Excellent choices

This USCF Executive Board election is one of the most important elections in US chess history. There are only about 9-10 days left to send in your ballots. This election will come down to a group of professionals who are not chess politicians with incredible tracks of success versus a group of chess politicians who will fight hard and do whatever it takes to keep the status quo.

Let’s talk about the real issues:

– What positive things have each candidate do for US chess and the USCF in the past 3-5 years?
– What are their qualifications, experience and record of success or failure?
– What can each candidate bring to the USCF?

As I mentioned before, anyone can make promises now. It is easy to make promises, especially during an election season. But what do we know about them? What have they done? It is nice when we have successful people wanting to help. But it does not mean they can.

To run a complicated organization like the USCF, you need to understand and know many things. You have to be familiar with adult, scholastic, college, internet, military, correspondence chess, etc. You need to understand the dynamics of the chess world and not only within the US. You may not be an expert but you need to understand finances and have other important skills such being able to work with people and have their respect. There are too many things to list but most important of all, you have to have a good vision and be able to formulate proper plans to reach the goals.

These are my take on some qualified candidates:

– Susan Polgar: You already know about me and the countless successes I have in positively changing the culture of chess. Here is my vision for the USCF.

– Mikhail Korenman: He is one of the key components for a successful USCF as an organization. Very few people in the USCF can successfully work with scholastic, college, adult, professional and Internet chess. Mikhail not only can work and bridge all these membership groups; he has one of the most impressive records of success. Many chess membership groups do not understand each other and cannot work together. Mikhail can change this. He can also help raise the membership level which means more revenues for our federation. This is why I ask you to please vote for him.

– Paul Truong: As you all know, Paul is by far one of the most successful persons in chess marketing, promotion and PR in US chess history. He has a unique combination that few possess. He was a chess prodigy and competed at a very high level. But he gave up chess to pursue an incredibly successful professional career. Therefore, he understands the mentality of chess players and he understands how businesses operate. This is why he is able to combine them and make some of the most spectacular deals for chess while no one else can even come close to this. Without his guidance and lead in this area, the USCF will go nowhere. Anyone who spends 5 minutes talking to him will understand that he is in a different league than the rest of the field in these areas.

– Randy Bauer: How often do you have a person with Randy’s experience? He was the budget director of the state of Iowa, dealing with multi-billion dollar budgets. Randy is also a chess master and supporter. He served on the USCF EB one year and helped this federation achieve a remarkable turn around. He is a finance guy. His skills and experience in finance is crucial for this federation.

– Jim Berry: Jim and his brother Frank are two of the biggest chess lovers in America. They love chess and they would do just about anything to help our game. Jim has a long history of helping chess in Oklahoma. He and his brother saved the 2007 US Championship after members of this board caused the AF4C to pull out. Just as Randy, Jim’s background is also in finance. He is a banker. He is on the board of SNB, a $2 billion bank. Like Randy, he can also help with the financial issues.

Unfortunately, you can only vote for 4 candidates. You have a hard decision to make but any of these 5 people can help this federation. All 5 of the candidates above have spectacular history of successes with US chess. They are not people who came out of nowhere with wild campaign promises. But most important of all, all 5 of these candidates have strong visions for the USCF and they will put the best interest of this federation first.

I am willing, ready and able to work with any qualified candidates and persons to help US Chess and the USCF. It is unfortunate that some members of this board and their supporters behaved very poorly and unethically in the past several months.

There are at least a few dozens inappropriate posts from these people everyday. Many contain profanity, malicious personal attacks, personal insults and vicious lies. This is not what I want to see from our leaders and I hope you do not condone this either. Some things just do not change unless a new breed of professional candidates are elected.

Do you want to transform the USCF into a strong and viable organization? Or do you want the USCF to retain the status quo and stay as an inefficient and failing federation? The records are clear. I cannot do much alone. I need a team which can make sound, logical and professional decisions. You can fix the USCF with your votes. The choice is yours. Please vote! You can help set the course of the USCF for decades to come.

Thank you for your support!