The USCF President Bill Goichberg just announced that the AF4C will not sponsor the 2007 US Championship. In the past few years, the AF4C had offered more than $250,000 in prize funds in each National Championship plus all organization costs. These were the largest ever purses for a US National Chess Championship in history.
This is truly a severe blow for US Chess and the USCF!
Here is a part of what Mr. Goichberg wrote:
“Yesterday, USCF was in contact with Erik Anderson regarding the 2007 US Championship. By mutual decision of USCF and AF4C, the 2007 US Championship will not be sponsored by AF4C, but the two organizations will continue to work together on different projects, and AF4C will continue to look at possibilities for future US Championships.
Erik Anderson also said that he will donate $25,000 to the USCF. We might use this money as part of the prize fund for a US Championship, with additional funding by another sponsor.”
The AF4C has done so much to help US Chess and the USCF. Instead of appreciating the AF4C, I am extremely disappointed in how some of the board members have treated this premier organization. If things do not change for the better, US Chess and the USCF will face many more problems. The level of unprofessionalism by some of these people has reached an all time low.
I am very sad to hear about this news. I would like to personally thank Mr. Erik Anderson and the AF4C for all their incredible contributions to our sport!
I put some additional comments on the US Chess Discussion Blog about this issue. Please feel free to discuss it.
Susan has made her views on this well known both as pertaining to the specific instance as well as to the larger issue of encouraging sponsors and nurturing good relations with them.
This is a second major defeat in as many days, not for Susan individually, but for the things she believes in.
Critics of Sam Sloan warned that large sponsors would avoid the USCF if he is elected. It appears that the doomsayers are having their day. I’m sure that there were other issues related to AF4C dropping out. Still the prospect of having the USCF Executive Board vote on a proposed format probably didn’t sit very well with an organization directed primarily at scholastic chess.
Michael Aigner
Merrill Lynch pulled out after they found Sam Sloan’s name during a Google search. This was one of the specific reasons stated. AF4C is not willing to spend so much money again without a major sponsor.
well in my opinion $250,000 is too much money anyway. too many people getting a slice of the pie, which in turn anyway creates “friendly games”. Just another sad and disappointg day in the life of US Chess.
First of all, I’d like to say thanks for AF4C for their past sponsorship. I have not been able to watch the games in person, but I watched much of the last two tournaments via the Internet. There was some great chess played!
Second, I think it will be important for the next board of the USCF to wrestle with finding good sponsors to replace AF4C’s support.
Susan, If you ran the USCF – how would you promote the event to attract corporate sponsors
All those problems with US Chess!!! I’ve never seen anything like that! In here (west europe) everything runs smoothly…
What exactly is the problem there!?
“What exactly is the problem there!? “
Well I’d like to refer to a quote from Monty Python’s the meaning of life.
Grim Reaper: Shut up, you American. You Americans, all you do is talk, and talk, and say “let me tell you something” and “I just wanna say.” Well, you’re dead now, so shut up.
Well Good for AF4C. They stood up and said they will accept no more abuse from the USCF. Good for them.
It is always wrong to allow yourself to be abused. Kramnik stood up to the abuse he was taking from Topalov. Now we see AF4C standing up and saying no more abuse from the USCF.
The USCF had given up on a US Championship. They had decided to drop it from the schedule. Then out of nowhere came AF4C saying they would put up all the money and do the job. and now we lost them. the very best sponsors any organization could ever hope for.
What a shame. Thank goodness Susan is going to be on the ballot. The time to get on the ballot has just now ended. But Susan is on the ballot before this happened. Thank goodness.
Merrill Lynch is linked to all the big corporations of the USA and the world. They are not going to be sending money to an organization like USCF that puts people like Sam Sloan on its Executive Board. Good for Merrill Lynch. They are smart. They know the real score.
The total cost was not $250,000. I would guess the total cost was closer to double that. More like half million dollars given to USCF for free. No one was even getting advertising out of it. And the uscf threw mud back into their faces.
Finally the wake up call. I expect that the EB of USCF will make rules keeping people like Sam off the EB in the future. Without people of the very highest integrety on an Executive Board why would anyone contribute.
It also does not look good that Robert Tanner had to be removed from the Executive Board.
Susan you are arriving not one day late. We have desperately needed someone like Susan for a very long time. I hope everyone now realizes how important this election really has become. The future of chess in usa is at stake. The uscf is a shambles, a disgraceful mess. The entire EB should resign because of this. What a disgrace.
I would like to say that AF4C is the most wonderful group of people. They gave and gave asking nothing in return. They helped chess when no one else did anything. Everyone associated with AF4C is a top notch wonderful person. I am ashamed that I am a member of the USCF who abused them for being such wonderful people. I am ashamed of the EB of the USCF and the entire organization. I can only do my best to make sure all those people are replaced as soon as possible.
