I realize that many of you have never heard of me or only learned of me for the first time when I became a candidate for USCF President and my photo appeared in the July, 1996 issue of Chess Life, page 10.

I was born in Richmond, Virginia on September 7, 1944.1 first learned how to play chess at the age of seven. l first joined the USCF in 1956 when I was 11. I was living outside of Lynchburg, Virginia. In one of the first issues of Chess Life I received, l saw an announcement for the 1956 North Carolina Open in Wilmington. l played in that event, winning one game, by checkmating a professional magician named William E. Cox, who was rated 1577, in 12 moves. In my second tournament, the 1956 Virginia Closed in Charlottesville, l defeated W. R. Akins, the President of the Virginia Chess Federation. My photo with Akins was published in the Richmond New Leader for September 5, 1956. My third event was the 1956 Eastern States Open in Washington, DC. There, l won my first round game, which made me tied for the lead with Bobby Fischer among others, and my photo was published in the Washington Post for November 24, 1956, page C8, along with that of Bobby Fischer and Nicholas Rossolimo.

My first published USCF rating, at age 11, was 1475. My rating went up to 1626 shortly thereafter. My games in all of these events were played against adults. Scholastic chess had not been invented yet.

Why is it that I never became a really strong player and why have most of you never heard of me until now? I feel that the reason was that I grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, where there were few chess players and nobody that I could play with on a regular basis. My only significant practice came from postal chess. l believe that if I had had the opportunity to play every day or at least once a week during this formative period, l would have become a strong player at an early age.

I was still a rated "B" player when I arrived on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley as a freshman in math in September, 1962. This was the first time that I had ever had the opportunity to play chess daily against reasonable opponents. After only two months, my rating shot up 200 points and I was such a threat to the Northern California chess establishment that they paid George Kane $17 (seventeen dollars) to dump a game to Vitaley Radaikin to stop me from qualifying for the 1962 California State Championship, all with the approval and in the presence of the tournament director, Charles Savery. Roy Hoppe got into the finals instead of me.

By the end of 1962,1 was an expert strength player. However, l never really got much better. My rating today is 2050, about what it was by the end of 1962. At about that time, l started getting involved in other things besides chess, and soon became somewhat notorious in various other fields of endeavor.

For the past nearly 40 years, my name has virtually never been mentioned in any chess publication. Yet, l have always been around, usually in some behind-the-scenes way. l have collected chess games and scores which have been published in numerous chess publications, without my name ever being mentioned. For example, the games Benko - Suttles and Hoppe - Suttles, which were published in the December 1964 and January 1965 issues of Chess Review magazine, were provided by me to Hans Kmoch. Otherwise, those fantastic games would never have been published. (Of course, l made up the last few moves of the Hoppe game, which I watched, when both players lost track of the score in time trouble.) I was a friend and roommate of Duncan Suttles at the time. l got involved with the strong and promising young players. l was good at picking out the future grandmasters and making friends with them.

I have provided many games which have eventually been published in Chess Informant, for example. The only time my name has ever been mentioned there was in Informant 63, in the notes to the sub-game Sagalchik - Zamora, where the annotators are listed as "Shamkovich, Sloan".

A few of you may remember that there was a major scandal after the 13th game of the 1972 World Chess Championship match of Spassky vs. Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland. Some unknown person or persons got into the tournament playing hall and checked out the chess boards. Spassky lodged a major protest. Now, it can be told that I was that person, along with Fred Cramer and one other. (But, of course, Fred is dead now, so who is there to tell). Yet, my name was never published in any book or article about the match. There are those who even doubt that I was in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972.1 furtively slipped in and out of the airport, avoiding publicity. l was the proprietor of my own stock brokerage firm on Wall Street in New York City at the time, Samuel H. Sloan & Co., and went to Reykjavik on weekends.

I first burst onto the international chess scene during the 1986 World Chess Olympiad in Dubai. l arrived in the United Arab Emirates desperately broke, with my elderly mother, 76, my five year old daughter, Shamema, and less than $ 100 in my pocket, because all of my bank accounts and those of my mother had been frozen by a corrupt Lynchburg, Virginia judge. l got a job with the Gulf News as a reporter for the Olympiad. l was a complete unknown. Just within a few days, after my articles started appearing, l was suddenly a famous person, being quoted in publications around the world. My articles, entirely about chess, were so popular with the general reading public that the Gulf News found that its circulation actually went up when my articles appeared. Also, the Russians and the Hungarians were protesting to Campomanes and to the UAE authorities trying to have me arrested and deported from the country. Hugh Myers, who was the right hand of Campomanes during this Olympiad, says that I was within hours of being deported because of my newspaper articles, but that Campomanes stepped in and "saved" me. (Others have a less charitable view of the actions of Campomanes during this event.) One thing for sure, it was an article put out by David Goodman on the AP News wire that I had been censored because of my pro-Kasparov views that brought about my re-instatement and put my articles back into the daily newspapers.

