The Giuoco Piano

Here's another opening for us to study - and a video to go along with it.

Lots of tactical twists, but so is the Ruy Lopez, too! Last century, this was one of the majors that everyone had to know.

Armed Forces Chess

A few days ago, I asked about this. USCF EB Member Mike Atkins responded:

The previous US Armed Forces Opens were held at:
2009- Gettysburg War Museum, Army, Chief TD/Organizer Mike Hoffpauir
2008- Bethesda Naval Hospital, Navy, Tom Belke Organzier, Ernie Schlich Chief TD
2007- Henderson Hall Marine Corps Base (On the grounds of Fort Myer, next to Arlington Cemetary), John Farrell/Organizer, Michael Atkins, Chief TD
2006 - Washington DC Old Soldier's Home, Org/Lt. Col Doug Taffinder, Chief TD/Michael Atkins
For the 2006 event we brought in as special speaker retired USAF Lt. General William Earn Brown, a chessplayer who was in one of the Tuskeegee Airman graduating classes in the late 1940's.

The US Armed Forces Open is open to solder who are active-duty, retirees (20+ year retirees) and students at the Academies.

This year's event is being organized by Lt Col Taffinder again and will be in the DC area. They do a wonderful job in securing donated prizes and have gotten financial support in the past in order to purchase great trophies. The Military Academies participate in the tournament with West Point typically bringing the most players. When it is being held on military bases, the rooms for the academy students are usually free and the EF is always free for everyone.

The Military Chair recently resigned and they are in the process of ironing out a strategy to always have a Chair. I am the EB Liaison to the Military Committe.

Mike

(Used with permission.) Here's a chess site devoted to this topic:
http://www.usmilitarychess.org/

Walters' Chess Qualifications

Here's a short list:

Chess Club Official: None
Tournament Director: None
State Affiliate: None
USCF Committeework: None
Newsletter/Magazine: None
Blog: Started one after he announced his campaign. (See below.)

Walters is saying the typical things chess politicians say when they have no real credentials:

a) He's going to represent the players, since he has no organizer experience.

Trying to turn a liability into an asset. So, why didn't/won't he represent the players in his state or his local chess club?

b) He's passionate about chess.

Sure, and the other pols are not? Since his one claim to contributing to chess other than just playing it is this blog, it sure would be nice if there were at least more than one post to it since Feb. 18 - and that was just a crosstable!

c) He's posted 300 odd comments to the USCF's Issues Forum. Mostly mean, nasty attacks or else some petty comment. These means that he fits right in with the USCF politics culture. (Sigh!)

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Note John Hillery's comment to yesterday's post. Walters should be elected only to keep Sam Sloan out. This is what the USCF has come to.

Walters' Campaign Blog

Earlier I had stated that Gary Walters, candidate for the USCF Executive Board, had done nothing in chess but put up a campaign blog after he began his electioneering. More on that in later posts, but on the blog issue John Hillery commented, saying that my characterization of his blog was unjust.

(Sadly the links do not show up in this blog very well. You have to move your cursor around to find them.)

I am not the only one who's saying this blog is for campaigning. This from the USCF's Forums, thread "I Will Only Vote Positively", post #180806, Gary Walters himself says,

I am also campaigning actively on my blog at http://graysonebc.blogspot.com/. You can find out more about me there.

This compares to Hillery's comment cited above:

"You failed to mention that he only started his blog after he launched his election campaign." [quoting me - JL]

That would be a fair point if his blog were primarily (or even significantly) about politics. It isn't. It's a chess news and analysis site, and a good one.

The point of all this is that what we have is a candidate who is not willing to work his way up but wants to start at the top. In order to make up for his lack of chess experience, he launches a blog so that he can have at least some chess thing to campaign on.

Let's face it. In a year with the USCF in a financial crisis, it is going to need a very active Executive Board, aggressively helping with fundraising and promoting. It's stuck with Walters because the alternative is so unacceptable. If the members expect this pol to be more than just a resume credential collector, they are likely to be disappointed.

Adventures In NY, Boston, and Elsewhere

Just learned of a new chess blog. Well, chess and lots of other stuff, too. Rather like my own at Jack Le Moine's Blog.

This blog is run by Erabin at Brandais University. Check his blog out and tell him Jack sent you!

Queen's Gambit

Get ready to play in a chess tournament this weekend.

Here's a little video to help you get your engine started. (-or to just learn a little more about the game.)



Almost always, when the Queen Pawn meets the Queen Pawn in the center, White supports with the Queen Bishop Pawn. While this forumation is not as deadly as its brother formation on the Kingside, it is more strategic and hence more practical.

I usually play this. I note that the QB pawn usually moves up next to the Q pawn no matter what Black does.

This is an overview for beginners.

Chess events in your area . . . and visit The Chess Website who created these wonderful videos.

www.jacklemoine.com

Old Finances

This is from my Way-Back Machine at the USCF's Forum. An oldie but goodie from 1/1/2007. Post 25787.

Thanks for the audit reports. I did look up the ones going back to 2002. Just a few comments. I note that all of the reports for all years was unqualified. This meant that the auditors found nothing materially wrong with the financials. If there were significant missing moneys, then that would have been noted somewhere - especially if they were in the ballpark of millions of dollars. There were no internal control reports - that dispenses with that issue. There should have been management reports, too. Those are not normally made available to the public.

I know that this next may stick in your craw but the Executive Board members should be given access to those reports. That's the price of having SS on the board. I don't mean to be troublesome here, just fair. I don't think there's a legal requirement for that, that's just my opinion.

I note that the building and land in TN is valued at near the price SS claimed was paid for it. The FY 2006 financials noted that the land was appraised but the building was not. Professional appraisers as a rule value property based upon all relevant factors. If encumbrances had the effect of significantly reducing the re-sale value aka the fair market value of the land, then the appraisers should have included that in their appraisal. Accounting rules require that assets be recorded at the lower of cost or market. Since the auditor did not write down the HQ in Crossville, this supports Joel Chandler's explanations and not Sam Sloan's. That should dispense with that issue. The building will be appraised this year. I do wonder why the building and land weren't both appraised at the same time.

I note that the 2005 report is marked "draft". This looks bad. You really should get the final version of the report up, even if it has no changes from the draft version.

Summary: the audit reports do not support Sam Sloan's allegations.*
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* He was claiming $3 million were missing from the treasury.