Susan I thought you said not anonymous postings over at the other blog on USCF issues. It is filling up with anonymous postings.
http://www.chessvista.com/ccms.2664.ChessVista.Chess-Eyes—End-of-Year-Quiz-2006.html
Susan this is one cool contest. you need to do a little write up on it. Hurry contest soon to end.
The costs for the US Championship have been stupid.
AF4C was taken to the cleaners by John Henderson who was lining his own pockets with the AF4C’s money and doing little to no work for it.
He could have found better ways of organizing but he has no experience except how to line his own pockets.
This is a direct result of electing Sam Sloan. I hope Leroy Dubeck is proud of endorsing this convicted felon. They got what they wanted. Merrill Lynch pulled out specifically because of Sloan.
Why exactly was the reason given by AF4C for pulling out?
They didn’t want the negative publicity created by a couple board members. In addition, their big sponsor Merrill Lynch pulled out after finding out that the USCF Executive Board has a convited felon.
Don’t you think that the responsibility of electing Sam Sloan to the EB lies with the USCF members ? American chess deserves the leaders which it got.
I also think that 250,000 dollars are too much money for a federation like the American that has less than a master each 600,000 inhabitants.
OK,it is your national championship, but it is not necessary to lose the papers: If you want to have a good group of masters in your country, do more tournaments (that is what we do,but you need sponsors)… in my country the masters play tournaments and they also give classes in several clubs. If you want to be a power when your east europe players become older, invest the money in diffusing the knowledge among your children.
I think, Susan, that if you are elected and is able to recover the AF4C help like a support force for the USCF you have many things to fix before to waste all that money.
By the way: Do you know what earned the russia champion?
The Russians offered $200,000 for 14 players RR. The US offered $250,000 for 64 players.
Anonymous said: “Don’t you think that the responsibility of electing Sam Sloan to the EB lies with the USCF members ? American chess deserves the leaders which it got.”
Of course there’s some truth to this. But, to be fair, when a candidate runs for a governemnt office, they endure a great deal of scrutiny from the media. If they lie to the voters, misrepresent themselves, and make outrageous, false charges against their opponents, then this gets noticed and reported. (at least that’s how it SHOULD work).
When a candidate runs for USCF office, there aren’t so many checks on an unethical candidate. Chess Life itself is limited in what it should be allowed to disclose since it needs to remain independent. I’m not sure any other chess media took his candidacy seriously. They certainly didn’t “expose him” to the voters.
While the ethics committee might reprimand him after the fact for the way he ran his campaign, what’s supposed to stop him from getting elected in the first place?Unfortunately, to a large extent we have to rely on candidates being honorable people. For the most part, they are.
At least we’ll have the rulings from the ethics committee to hold up during the next election campaign. If we work to get the potential voters to actually cast their votes and let them know the truth about the candidates, we’ll have a better result.
Ballots for the election will be sent out in June, and counted in July.
I do hope the people elected will help chess and not hurt it in the US.
It is now obvious that some of the current elected officials need to be replaced.
Integrity, ethics, and honesty need to be the catch word of this election.
Go Susan!
Rick,
Thank you for your message. I work right now 16 hours a day for chess and a lot of it is volunteer work. To commit 4 years of my life to the USCF for this election is a big task.
But I have to do it because of what is going on with the Executive Board in the last few years.
This is what I have stated repeatedly:
* I vowed to restore the respectability, honesty, integrity and credibility back to the USCF and US Chess. That is also why I asked some of the most qualified and most honorable people to join me in helping the USCF. We, as a federation, can do better! We must do better! The same old status quo is no longer acceptable. The same old destructive politics must go.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
Is there any evidence that Sloan was the reason for the collapse? It’s plausible, but there are other possible factors. Surely the fact that the top players objected to internet play, as did most of the board, played into this as well. I disapprove of Sloan as much as the next guy, but we really ought to have substantiation before we blame him. Curiously, no one has posted this allegation on the USCF Forum, where many people who have posted on this thread also regularly post.
The reason came directly from the organizers. Their #1 sponsor Merrill Lynch pulled out because of Sloan. The AF4C is tired of the constant bashing by Sloan. They’re a pristine organization and they don’t want a negative image.
JH said…
“The reason came directly from the organizers. Their #1 sponsor Merrill Lynch pulled out because of Sloan. The AF4C is tired of the constant bashing by Sloan. They’re a pristine organization and they don’t want a negative image.”
Did the organizers post that statement somewhere? If not, what is your source?
Once you ask people the source of their rumors, they tend to clam up. Mig Greengard pooh-poohs this theory on the Daily Dirt, and while some posts on that thread criticized Sloan, no one supported the theory that that’s why Merrill Lynch dropped out. The theory hasn’t even been mentioned on the USCF Forums, which strongly suggests his opponents there aren’t convinced either.