he was promptly and firmly told no." Did such an incident take place at the Polgar's home in Hungary? Please confirm or deny.

6. In the course of USCF business, you wrote (in BINFO 200603590, 9/25/06), "The fact is that my relationship with Zsuzsa Polgar (who now calls herself Susan) was not entirely Platonic. I have been discrete and have not revealed to anyone other than a few close friends the true nature of our prior relationship, until now. Now, [Bill Goichberg's] public motion effectively forces me to reveal what really happened those many years ago. This will do no good either to me, Zsuzsa, Bill or the USCF, but it appears that now I will have no real choice but to tell the whole story."

Although I cannot quite follow the causal chain implied by your last sentence, you apparently see a connection between your past sexual relations with at least one minor (the circumstances of which you recounted in the course of your Board duties, your 1/5/07 "Response to Ethics Complaint by Herbert Rodney Vaughn") and your current role in USCF. Is it your practice to screw all parties to whom you owe a fiduciary obligation? And why do you consider your past sexual relations with minors directly relevant to your Board service?

@ the other members of the USCF Board:

7. You too have fiduciary duties. What are you waiting for?

"What are you waiting for?"

No, not *that*. My idea of the Board's fiduciary duty is rather different than Sloan's....

;-)

Quoting Maliq Soter on Sloan, on this site a few months ago (apologies to Hal Bogner and others with delicate sensibilities):

BEGIN QUOTATION

>

END QUOTATION

Perhaps Sloan is not fully accountable for his actions.

But what are we to make of a nonprofit in which Sloans and their ilk flourish? And in which those members who refuse to countenace such conduct in a Board member are unwelcome?

Perhaps it is time to kill USCF and start over....

Oops: angle brackets made the Maliq Soter quotation vanish. Here it is:

"Peace...

The fact that Sam Sloan is a pariah and quite unfit to hold any respectable office should be public knowledge by now, but it unfortunately was not when people were voting for the USCF board. Not many in the NYC chess community have forgotten his very public pining for a then-12 year old girl, and such a circumstance is not an isolated incident in the life of Sam Sloan. Many a parent have I heard at the Marshall Chess Club tell their daughters to steer clear of that man, and yet, he sits on the board of the national federation today. When a slanderous, libelous pedophile is the best a national federation of any sort can do, it is clear enough that the end times for said federation are upon us unless it can reverse course swiftly and decisively.

Hotep,

Maliq
Posted by: Maliq Soter at January 22, 2007 09:59"

Oops: angle brackets made the Maliq Soter quotation vanish. Here it is:

"Peace...

The fact that Sam Sloan is a pariah and quite unfit to hold any respectable office should be public knowledge by now, but it unfortunately was not when people were voting for the USCF board. Not many in the NYC chess community have forgotten his very public pining for a then-12 year old girl, and such a circumstance is not an isolated incident in the life of Sam Sloan. Many a parent have I heard at the Marshall Chess Club tell their daughters to steer clear of that man, and yet, he sits on the board of the national federation today. When a slanderous, libelous pedophile is the best a national federation of any sort can do, it is clear enough that the end times for said federation are upon us unless it can reverse course swiftly and decisively.

Hotep,

Maliq
Posted by: Maliq Soter at January 22, 2007 09:59"

Oops: angle brackets made the Maliq Soter quotation vanish. Here it is:

"Peace...

The fact that Sam Sloan is a pariah and quite unfit to hold any respectable office should be public knowledge by now, but it unfortunately was not when people were voting for the USCF board. Not many in the NYC chess community have forgotten his very public pining for a then-12 year old girl, and such a circumstance is not an isolated incident in the life of Sam Sloan. Many a parent have I heard at the Marshall Chess Club tell their daughters to steer clear of that man, and yet, he sits on the board of the national federation today. When a slanderous, libelous pedophile is the best a national federation of any sort can do, it is clear enough that the end times for said federation are upon us unless it can reverse course swiftly and decisively.

Hotep,

Maliq
Posted by: Maliq Soter at January 22, 2007 09:59"

Please note that Bill Brock has obsessively and compulsively been following me around from forum to forum for the past more than three years. Each time I post something anywhere, Bill Brock pollutes the conversation by posting as he has done above. There is way to stop him. He will keep doing this hundreds of times until he is banned. He has been banned from the USCF forums for this reason and has been warned to stop posting to my Wikipedia biography and has been banned from every moderated group. We are talking about thousands of postings by Bill Brock all of which say much the same things. He is also one of the two top suspects of being "The Fake Sam Sloan".

I hope that Chessninja will ban Bill Brock from posting here so that we can have a constructive dialogue concerning the subject matter of this thread, which is the 2007 US Chess Championship.

Sam Sloan

Please note that Bill Brock has obsessively and compulsively been following me around from forum to forum for the past more than three years. Each time I post something anywhere, Bill Brock pollutes the conversation by posting as he has done above. There is way to stop him. He will keep doing this hundreds of times until he is banned. He has been banned from the USCF forums for this reason and has been warned to stop posting to my Wikipedia biography and has been banned from every moderated group. We are talking about thousands of postings by Bill Brock all of which say much the same things. He is also one of the two top suspects of being "The Fake Sam Sloan".

I hope that Chessninja will ban Bill Brock from posting here so that we can have a constructive dialogue concerning the subject matter of this thread, which is the 2007 US Chess Championship.

Sam Sloan

Nonresponsive: aren't USCF voters entitled to know why you consider the history of your alleged "not entirely Platonic" and "seamy" relationship with the teenaged S. Polgar relevant to contemporary USCF business? Assume in arguendo that your account is factually correct: wouldn't it have been more appropriate to respect a minor's privacy?

"@ the other members of the USCF Board:

7. You too have fiduciary duties. What are you waiting for?"

Per the USCF Issues Forum, at least one Board member is becoming interested in performing his fiduciary duty....