Chess politics - USCF Executive Board Meeting, Part 2, 5/22

Author

USCF Executive Board Meeting, Part 2, 5/22

halterrie@worldnet.att.net

2005-05-29, 3:31 am

USCF Executive Board Meeting, Sunday 5/22

Here is my report on the second open session of the Executive Board
Meeting, held 5/22 in Minneapolis from 3-5 PM.

The meeting opened with Marinello, Schultz, Bauer and Shaughnessy in
attendance. Steve Shutt arrived a few minutes later and Tim Hanke
joined by telephone a little after that. Once again, there were a lot
of numbers tossed around and, while I tried to copy them all down, I
may have made errors.

AWARDS

Winners of the various awards to be handed out at the U.S. Open were
announced. The usual suspects.

SCHOLASTIC COUNCIL

The results of an election for three open seats on the Council were
announced. Two of the top three finishers are also candidates for the
Executive Board; if either is elected he will be replaced on the
Council by the next highest finisher. The top five:
1. Robert Tanner
2. Mike Nietman
3. Steve Shutt
4. Mikhail Korenman
5. John Haskell

ANNOUNCEMENT

Beatriz Marinello announced that her stint as office COO will end on
May 31, 2005.

CONTRACTS MOTION

A subsitute motion for the one considered yesterday was read by Randy
Bauer. For contracts of over $10,000 written approval of the USCF
President must be obtained. Contracts of $30,000 or more will require
approval of the full Executive Board. This policy will be published in
every issue of Chess Life and on the USCF web site.
PASSED 3-0-1, with Shutt and Hanke absent and Marinello abstaining.

U.S. OPEN

The workshop schedule for the U.S. Open was approved. There were only
copies of this for the EB, so I don't know what was in it.

CROSSVILLE BUILDING

Elizabeth Shaughnessy reported. All of the architect's and engineer's
drawings are done. Shaughnessy explained how some people got the wrong
impression that a non-bidding contractor would be used, who is an
associate of the architect. It is a normal pre-bid procedure
to take the drawings to a single contractor, who will NOT be bidding on
the job, for a preliminary cost estimate. Adjustments can then be made
to the design if needed. Then the job is opened for 3-4 bids.

The pre-bid estimate was quite high, for an unexpected reason. The
building itself was not too costly but the plans for the surrounding
land turned out to be expensive because of solid rock discovered only a
few inches down, making digging difficult. Changes were made to the
plans to reduce cost in this area. Planned parking spaces were cut from
33 to 24 and a few other steps were taken. This resulted in a savings
of about $89,000 off the preliminary estimate.

The final pre-bid estimate after the changes is $561,000. Shaughnessy
reported that for a projest of this size, it is usual to allow for an
overage of 5%. Bids will now be solicited from 3-4 Tennessee
contractors. Ground breaking will be in August 2005 with the building
expected to be complete in March or April of 2006.

Steve Shutt proposed an EB motion, naming Elizabeth Shaughnessy the
official EB liaison to the architect, with full authority to move the
project forward.
This PASSED 5-0-1, Shaughnessy abstaining.

BANK LOANS

Beatriz Marinello met with four Tennessee banks, resulting in written
loan proposals from two of them. There were no copies of these
documents for spectators, so what follows is based only on my notes,
which may contain errors both of fact and of understanding.

One bank offered a loan for the full cost of construction, the other
set a cap of $500,000. The interest rate for either would be 5 or 5.5%,
I'm not sure which. As for a permanent loan or mortgage, both banks
were offering a fixed rate of 7.25% for 15 years. They also offered
some adjustable rate options, such as 3 years at 5.875% or 6%. There
was also an offer of 5 years at 6.25%.

One of the spectators was Joel Channing, who has extensive experience
with loan arrangements of this type. He was asked to look at the
documents and had some questions, such as whether there are any
pre-payment penalties. It was agreed by the EB that Channing and Randy
Bauer will call the banks together to clear up the uncertainties.

BUDGET

Some new facts emerged about this preliminary budget, which is due to
be finalized by June 21st. As currently designed, the budget has a
surplus of $630,000, not including any B+E revenue, which is being
taken off budget. This was so astonishing that I raised my hand and
asked if I had understood correctly. I had.

Other items of interest:

1. The architect's fee will be $40,000.
2. The Publications Dept. will remain in New Windsor until the new
building is ready. Estimated cost of that move is $10,000 but may be
less, as the USCF has earned a free moving load from the company which
handled the previous moving activity.
3. The renegotiation with Hanon Russell is continuing. No other details
are available for public release.

Eric Schiller then addressed the EB. He stated that he represented a
number of authors, including all of those handled by Cardoza
Publishing, plus John Watson, Danny Kopec, Arnold Denker, Raymond Keene
etc. They jointly charge that Hanon Russell has excluded their books
and other products from his inventory, for purely political reasons. He
stated that attempts to contact Russell directly about this had been
ignored. Schiller requested free advertising in Chess Life to help make
up for lost sales. He threatened to organize a boycott of USCF sales at
national tournaments if he didn't get satisfaction.

