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 TheParrot
Squaawks….!Opinions and Reader Feedback
TheParrot Says… 3-21-2009 One thing leads to another… A funny thing happened when I went looking for a recent photo of Larry Evans – one of the first Google referenced was Chessville… Where Larry Evans was being interviewed by Larry Parr. One anecdote from that interview was the following game where Fischer remarked to Evans that he was the first person able to resist Bc4 in the Najdorf. In looking around for a picture of the GM, here he is giving a lecture about that game:
Fischer-Evans US Championship 1958 Nadjorf Sicilian
Apart from a slight cavil about the organizers for advertising on the eve of the event, let me not take away from this charitable promotion for chess by Women’s World Champion Alexendra Kosteniuk.
A Charitable, 501 (c)(3) organization devoted to supporting the educational, cultural, and recreational value of the game of chess. Contributions are tax-deductible. New York City Salutes and Welcomes Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk! GM Alexandra Kosteniuk will play a 20-Board Simultaneous Exhibition this coming Saturday, March 21, 2009 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., in New York City at the British International School of New York. This good will event will benefit the U.S. Chess Trust. 150 spectators are expected to attend the event, which is by invitation only. However, thanks to technology and the U.S. Chess Trust's website, all of you can show your support and cheer for the chess players on our 'Live Games Blog'! You can also view event photos, make a donation, and see the Women's World Chess Champion in action! So, mark your calendars and cheer these chess players on by logging on to our website at www.uschesstrust.org! A huge thanks to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk and her family for supporting the U.S. Chess Trust! Event Contact: Beatriz Marinello, Beat...@chesseducators.com Media Contact: Barbara DeMaro, BDeM...@uschesstrust.org Autographs and Photographs Get an autograph and your photograph taken with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk! Our official event photographer will be on-hand to photograph the event and take pictures of the participants and guests with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. The Women's World Chess Champion will also sign autographs. Refreshments and Activities Refreshments will be served. Guests will have the opportunity to mingle, play chess, and watch the simul from the multi-purpose room on a large projection screen. This is sure to be a fantastic event for the chess community! Below you will find a list of the 20 chess players who will challenge GM Kosteniuk, the participant's ages range from 5-70 years old. The names are listed based on USCF ratings. The 'Live Games' which will be broadcasted are indicated next to the players name. Participants If you are playing in the simul, please arrive at least 15 minutes early. Dr. Leroy Dubeck, Rating 2200, Live Broadcast Alena Kats, Rating 2023, Live Broadcast Anna Matlin, Rating 2009, Live Broadcast Medina Parrilla, Rating 1992, Live Broadcast Alexies Paredes, Rating 1876, Live Broadcast Eve Zhurbinskiy, Rating 1865, Live Broadcast Ezequiel Quinones, Rating 1706, Live Broadcast Tanisha Millan, Rating 1607, Live Broadcast Leo Dubler, Rating 1567, Live Broadcast Natan Luehrmann, Rating 1187 Anagh Kulkarni, Rating 1165 Aisha Camara, Rating 1161 Sam Chapin, Rating 1159 Tomas Vonderheide, Rating 1149 Jaqueline Kuo, Rating 1057 Paul Davies, Live Broadcast Teddy Nacos Musavvir Khan Noorpuri Tayla Brown Ben Stedman
We would like to thank the British International School of New York for allowing us to host the event at their school campus and providing amazing support for this event! The British International School is housed in one of the most impressive school facilities in New York City. Overlooking the East River, the school building has large classrooms, filled with natural light and river views. The British International School is conveniently located at 20 Waterside Plaza, New York City. For more information about British International School of New York - please visit their website at www.BritishInternationalSchoolNY.org. For more about GM Alexandra Kosteniuk - please visit her at: Website: www.Kosteniuk.com Her podcast: www.ChessisCool.com Video podcast at www.ChessKillerTips.com You can also find more on her YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/chessqueenRelated Reading: Click Here to Read the Previously Published - Interview with World Women's Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk by WIM Beatriz Marinello About the U.S. Chess Trust The U.S. Chess Trust is an independent 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Created in 1967, the Trust was organized to promote, stimulate and encourage the study and play of the game of chess as a means of intellectual development. The Trust uses its resources for charitable purposes, including social, educational, scientific, historical endeavors. Our Trustees act without compensation, and are dedicated to the U.S. Chess Trust’s mission. The U.S. Chess Trust’s focus