Yesterday, I was copied on an email from a MAJOR potential sponsor for the USCF to the USCF President and another member of the USCF Executive Board. Here are some excerpts:
- Please do not have USCF ambassadors call me as I am not interested now, ever, any time after h freezes over talking to you people.
- Do not have Mr. (Joe) Lux call me again.
This is not the first time a potential major sponsor is unhappy or outright angry with the USCF and the USCF EB members for lack of professionalism and business experience. As I continuously said this over and over, why are we sending amateurs to do a professional job? Haven't we learned a lesson with the AF4C debacle? We just lost a sponsor in AF4C which had contributed more than $1 million to organize the US Championship.
This potential sponsor clearly stated in numerous emails to the USCF that he is only interested in negotiating with professional people and he specifically mentioned Paul Truong. He also wanted to sit down and discuss many issues with me, including plans on sponsoring events. He couldn't have made it less clear. All you have to do is read the chess news to see that Paul is successfully obtaining one big deal after another for chess while the USCF is continuing to go the other way.
Knowing this, the USCF is willing to lose a major sponsor instead of asking Paul or me to fly down to Florida to meet this individual. So what was the result? Just as expected: TOTAL FAILURE as you can see from the above excerpts.
Today, I was copied on another email by the reigning US Women's Champion. Here are some parts of this important email:
"At the moment there is no official information from USChess Federation, although, according to some other sources, the female US Championship could start as early as mid-July. As far as I understood, this event is going to be held 16-20th of July, which means we would have to play two rounds a day.
I believe these dates to be unacceptable from every point of view: firstly it is an important event and WCh. Qualification, and secondly, this tough schedule would make my own participation almost impossible (for reasons you are well aware of). Furthermore, it is made clear, that this schedule was partly created to fit into plans of a certain player and exact days were never discussed with other participants.
Another major point I would like to mention is that the idea to give places in World Women Championship from US Men Championship sounds to me both absurd and incorrect; absurd because women have to qualify having played other women; and incorrect, because nothing ofthe kind was initially mentioned in the contracts.
Furthermore, some players would thus get two chances to qualify and others only one. I think it is in everybody’s interests that USCF makes an official statement clarifying all this, so that all the people involved could discuss the situation. I don’t believe that decisions, taken at the last moment, or even, as it happened in 2004 with WCh. Qualifications, after the events, help us to develop chess in USA."
Best regards,
Anna Zatonskih
US Women’s Champion
This election is quite clear. If you think that the USCF is in great shape and you are happy with the status quo, vote for the same type of people who dragged this federation down year after year. If you want positive changes, I strongly recommend three other candidates: Mikhail Korenman, Paul Truong and Randy Bauer.
Thank you for your support!
.JPG)
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23 comments:
Why did Goichberg send Lux to negotiate with this sponsor? What experience does Lux have in negotiation? Does Lux have any business experience? Isn't Lux a TD and worked for Goichberg for many decades?
Why is Joe Lux negotiating on behalf of the USCF? Who made this bonehead decision?
You have my votes and so does your team. I'm fed up with Goichberg and his goons.
Susan, regarding the million-dollar donor, which is obviously Eric Moskow, I don't get your complaint.
If he doesn't want to have anything to do with the USCF, or anybody on the Executive Board of the USCF, and he only wants to talk to Paul and/or you, why does the USCF have to "send" Paul to go to talk to him.
Why don't you just go and talk to him.
Talk to Eric Moskow on what capacity? She has no authority to represent the USCF. She's not a board member. She can only do that if she's elected. Do you want her to go talk to Eric on behalf of the Susan Polgar Foundation? What a stupid statement!
What a remarkably ignorant statement by anon at 9:04pm. The real question should be why did Goichberg ask Joe Lux to contact Eric Moskow. Joe Lux had no business talking to Eric Moskow. What experience in business negotiation does Lux have?
The solution is clear. We must get Susan and her team in to fix the problems. The uscf has no chance with this bunch of incompetent board members.
Well, assuming it is Eric, if he only wants to deal with the USCF, but not the actual USCF that is represented by Goichberg, Lux, et al, but another currently non-existent USCF that is representated by Susan and Paul, then I guess he has to wait until after the election, when everybody (including Eric) gets to see whether Paul and Susan represent the USCF, or whether it is somebody else.
And if it is somebody else, then I hope Eric will deal with them and not try to tell the USCF who it must send to talk to him.