I wrote 24 published articles during this period of November-December, 1986, most of them with my photo and by-line included. l am including two of my early articles in this mailing, so that it can easily be seen why the Soviets and the Hungarians were trying to have me arrested for my articles about chess.

During this period, I became known as a supporter and promoter of the three Polgar sisters of Hungary. l believe that I was the first to use the term "three Polgar sisters" in print. l was one of the first to realize how really strong Judit was and that she had the potential to become world champion (not the world champion among women, as I always politely explained, but the world champion among men as well.) But, of course, l had an advantage. l knew how really strong the Polgar sister were, because I had played an average of 30-40 five minute games with both Judit and Sofia every day during mid-1986. Laszlo Polgar, their father, said that I should call myself their trainer and manager, but I have avoided using those terms, because they were already stronger than me in chess by the ages of 9 and 11 respectively. (By the way, most people who played me during that period say that I was a 2250-2300 player at that time, this obviously because of being in practice by playing all of those games against the Polgar sisters. l fell back to expert strength later on, when I got out of practice.)

I remained in the United Arab Emirates for the next four years. l continued to write articles about chess for the Gulf News. My articles were also published in other newspapers in Asia, such as the Bangkok Post and the New Straits Times in Kuala Lumpur. l attended the 1988 Olympiad in Thessaloniki, Greece, hoping to cover that event and make a big splash, as I had in Dubai. l submitted my articles to Leisure LINC through a modem provided by Bjarke Kristensen. However, unbeknownst to me, my articles had been banned by Dawn of Leisure LINC. I continued to submit articles every day, and was told by Dawn that they were appearing. It was only a month later, after the Olympiad was over and I was back home in Abu Dhabi, that I found out that my articles had never appeared.

Had my articles appeared, it might have altered chess history, or at least the perception of it. For example, l would have been the first to report the defection of Elena Akhmilovskaya, an item which made the world news (not just the chess news). When Akhmilovskaya defected, l was the only accredited journalist in the news room in Thessaloniki who knew what she looked like, had actually spoken to her, and could correctly pronounce her name. (I had met her during the 1986 Olympiad in Dubai. She and Nona Gaprindashvili were friendly to me until they found out that I was backing the Polgars.)

It was the events of the 1986 Olympiad in Dubai and the 1988 Olympiad in Greece, plus the 1988 FIDE Executive Council meeting in Abu Dhabi, which I also covered for the Gulf News, which bring this letter to you today.

The reason I say this is: It was at that those events that I watched, with shock, horror, outrage and disgust, when anti-American positions were repeatedly taken in the FIDE General Assembly. However, these anti-American positions were not taken by a known Soviet KGB agent like Krogius. l find no fault with a man who works in the dedicated service of his country, for whatever reason. However, l do find fault with a man who sells out his own country, who consistently votes against the interests of the people whom he is supposed to represent, who undermines the values of the people whom he supposedly supports, and who does this all for his own personal advantage.

As I stood there through hours and hours of various meetings of the FIDE General Assembly, l focused on this one man who always sat there with this broad, stupid-looking smile on his face, who nodded his head approvingly on appropriate occasions, who rarely said anything, but who at every opportunity took positions against American values and against the interests of American chess players. As I watched this go on and on, l became increasingly filled with shock, horror, anger and disgust that there was any man so despicable that he would sell out his own country and everything which his country stands for, in such a public forum with representatives of 107 other nations of the world present and watching. More than that, this same man supposedly represented me and also represented all other American chess players. Now, to find that this same man, who has done so many terrible things to so many defenseless chess players, has the audacity to run for President of the United States Chess Federation and indeed is considered to be a "sure thing" to win this election, fills me with such monstrous outrage that I can barely speak it. The name of that man is Donald D. Schultz.

When I first decided to enter the race for USCF president, just two weeks before the final deadline of April 1,1 felt that nobody else knew what I knew about Donald Schultz on the basis that, if anybody else knew what I knew about him, almost nobody would vote for him. Also, l had been almost the only American, and certainly the only accredited American journalist, who had attended many of the FIDE meetings in which I had seen Don Schultz in action. At one meeting of the FIDE Executive Council in April, 1988, which I was banned from attending by FIDE President Florencio Campomanes, I had been able to listen to the proceedings only by putting my ear to a crack in the door. Therefore, I imagined that few others knew the true character and record of Donald D. Schultz. As a result, I felt a moral obligation to run for election just to stop, by any means, the election of Donald D. Schultz as USCF President. I had no ambitions of my own. Had I not been reliably informed that Schultz was considered to be almost certain of being elected, I would not have run.