is an outgrowth of similar activities formerly carried out by the U.S. Chess Federation. We promote and support chess in the community through our programs, and by providing resources that help support our mission. In addition, we also actively support charities conducted by the USCF and other chess organizations. To learn more about how we are helping make a difference in the chess community, please visit our Programs/Resources section. It is no wonder, that more and more scientific studies have confirmed that children who are taught chess, in addition to their regular courses, do better in school. Studies report that chess helps develop valuable reading and decision-making skills, and improves students’ ability to concentrate. These are only a few reasons why the U.S. Chess Trust takes an active role in supporting chess education programs across the nation. And your donations help make that possible! 2-7-2009 Nonsense, Outrage, Insult and Paranoia USCF seem to have expended more money this year on law suits than in any other year, completely subsuming a bequest to them of $325,000. Even including that sum they seem to be more than $50,000 in the red. This extraordinary level of expenditure has been spent in large part in pursuing law-suits, not on the mission statement which is the apparent reason for USCF to exist at all as a NFP organization – whose first clauses talk of the promotion of chess. Meanwhile, and no doubt independent of this Parrot’s notices, the NY Times Gambit Blog columnist is rumored to be teetering in his seat after somewhat one sided reporting. But that is mere gossip, and besides, of no importance to our chess future, so negligible on both accounts. So to a bizarre notice reaching this Parrot concerning a raid on the house of one party to the current law-suits, turning over his house while he was not present, and seizing computer records, themselves containing evidential material to the law suits – apparently all conducted by government agents. It all seems rather like James Bond adventures if the reader is apt to take these things lightly, or if not, in bleaker mode, somewhere central Europe circa 1935. This is the state of the game’s national organization 2009 – some amalgam of the Marx brothers mixed with Charlie McCarthy and 100 commies in Government hysteria. 400 grand into this trash this FY alone is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. It’s merely your chess bucks being spent on an inane series of lawsuit, and not a penny spent on actually promoting chess the benefit of We, the Players. Rare Chess Pictures
I note that this year the contact information for the Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls (February 2009) July 26 - 31 at Texas Tech University (TTU) in Lubbock, Texas. Contact info: The Susan Polgar Foundation can be contacted at 806-742-7742 (phone) or through SusanPolgar@aol.com (email). NOTICE TO ALL STATE OFFICIALS: Please send the nomination from your state to Mr. Dewain Barber (amchesseq@aol.com), Chairperson of the Polgar Committee. 1-31-2009
But I do like that street chess idea. Someone wrote in six months ago to say there was a large set outside their local mall [sorry, forgotten where] and there were always crowds around it. They also said that many people in the crowd admitted they didn’t really understand chess very well– but they somehow liked watching it anyway. This looks like a canvas mat placed on the cobbles – does anyone do this where you are? [They don’t have to have x-ray vision too.]
1-24-2009
“Back in August 2008, the USCF received crucial evidence which showed that I had NOTHING to do with the hacking they claimed. Unbeknown to me, the USCF requested and obtained this information. Even after receiving the notarized affidavit from a third party which completely cleared me, the USCF decided to file a lawsuit anyway claiming that I hacked another board member's email account 111 times.
Illustrated are two pictures made available to the Parrot this week: The Parrot, Ducks
I sent the Gambit Blog the following message which they have to-date ducked, and declined to publish, or even acknowledged they received it: I wonder if the NY Times Chess Blog intends to report all the news of this affair? Isn't it even more remarkable that documents are now on the web which purport to show that Susan Polgar after being investigated and cleared of impersonations, the same piece of paper was forwarded as evidential material - but it has been 'doctored' by USCF. Whether indeed this is found to be the case, it is very serious matter. To view the documents as they are proposed to have been originally, and as they were presented to a court, visit [here]. The rather ridiculous response from NY Times is to publish my second letter while refusing my first, which contained the content. So much for such folks! I think this Parrot now understands more about the objectivity of the NY Times Chess Blog ‘Gambit’. Pfft! Rare Chess Pictures
A collection of her drawings, paintings and photographs of chess, complimenting other graphic works is on view on-line. I particularly liked the painting of the Knight and its moves, which is one of a series of abstract paintings on piece and move.