The EB had questions, such as:

1. What if Russell states that it isn't politics, the books just don't
meet his standards as potential good sellers? Schiller replied that he
can provide royalty records proving that the books in question are good
sellers. Elizabeth Shaughnessy noted that she could confirm that
Russell had not replied to a direct inquiry from Schiller.

2. Is there anything the EB can really do? Does it have the right to
force inventory on Russell? Elizabeth Shaughnessy read aloud the
applicable section of the agreement with Chess Cafe. I couldn't get it
all down but it was something like this: "Chess Cafe shall accept
input from USCF ... to provide satisfaction to USCF members." Exactly
just what this means is not clear. Joel Channing suggested that USCF
could use the renegotiation with Russell as leverage to get concessions
on this issue but Beatriz Marinello was reluctant to take such an
approach.

The EB agreed to investigate and appointed Steve Shutt to handle it.
Eric Schiller will submit a brief. No promises were made about Chess
Life ads.

That was the last item of substance. The EB adjourned shortly before 5
PM.

One more time, I remind you that this is not an official report and
thus may contain errors, both of fact and of interpretation.

-- Hal Terrie

Ed Gaillard

2005-05-30, 12:31 am

In article <1116886252.418828.68060@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
<halterrie@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

quote:

>USCF Executive Board Meeting, Sunday 5/22
>[snip]
>
>Eric Schiller then addressed the EB. He stated that he represented a
>number of authors, including all of those handled by Cardoza
>Publishing, plus John Watson, Danny Kopec, Arnold Denker, Raymond Keene
>etc. They jointly charge that Hanon Russell has excluded their books
>and other products from his inventory, for purely political reasons. He

So I did a few searches on the uscfsales.com website. They have four
books by Watson listed, three by Kopec, one by Keene. I looked at the
Cardoza website to see what other authors they have and searched for
them at uscfsales, as well. Two of Larry Evans' Cardoza books are
listed at uscfsales.com, and several of the Wilson/Albertson puzzle
books from Cardoza are listed there as well.

Excluded from the inventory, yeah. A cynic might say that this is the
kind of accuracy that Schiller is famous for in his books.

quote:

>stated that attempts to contact Russell directly about this had been
>ignored. Schiller requested free advertising in Chess Life to help make
>up for lost sales. He threatened to organize a boycott of USCF sales at
>national tournaments if he didn't get satisfaction.

I think the EB should let Schiller stamp his tiny foot and hold his
breath until he turns blue.

quote:

>The EB had questions, such as:
>
>2. Is there anything the EB can really do? Does it have the right to
>force inventory on Russell? Elizabeth Shaughnessy read aloud the
>applicable section of the agreement with Chess Cafe. I couldn't get it
>all down but it was something like this: "Chess Cafe shall accept
>input from USCF ... to provide satisfaction to USCF members." Exactly
>just what this means is not clear.

It _should_ mean that if enough USCF members complain about not being
able to buy Schiller's books through the USCF website, that the EB
should ask Russell to stock them. Have there been any complaints from
potential customers, as opposed to disgruntled authors?

-ed g.

--
Caissa have mercy on a miserable patzer: http://altergoniff.blogspot.com

Louis Blair

2005-05-30, 3:31 am

Cardoza published The Official Rules of Chess
with these sorts of comments:

"... the unorthodox rules of the United States Chess
Federation are ..."

"This sort of nonsense is confined, thankfully, to
American tournaments. ..."

"Most American tournaments are [designed to pack as much
chess as possible into a short period of time]"

"Some tournaments, especially in America, have large prizes
available to low rated players, ... This is basically done to
justify high entry fees and encourage low rated players to
participate, but there is a dark side ..."

"In the United States Chess Federation, no distinction is
made between arbiters and tournament directors, but in
most of the world, ..."

"... the onerous burden of a dues structure, ..."

"... Except for the USCF tournaments, this is the rule
in the rest of the world."

"... the authors have a rather low opinion of [USCF]
specific rules, ..."

"... the USCF rules ... are designed primarily for the
benefit of organizers, not players. ... the idea is to
minimize the need for arbiters and thus maximize revenues
for event organizers. These provincial rules are not
in force anywhere else in the known universe, ..."

"... the absurdity of some of these [USCF] rules ..."

"The USCF excuses these strange rules by stating that in
large tournaments it is impossible (read: too expensive)
to ..."

"... the rest of the world knows ..."

"Since only a small percentage of American chessplayers
actually play in USCF events, the authors find no need
to discuss these rules in detail. ... should you find yourself
playing in such an event you should ask the tournament
director to explain the differences between the USCF rules
and the standard (international) rules."