However, now that I am running, I am finding that there are many people out there who know about Donald D. Schultz. They do not know the things that I know about him, but they know other things instead. It seems that Mr. Schultz has had a long career of hurting people and causing outrage among the injured, while at the same time being a consummate "chess politician", engaging in manipulative behind-the-scenes deals which rarely become public and which he is able to turn to his advantage.

I must be frank with you. I know little about chess politics, especially within the USCF. I am a complete outsider. I know a lot about FIDE politics, simply by living overseas for many years and attending and reporting on international chess congresses and events. However, at US Chess politics, I am a rank beginner. My opponent, Donald D. Schultz, is, I must confess, a grandmaster at US Chess politics. This is my first time that I have ever run for an elective office. Few give me much chance, or indeed any chance at all, of winning this election.

Nevertheless, I must struggle on. I am in this battle to the end. I am not going to give up just ten minutes before the election, as Lincoln Lucena did in Dubai, 1986, after Donald D. Schultz, who had been instructed by the USCF Policy Board to vote for Lucena, advised him to do so.

If I lose this election, and Donald D. Schultz starts engaging in the same nefarious activities which have characterized his conduct in the past, such as his attacks on journalists, each and every one of you USCF voting members will not be able to say that you did not have advance warning that this was going to happen. You will always have to carry it on your conscience that you voted for Donald D. Schultz.

Don will be contacting you and every other USCF voting member by the time of the election. If he sees you in person, he will warmly greet you with his broad smile and his firm handshake. He will tell you how glad he is to see you. He will be aware that most of you do not know his actual record as a chess politician and will think that he is just a normal guy, as he creates every appearance of being.

However, I have a couple of questions which I would like for you to ask of Donald D. Schultz. Take your pick. I believe that you will find his answers to be evasive and unconvincing. Also, please remember that all of these questions I have posted on the Internet and have sent directly to Don Schultz by e-mail, and I am sending him this letter as well. Therefore, since he will have plenty of time to think of answers to these questions, his answers should be convincing. Yet, I believe that you will find that you are not convinced.

I could easily create a list of 30-40 questions which Donald D. Schultz would be hard pressed to answer, but I will give just a few for starters:

1. At the USCF Policy Board meeting in New Windsor, New York, held May 25-26, 1996, why did Donald D. Schultz, who presently holds no official position within the USCF, stand up and object to an offer made by USCF Vice-President Fred Gruenberg to organize the 1997 US Championship in Las Vegas, with the largest prize fund ever for that event? Why did Schultz say that, after he is elected USCF President, he has five other sites in mind to hold this event, when the president alone does not have the authority to schedule chess events?

2. As a Policy Board member in 1992, why did Donald D. Schultz vote to hire the Pinkerton Private Detective Agency to investigate Grandmaster Larry Evans, at USCF membership expense?

3. Why did Donald D. Schultz file a $21 million lawsuit against Grandmaster and popular chess journalist Larry Evans in 1989, in which Schultz demanded an injunction that Evans be "restrained and enjoined from publishing and disseminating libelous and defamatory statements" in Chess Life and Inside Chess magazines? Why did Schultz under oath state in his verified second amended complaint, that there was no way to stop Grandmaster Evans "from continuing defamations except by a multiplicity of lawsuits"? In this connection, how can the USCF voting members be sure that, once elected, and with more than $2,000,000 in annual USCF membership dues at his disposal, Donald D. Schultz will not start using that money to hire lawyers to file a multiplicity of lawsuits on his behalf?

4. In an interview by his friend Tim Redman, published in the January, 1988 Chess Life, page 34, entitled, "America's FIDE Delegate Calls for New CL Writers", why did Donald D. Schultz state: "Get rid of Chess Life's English correspondents. Everyone knows their long standing prejudices. Replace them with American GM's.... The anti-Campomanes prejudices stem from the FIDE election.... The group is made up of Levy, Keene, Eric Schiller, Jonathan Tisdall, Larry Parr, David Goodman, Kevin O'Connell, and Kasparov"? (Please note that the list by Schultz of the "prejudiced English correspondents" included three Americans and one Soviet. Also, of the four actually English correspondents, one, David Goodman, worked for AP, an American news agency.)

5. At the 1987 FIDE Congress in Seville, Spain, why did Donald D. Schultz vote to have Spanish International Master Ricardo Calvo declared persona non grata by FIDE, solely because of an article which Calvo wrote which was published in 1986 in New in Chess magazine?