Not all the paintings are abstracts nor on chess, but chess is a strong
theme. The pencil drawing is entitled ‘Hedgehog’ and is rather typical of the wit of Sophia, who I think was once described by a sister as ‘the greatest of all of us.’ Well worth a look, and since the site features on-going contributions, also worth a book-mark for continuous looking: http://sofiapolgar.com/Default.aspx
Solve this! From the Sophia Polgar site this one illustrates a
Sophia game and a rare [she says of her own experience] double-check
mate:
From: [Polgar – Hajdu], White to move. 1-17-2009 More Troubles for Fide Pavel Matocha and Bessel Kok withdraw from organising the Karlovy Vary Grand Prix tournament The reasons are the withdraw of Magnus Carlsen and the changing World Championship cycle rules. Report by Chessdom.com Viktor Novotny has just reported for Chessdom.com that the 6th Grand Prix tournament might not take place. Pavel Matocha from the Prague chess society has announced that he and Bessel Kok withdraw from organizing the event. The main reasons stated is the withdraw of Magnus Carlsen and the changing rules during the cycle. The 6th Grand Prix tournament was scheduled to take place in Karlovy Var, however, there were indications dating back from the Chess Olympiad that the event will probably not be played. The cancellation of the tournament will have a direct impact on one of the Czech chess stars - GM David Navara. He was the invited player from the organizers and will not be allowed to participate further in the events. This is not a good news for GM Navara, who starts playing on Saturday in the Corus Chess tournament. Source: Chessdom.com The Parrot adds a perhaps unnecessary note about the ‘unification’ process which seems to be excluding more players than the previous model included. Fide is broke, and who will fix it? It’s not any matter of money, it’s confidence that is missing. Meanwhile Fide are still going for the Olympics, drug testing and all, but going it alone.
Their simply aren’t many people like this in the chess world.
Goodbye old friend. We have nothing more to say to each other now, though we said enough when we did for seven life-times. Not even Dostoyevski raised so many possibilities, nor Pushkin, nor even Garry Kasparov. They only spoke of what is Russia. But you were a world citizen. In time though, we shared these Russians with you, and in chess there are the same possibilities of appreciation, far beyond the technical aspect of your work, but which has to do with the cultural aspect of our world game. Excuse me for not making much sense at the moment, but I am glad I said it better, earlier, and that you heard it.
Vykhod est!
1-10-2009
Guest Squaaawk! Secrets: what the USCF board does, does not want you to know… THIS CRAZY WORLD OF CHESS by GM Larry Evans (page 129) Lev Alburt was the first grandmaster elected to the seven member USCF board of directors and soon became the odd man out. In this exclusive interview he pierces the veil of secrecy and begins naming names.
ALBURT: I couldn’t believe it myself. But I learned that everyone in the business office and above all members of the board were interested primarily in doing almost nothing. Nothing real. Nothing to promote chess. When I get together with Allen Kaufman or Jimmy Sherwin of then American Chess Foundation we usually discuss ways to promote growth and emulate the success of England, which sprang from nowhere to one of the top nations. EVANS: Didn’t the board discuss these things? ALBURT: No. I was extremely surprised that such topics were never addressed. Never, ever. EVANS: What was their goal? ALBURT: Let me continue. Even when we went to a restaurant I always expected them to bring up the subject of what can be done to make chess grow. But always the topics during our sessions was who should run for the board next year, who should be awarded national tournaments, or how to avoid being attacked by critics. EVANS: Well, what did they get out of serving on the board? ALBURT: Perks, of course. Free trips, and so forth. Some old-timers look upon the federation as their toy, their plaything. They hang around people they chummed with for years. They love to give each other awards. When I left they offered me a Certificate of Service, but I said I wasn’t interested in such things. EVANS: The board voted to ban tape recorders from open sessions but had to back down when Friends of the USCF blasted them in its newsletter. Isn’t the board spending more and more time in closed session anyway?
