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Alekhine's Parrot
Welcome
to the weekly leader
of chess events around the world.
1-14-2006
Chess News North America
 |
100% Chess Politics, Finances and
Organization
this week, at home and abroad
The great debate
surfaces in a public newsgroup over USCF’s deal with Chesscafe, a debate
which raises more questions than answers about what USCF is up to, since
it has gone into hiding since the election, and staffers reportedly told
to keep its affairs secret. |
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Even so, two subjects very important to Chess in the
USA have become hot-topics! The first is the reported book-banning of
authors and even whole publishing houses (see
USCF's
Fingerfehler), and the second to do with USCF’s relationship with the
book vendor Chesscafe (see
The USCF's Book &
Equipment Deal with Chess Cafe), and what happened to
between $175,000 to $250,000 due USCF. See Chessville’s special report,
The USCF's Finger-fehler, a letter
from IM John Donaldson and in response to it UK’s GM Ray Keene, and
today's Squaaawk! |
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How much is a lot? Correspondent and former Chess Life
editor Larry Parr makes the following analysis: I have read and reread
EB 06-018, moved by Joel Channing. It would appear from this document
that Hanon Russell's total debt under the contract he originally signed
would be the original $173,000, plus an additional $350,000 through the end
of March 2006 at the rate of about $29,000 a month. That puts his
total obligation under the old contract at $523,000 -- more than a cool half
mil.
Under the Channing resolution, it appears that Mr. Russell must pay 13.5
percent commission for the months of April-July. So, one deducts, if I
understand correctly, $116,000 from the $523,000, leaving $407,000.
[[[[[ But here I may misunderstand. It is possible that Mr. Russell
will pay far less during these slow sales months -- his obligation being to
pay on sales during that period rather than $29,000 a month.]]]]] At
which point Mr. Russell pays 12 percent with a lower annual guarantee for
the months
August-March 2006. That annual guarantee is $150,000 or $12,500 a
month. So, then, Mr. Russell will pay $100,000 during this period.
One deducts, then, $100,000 from $407,000, leaving a total of $307,000,
minus $86,500 as an agreed payment.
Over the first two years of the contract signed by Mr. Russell, the
Federation has surrendered $220,500. This number is possibly larger,
depending on the amount that Mr. Russell will have to pay for the April-July
2005 period. It seems fair to conclude that the Federation has
forgiven Mr. Russell about $250,000 over the first two years of his original
contract. |
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Meanwhile, in another Chessville interview Paul Troung
tells us what should really be happening to promote chess in the USA
for the C21st. |
Chess News Around the World
|
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 New
head of ACP: Presidential elections of the Association of
Chess Professionals took place. The new President became
grandmaster
 Pavel
Tregubov (Russia). The board included: Pavel Tregubov
(Russia), Bartlomiej Macieja (Poland), Viorel Bologan (Moldova), Yannick
Pelletier (Switzerland), Igor Glek (Germany), Alexei Shirov (Spain),
Vladimir Chuchelov (Belgium), Elmira Skripchenko (France), Elena Sedina
(Italy). The secretary became Bartlomiej Macieja, the treasurer -
Elmira Skripchenko. |
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And a Conference on Developing Chess: Russian Chess Federations
from the Volga region, Southern and Central federal districts declare a
 First
All-Russia Conference "Actual problems of development of chess in
Russia". to take place from January 11th till January 14th 2006 in
the Samara area. During the Conference problems of chess life in Russia,
including questions of children's chess, refereeing, qualification,
chess clubs, women’s chess, problems of professional chess players,
rapid chess and decision-making methods will be discussed.
Official site |
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 Fide
Arbiter Course, anyone? There will be an arbiters course in
Gibraltar from Thursday 26 to Monday 30 January 2006 to be conducted by
FIDE Organizers Committee Chairman Stewart Reuben. There
will be an examination and passing this will be equivalent to one FIDE
Arbiter norm. Please download the invitation in
Word format and in
pdf format.If anybody should require a formal invitation
for a visa, they need to contact Judy Whurr at
conf.banq@caletahotel.gi.
A book by Stewart Reuben, Chess Organisers Handbook, was published early
July. |
TheParrot Squaawks!
A very heavy
mailbag has occasioned Special Reports on USCF’s role in selecting
what books the public non-profit represent to the public. Most USCF
members seem not to be aware that any vetting is taking place, and objective
analysis cannot show that the banned book are not commercially viable ones.
So what is the basis for the excluded books? GM Raymond Keene of
England writes on the book banning of chess publishing house Hardinge
Simpole, and also of specific authors such as Eric Schiller (see
USCF's
Fingerfehler).
AND USCF’s deal with Chesscafe (see
The USCF's Book &
Equipment Deal with Chess Cafe) and the missing $250,000
[?] continues to excite comment. Apparently even USCF delegates were
not made aware of the default of payment at the June meeting, and the
account not even placed into default – in fact it is hard to find anyone who
claims to have been aware of the earlier $170,000 default, either in the
finance committee or on the board – even though an inevitable
cash-crunch-crisis occurred as result of non-payment. Meanwhile…
renewed contractual arrangements for book vendors were taking place in
secret session by USCF’s board.
A statement at USCF’s website does not clarify these issues as much as talk
around them, and does not address any specifics about why other vendor’s
bids were rejected, even though they were better bids than Chesscafe’s bid,
and also secured, as Chesscafe’s was not.
One delegate wrote that he did not see why any amount of the debt should
be forgiven. Is USCF’s board now operating entirely on its own
terms without reference to even national delegates?
And Finally of All, as ex-US Pres Clinton would say – who is addressing the
issues raised by Paul Troung on what really furthers us in
chess in the C21st? Its not the current USCF board, who are addressing
nothing and nobody at all.
Since Paul Troung is a formidable player in his own right, manager of the
acknowledged leading chess personality in the USA in the development of
chess, and also the team manager of an historic women’s Olympiad silver
medal… … If it came
to it, where would you want to park your chess dollar to best further
the game? That’s the question, folks. On present evidence… it’s
a no-brainer. What do you
think? Come on,
write to The Parrot and let us
know your thoughts!! TheParrot's Past Squaawks: See what TheParrot dropped in weeks past, and see what readers had to say in reply.
TheParrot's Special Reports
Scholastics - the Soul
of Chess?: Is the Scholastic chess movement actually bad for
chess? Maybe, or so argues Tom Braunlich in an
article extracted here at Chessville (Scholastics
and the Soul of Chess).
TheParrot's Special
Report addresses some very strongly worded reader opinions, along with
Braunlich's reply.
USCF's Book &
Equipment
Deal with Chess Cafe: It all started with the following posting by Larry Parr in one of the public
newsgroups last week: "Gentlemen, The USCF Executive Board has caved to the
ChessCafe. That is the report I received from a source. By a 5-1 vote the
EB has decided WITHOUT OFFERING A PUBLIC TENDER to alter favorably for the
Cafe the terms of its contract and to extend the Cafe's sales agreement
until 2012. Further, the Cafe will have over $100,000 of its $250,000-plus
debt to the USCF forgiven. The vote was 5 to 1."
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