This should send a clear message to Goichberg and Lux but I don't think they understand it. What's the chances of them doing the right things? Zero! Vote for Lux and you'll vote for a Goichberg protégé.
OMG this election is so important. All of us must get out and contact our local chess players and get them to vote for the team. ONLY by getting enough votes to get all 4 members of the team elected will there be any chance to change the USCF in a new direction.
The EB is composed of 7 people. So it takes 4 votes to pass a resolution. If we only have 2 or 3 votes the impass will continue.
I am sure that Susan will get the most votes of any candidate. But Susan can accomplish little or nothing if she is the only team member elected. We must get all 4 members elected. To do that we must get out to all the local tournaments and talk to all the players and make sure they vote the team.
Not only must we get them to support the Team, but the votes must get put back into the mail as soon as possible so there is no problem with having the votes get counted.
Only a handfull of members are aware of the facts. We must get out and talk to all the chess players we can and get them to understand how important their 4 votes are this election.
Go to all the local clubs that meet during the week. go to all the weekend tournaments that are in driving distance. Talk to ever player who will listen. But do not create a big argument if someone opposes Susan. We can not change the minds of everyone. Let us spend our time on those who truely listen and want to help.
And lastly make sure every member who is 16 years old will vote. Some scholastic members are 16 and will have the vote. Every vote that is mailed in on time will be counted.
We need Susan, Randy, Paul and Mikhail. We can't afford to tick off more sponsors. This is ridiculous. Joe Lux has no business call Eric Moskow on behalf of the USCF. This was an attempt by Bill Goichberg to make Lux look good so he can be elected since he has no real record to run on other than being with the political in crowd.
What the heck? Joe Lux? Why did he call Moskow? By what authority did Lux have to do this?
Why blame Lux? The blame is with Bill Goichberg and this board. It's a big conflict of interest for Bill to head both CCA and the USCF.
I agree that we shouldn't blame Joe Lux. He's just Goichberg's puppet.
I'm actually glad to see Dr. Moskow speak up. This problem has been swept under the rug for too long. The USCF has no comprehension of the concept of professionalism. Thank you Dr. Moskow for speaking out.
I also don't understand. If Dr. Moskow wants to deal with a professional like Mr. Truong, why didn't the USCF ask Mr. Truong to meet him? Why ask Mr. Lux? Perhaps someone from the EB can explain this? Was this a political decision that usually backfires and hurts this federation. If this is the case, I think Mr. Goichberg should apologize to Dr. Moskow and never do this again.
Another episode of the USCF. Lux used to attack Susan on the USCF forum using info from his political friends which were proven to be false. He lost my vote long ago because I don't trust him.
Nothing you can do with these same people. The only solution is to elect Susan and her team. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we don't realize this.
Why blame Goichberg? If Lux called Moskow and failed to impress him then it clearly shows that he lacks the respect and professionalism and doesn't belong on the board.
Let's not blame anyone. Mr. Lux tried but did not succeed. We should appreciate his effort. Let's allow the voters to make their own decisions based on the qualifications and achievements of each candidate.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
www.PolgarChess.com
This was posted by Dr. Moskow on Mig's:
actually the truth is, 1. I offered 10k now, 10k gurnatee next year, best efforts to secure a great site and large long term committment moving forward. In the event susan wins and works with me, I am committed to make that stick and play in person next year. I vow to have 1-2 im norms (earned) by then. The ed bill hall great honest nice man was over ruled by mr conflict of interest (my view only) , no contact from mr berry to me (can not blame him) They misquoted the players and omitted if need be I would fly in for any norm games. fact is they do not want susan to have a deep pocket supporter, bad news they waived the red flag and I will be her biggest supporter. Bill must go. Eric Moskow
There is more information about what Eric Moskow was attempting to negotiate with the
USCF
on Mig Greengaard's site.
Apparently, Eric was trying to negotiate a way for him to buy-in to play in the U.S. Championship, including the possibility of sponsorship of the tournament. The USCF has previously announced patron fees that would have made this possible, but I think the deadlines had passed. And there was some additional complication because Eric wanted to play some of the games online, having other commitments that prevented him from being on-site the whole time.
Moscow seems to be saying also that he is a supporter of Susan and that the discussions fell through because Bill Goichberg doesn't want Susan to have a "deep-pocket" supporter.
Frankly, I don't understand this, since he was already a deep-pocket supporter for Susan and frustrating his goals vis-a-vis the Championship would obviously only strengthen his motivation to support Susan. From Eric's comments, this is indeed what happened.
what other player's schedule is she refering to in her letter?
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