ALBURT: To some extent I think I spoiled the good feeling they shared together—the feeling that the less anyone outside knows, the better. When someone new was elected to the board, they immediately closed ranks and developed a bond. Even reform candidates wanted to become one of the boys as soon as they were elected. This extract is from Larry Evan’s book. An editorial review said of it, “Fascinating, intriguing, and controversial, the dean of American chess tells the never-before-told machinations and stories of world championship chess and what really goes on behind the scenes of the game at its highest level. If you think that chess and marbles are the only games free from politics, you can scratch that idea. These 101 entertaining dispatches from the front deal with the crazy world of chess ranging from politics, Fischermania (and Fischer's paranoid antics), the real deal behind the deep blue supercomputer that beat Kasparov, to just plain gossip and fun.” 296 pages, Cardoza & Amazon.com have it.
This is exactly how things work today. It has not changed much since GM Alburt was on the board. And it will never change as long as the same people and their political allies are on the board. Many of the votes will go straight party line regardless of the merit of the motion. Is it a coincidence that the same Bill Goichberg, Randy Hough and Jerry Hanken launched a baseless political investigation against GM Larry Evans some years back using members’ money? You decide. We asked Bill Goichberg point blank if he was aware of bribe offers (hotel room, airline tickets, free entry fees, etc.) by his friends to bring various people to Dallas to be certified as delegates to skew the votes. He flat out said no when he WAS copied on many of these correspondences. He and Randy Hough also certified these individuals as delegates from their perspective states. In one correspondence, it was stressed specifically that they MUST sign up this non-USCF member before August. Otherwise this person could not become a delegate. Instead of focusing on how to sustain the membership or how to make chess so much larger with new members, benefits and revenues, the board majority abuses members' fund for their own political motive. It is especially irresponsible in this economy. They will do everything in their power, legal or not, to oust their political opponents. The same board members are using members’ money to defend the wrong doing of non-board members. I believe the USCF is losing more than $330,000 this year so far. This number will escalate dramatically by the time this fiscal year ends. The same people are doing everything they can to hide the facts from the members. The USCF just received $400,000 bequests. How much of it will be left by the time they are done playing politics? Susan and I have repeatedly offered to open up all confidential BINFO and closed session recordings. We requested to have our experts examine the USCF database. The same board majority rejected these ideas. They also purposely hide critical evidence from everyone, including the court. A lot of the facts will come out shortly in the proper venue. I do not believe they can continue withholding information.
Squawwk! The Parrot asks; Standards or Lawyers? I wonder if
the EB set the policy or tone for the environment in which young players
exist, then should they not have a sympathetic understanding of what that
is? I remember the strongest argument Jen Shahade used in her book Chess Bitch for separate female events and titles, was that women [including young women] did not the enjoy the current atmosphere of joint events and preferred their own company. As for scholastic players proper, they are the majority 'members' of USCF, have no vote of their own, and also the fastest turn-over group. Some of that may be result of new interests of their own - but whatever it is, there is not enough in chess to contain more than a few percent of those who joined up even 2 years ago. During the 'Just Say No' years of drug discouragement, I served on a long-term planning board for the county's youth with chief of police, a justice, child and family advocates, other clinical folk - and as well as court and prison diversionary possibilities the question arose of what to say 'Yes' to? There wasn't much in our town for 13-18 year olds that 'diverted' anything much, and the few things that existed were run by 20-somethings, who seemed to turn-over their positions even more frequently than scholastic chess players - every 6 months. Most diversion stuff was for kids who had already gotten into trouble, and these were run by audited staff, perforce! Since they all took State money, and this is a requirement that both front-line staff and executive staff should pass through at least modest hoops of scrutiny.
The second is the need to direct these programs by people with sufficient wherewithal to do so. That is to say, a rather superior intelligence to group youth activity than is typical or average. I would even say that the lack of such erudition and quality control of board membership passively accepts the high turn-over rate, and actively spends money on law-suits not as a preference, but as a result of such paucity of standards by board members themselves. This is obviously the State of the Game 2009, USA. If individuals feel that their personal freedom is being infringed by allowing others to merely look at their behavior – others who would vote for them, or members who care to know who directs chess in their name, and this is described as some 'slippery slope', then why should such people gain any ability to set conditions for others? For USCF's main constituency, youth chess in all its forms, what we got here is a resistance by those who do and who would set fair standards to encourage youth chess, by people who declare no standards at all themselves. Child abuse from non-parental sources is not at new nor historical levels, and indeed there may simply be more reporting of it than there ever was, a result of not keeping quiet about the issue – it is not a hysterical campaign. It is on the increase however, and major agencies and institutions with children as their main care, or primary client market, do report an increase in those who seek to get after kids - they have instituted certain standards to screen out the most obviously offensive people and practices. USCF seem rather insular as an institution in this respect - and the formal lack of adoption of indicated standards in this issue of protecting children seems to have led it down a path towards the lawyer's door - a situation Larry Parr reported two years ago as the likely modus operandum of current management. How right he was! To have rejected standards is a conscious activity, preferring passivity – as if one can't be blamed if one does nothing - as if to think that denying responsibility will avert recrimination. As a policy for a national organization with children as primary and majority market, we now see that it has signally failed - and rather more money gets spent as a result of the lack of standards than if some just normal community, business or institutional measures had been deployed.