Randy Bauer

2005-05-30, 6:47 am

In article <d6vntr$898$1@reader1.panix.com>, Ed Gaillard says...

quote:

>
>In article <1116886252.418828.68060@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
> <halterrie@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>
>So I did a few searches on the uscfsales.com website. They have four
>books by Watson listed, three by Kopec, one by Keene. I looked at the
>Cardoza website to see what other authors they have and searched for
>them at uscfsales, as well. Two of Larry Evans' Cardoza books are
>listed at uscfsales.com, and several of the Wilson/Albertson puzzle
>books from Cardoza are listed there as well.
>
>Excluded from the inventory, yeah. A cynic might say that this is the
>kind of accuracy that Schiller is famous for in his books.
>
>
>I think the EB should let Schiller stamp his tiny foot and hold his
>breath until he turns blue.
>
>
>It _should_ mean that if enough USCF members complain about not being
>able to buy Schiller's books through the USCF website, that the EB
>should ask Russell to stock them. Have there been any complaints from
>potential customers, as opposed to disgruntled authors?
>
>-ed g.

Ed's information is appreciated. The Board's direction to Steve Schutt was to
make a similar determination -- which books are not being sold by the USCF, is
there a rational basis for the decision not to stock them, are they items that
the members are wishing to be stocked, etc.

Randy Bauer

quote:

>

Louis Blair

2005-05-30, 6:47 am

_
"I enjoyed the puzzles, but I do not feel
I learned from them as there was no pattern
to them. ... the problems were loosely
categorised into what type ending (e.g. R+P,
Q, etc.) but other than that, they bore no
relationship to the previous puzzle. ...
in the Introduction. The author tries to
explain all the methodology for endgames,
but in the limited space (10 pages) it is
merely a gloss over and not something that
a beginner can use as a basis of serious
study. ... I would recommend reading Winning
Chess Endgames by Yasser Seirawan and then,
after they are comfortable with the material,
having a go at this puzzle book to hone in
the skills. I would recommend using this
book that way ... a good tester for those
who feel that their endgame is quite good
already." - Andy Howie on Chess Endgame
Quiz by GM Evans

"brilliant book" - John Watson on Analysing the Endgame
by Speelman

"enriched the literature on the subject"
- Jeremy Silman on Basic Chess Endings by Fine

"excellent" - Jeremy Silman on Chess Endgame Training
by Rosen

"a relatively slender but quite useful work ...
more than enough for most players below 2200."
- John Donaldson on Chess Endings Made Simple by
Snape

"There is no doubt that this is a great book ... If
you intend to make a serious, intense, and prolonged
study of the endgame, then this is the only book
you'll need. ... without doubt one of the very best
books of 2003. Yet another home run for Mr. Dvoretsky."
- Jeremy Silman on Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual

"250 well-chosen examples to solve. ... very detailed
solutions with a plenty of prose explanation. ...
can be recommended without reservation" - John
Donaldson on Endgame Challenge by Nunn

"offers a fun and dynamic approach ... a great way
to learn endings. ... I recommend it highly."
- John Watson on Endgame Challenge! by Hays

"a closet classic ... This is that rare chess book
that gets you thinking about chess. It introduces
important chess concepts that don't get as much
attention as they deserve. ... If you do not own
this book, buy, beg, or borrow it. If you do own
it, read or re-read it." - Randy Bauer on Endgame
Strategy by Shereshevsky

"fills a useful void for players who want to go
beyond the simple basics of endgame theory and wish
to learn more about the strategy of that part of the
game. ... an excellent look at an important part of
the game that is sure to benefit the majority of
players." - Randy Bauer on Excelling at Technical
Chess by Aagaard

"belongs in the library of every serious chess player"
- Randy Bauer on Fundamental Chess Endings by Muller
and Lamprecht

"very popular. It has a bit of a reputation as a
beginner's endgame book, but it contains a great
deal of information useful to the intermediate
player as well. ... definitely a good choice for
any player below expert level, and affordable too,
listing at $12 U.S." - S. Evan Kreider on
Pandolfini's Endgame Course

"Emms does his usual excellent job ... I like this
book a lot" - John Watson on The Survival Guide to
Rook Endings by Emms

"first rate efforts ... well organized, with
carefully chosen examples and clear explanatory
prose" - John Donaldson on the Winning Chess
series, including Winning Chess Endings by
Seirawan

(Analysing the Endgame, Basic Chess Endings,
Chess Endgame Training, Chess Endings Made
Simple, Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual, Endgame
Challenge, Endgame Challenge!, Endgame
Strategy, Excelling at Technical Chess,
Fundamental Chess Endings, Pandolfini's
Endgame Course, The Survival Guide to Rook
Endings, and Winning Chess Endings are books
that were sold by Chess Cafe.)

parrthenon@cs.com

2005-05-30, 8:32 pm

COUNTING ALL THE FLOORS

<You must be counting all four floors. It"s been a couple of years
since I've been there, but it looked like no more than 3,000 upstairs
and a dank basement
downstairs. Of course there was another 800 or so down the street. That
housed the magazine.> Stan Booz, resident CPA from the Enrol school of
accounting.

The New Windsor building, both floors, is about 12,000 square feet.
What a bizarre thing for Stan Booz to write. The only possible motive
is to deny what even his confreres admit in a hope to stop further
rational discussion.