Evans On Chess. April 26, 1996. Copyright Chesstours. All rights
reserved.

                               THE CHESS PRESS

In 1987 Lev Alburt was the first grandmaster ever elected to the
governing board of the United States Chess Federation (USCF). He often
found himself on the losing side of a 6-1 vote, a minority of one.

CHESS LIFE, a house organ whose avowed mission is to promote chess in
America, did not report that our leaders caved in to a Soviet demand to
ban Alburt and other Soviet emigres from our team in a proposed USA-USSR
"summit match". It fell through when classified documents were leaked to
the press.

Out of 80,000 members only some 400, mostly chosen by insiders, can vote
for officers in the USCF, a not-for-profit corporation. This writer
chairs a group known as Friends of the USCF that has been calling for
more openness and one- member-one-vote (OMOV), a motion routinely quashed
year after year.

Voting rights is still a taboo topic in CHESS LIFE. The board turned down
$1200 for an ad that advocated OMOV and instead appointed a committee to
study the proposal. No progress has yet been made.

Another hot potato is criticism of FIDE, a parent chess body resembling
the UN with over 150 member nations. The Friends of the USCF repeatedly
urged an agonizing reappraisal of America's role in an organization
dominated for decades by Soviet and anti-Western forces. Not much honest
debate appeared in CHESS LIFE until FIDE awarded its title match to
Saddam Hussein in Iraq but backed down after a storm of protest.

"We have already seen how these vicious international intrigues can hurt
us in America," wrote Alan Kantor in a recent campaign letter. "Thanks to
our blind allegiance to a lawless and increasingly criminal organization,
what sane bank president or corporate CEO would risk the image of his
company by having much to do with us?"

John McCrary, another candidate for office, urged less happy talk and
more independence for the editor of CHESS LIFE: "Editors concerned about
their future have learned to avoid healthy controversy as part of their
job description. It's not the editor's fault but results from the actions
of some USCF leaders," he wrote, without naming names.

Frank reporting can now be found in THE CHESS JOURNALIST, a fresh voice
for reform. A recent editorial stated: "Cracks in the structure of FIDE
went largely unnoticed in the old days, but million dollar matches are
more heavily scrutinized than thousand rouble ones. Charges of
mismanagement and even criminal fraud, dismissed at first as the
rumblings of a few malcontents, are now granted a legitimacy scarcely
dreamed of a few short years ago."

The CJA quarterly newsletter packs a wallop. An article on censorship by
Phil Dorsey concludes: "The day when investigative chess journalism has
done its job is the day when our chess leaders are so impartial and
responsible that there is nothing to investigate."

Will that day ever come?

(To subscribe send $10 to the CJA, Box 3294, Hayward, Ca 94540.)