I just find the images, a caption, anybody? I can’t think of one this week, when I try my mind just googles at this one.
[Editor: how about 'knight to carousel three'? Think you have a
better caption? Send it to
The Parrot,
Late News on the next big event – field of players now set – of the favorites: The 71st Corus Chess tournament takes place Friday, January 16th to Sunday, February 1st, 2009 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands. Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov are the favourites for the event in the absence of world champion Viswanathan Anand, challenger Vladimir Kramnik and World Number one Veselin Topalov. Here is the full field of players:
1-3-2009 A Final Goodbye – Did We Learn Anything?
> Richard Stein, a lawyer for movie producer Chester Fox,
arrived here In his own world Boris S was as 'bad' in his own culture as RJF was in his. The consequences were merely of a different order: If Spassky hadn’t been a chess genius, chess being so important to Soviet internal propaganda, it would have been a psychiatric hospital for him, you know, the ones where they inject really painful stuff into you until you really do go nuts. The contest in Iceland continues to fascinate everyone, since somehow the world came together and played the same game by the same rules in the middle of the cold war. The cynical atmosphere of the times was almost Roman entertainment - like a gladiatorial contest when one of the participants must perish. From a psychological perspective I see the same cynical attitude from both East and West toward their respective heroes - a complete indifference to consequent human damage, the result of which was that both players got out of their native countries as soon as they could manage someplace to go. In this sense they both perished.
As well as regretting the worst taste in chess holiday presents - see the lovely boards!
I wonder if they use waterproof clocks? Of course, having one silly idea leads to another, so can any reader tell me if there has every been a pool simul? The GM would swim around in the middle of a group of…
Just before Christmas the Chessville Holiday greeting to all contributors went flying out – and I was amazed at all the people who contributed to Chessville; amazed in terms of their geographic locations, taking in India, Spain, Holland… but also the range of talent. A special thank you from all of us this year goes to recent volunteers who work on our infrastructure… We know! Chessville is like an old Souk, a maze-like ancient bazaar, where even staff say they can’t find anything… [constant staff joke]
We still need editorial help – but next time maybe I can try to make that sound more interesting. But sometimes we promote people editorially just for the fun of it all. ‘Endgame’ have produced some cool chess-gear… and I want one! Captioned is chess super model GM Akobian showing off a T.
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PRESS
RELEASE March 18, 2009
A
Special Thanks to the British International School of New York! 
Recently
I asked for pictures of people playing with big chess pieces: here is
one from the Annual Susan Polgar event for girls.
O
– Come on guys! Just because you’re Scandinavians in the Magnus-Era doesn’t
mean…
One
of the most interesting chess picture sites these days is by Sophia
Polgar.
I
am not proposing such a thing for chess, except as remedy to two problems I
perceive - the first is the high turn-over rate and lack of proper chess
courses, mentoring, and suitable tournaments as administered by USCF – in
short, the entire youth environment for chess.
This
correspondence emerged form a discussion of chess movies and the
exploitation of RJ Fischer. [A recent film on the theme of Bobby
Fischer Goes to War has just been iced by Hollywood]. But back to
Iceland…
But
if you got worse, tell me - There are other ways to enjoy the season. The
pool scene is recent, but I forgot where it comes from, it doesn’t look like
upper New England in winter.
On
the other hand, we are not flashy promoters of the latest product, [see
caption of latest flashy product] and editorial functions are completely
independent of business factors such as advertizing.