6. At the 1987 FIDE Congress in Seville, Spain, why did Donald D. Schultz vote to have Grandmaster Miguel Quinteros of Argentina banned from playing chess for three years, solely because Grandmaster Quinteros had made two private trips to South Africa, especially since the FIDE statutes, which Schultz helped to draft, allowed for a maximum ban of only one year?

7. At the 1986 FIDE Congress in Dubai, why did Donald D. Schultz vote to increase the FIDE rating of every woman chess player in the world, except for Zsuzsa Polgar, by 100 free rating points, solely to knock Zsuzsa Polgar off of her hard earned position as the number one rated woman chess player in the world?

8. At the 1985 FIDE Congress in Graz, Austria, why did Donald D. Schultz meet with Nikolai Krogius, the USSR FIDE delegate, and propose to blacklist Grandmaster Lev Alburt, the United States Champion at the time, from playing on the US team in a match between the USA and the USSR, in "compensation" for which Schultz asked Krogius to blacklist 2 out of 3 Soviets, Beliavsky, Vaganian and Yusupov, Alburt being an outspoken former Soviet dissident and defector?

9. Perhaps most importantly, the question which has never been addressed, how much money has Donald D. Schultz received over the years in travel and hotel expenses from USCF membership dues to attend these meetings in all of these exotic locations of the world?

These are Just a few of the dozens of questions which can and should be asked of Donald D. Schultz concerning his activities as a "chess politician" for the past more than 30 years. (And yes, it is true. Donald D. Schultz has been a chess politician for more than 30 years. I have known him myself for more than 25 years.) The above cited examples do not point to aberrations and oversights in an otherwise sterling career. Rather, they point to a long, continuing pattern of deceitful and manipulative practices by Donald D. Schultz. Ever since I posted on the Internet back in February a longer list entitled "Dirty Deals Don Did", I have received messages concerning all kinds of other things which Donald D. Schultz has done, along with requests that I add these items to my list. I have not done so, because I am not a personal witness to them or cannot verify them, but the list would just go on and on if I accepted all material.

Please note that just the above short list of items includes the names of many strong and famous chess players, all of whom could easily beat Donald D. Schultz at chess, blindfolded. Included among the players that he has attacked above are Garry Kasparov, Larry Evans, David Levy, Raymond Keene, Jonathan Tisdall, David Goodman, Ricardo Calvo, Miguel Quinteros, Zsuzsa Polgar, Lev Alburt, Alexander Beliavsky, Rafael Vaganian and Artur Yusupov. All of these players are either grandmasters or international masters. To this list should be added the names of such grandmasters as Ludek Pachman, Karl Robatsch and Roman Dzindzichashvili. It is unlikely that any of them will be voting for Donald D. Schultz for USCF President.

Moreover, because of the actions outlined above, and others as well, 25 professional chess players signed a petition demanding the removal of Donald D. Schultz as the US delegate to FIDE. Inside Chess for May 1, 1989, vol. 2, issue 8, page 16, reported that 17 American grandmasters and 8 American international masters had signed a petition demanding that Donald D. Schultz be replaced. The grandmasters who signed were Lev Alburt, Joel Benjamin, Walter Browne, Robert Byrne, Larry Christiansen, Maxim Dlugy, Nick deFirmian, Larry Evans, John Fedorowicz, Boris Gulko, Dmitry Gurevich, Sergey Kudrin, Anatoly Lein, William Lombardy, Michael Rohde, Leonid Shamkovich, and Andy Soltis. The International Masters who signed were: Jay Bonin, John Donaldson, Alex Fishbein, Victor Frias, Alexander Ivanov, Anthony Saidy, Kamran Shirazi, and Bernard Zuckerman. Furthermore, Yasser Seirawan, one of the few grandmasters who did not sign, reported in inside Chess, May 29, 1989, vol. 2, Issue 10, page 20, that, in the face of this petition, Donald D. Schultz had resigned as the US delegate to FIDE.

In his lawsuit against Grandmaster Larry Evans, Donald D. Schultz alleged that these players had been duped in some way into signing this petition, or else that they did not sign it at all. However, I have spoken to several of the above named players within just the past few weeks, and those to whom I have spoken have stated that they did, in fact, sign that petition. They have further indicated that they have not changed their views about Donald D. Schultz.

Remember, you have only two real choices: either me or Don Schultz. No other names will appear on the ballot as candidates for USCF President. Therefore, I ask that each of you vote for me for USCF President.

Sincerely,

Sam Sloan

I worked for 18 years in the securities industry in Wall Street in New York City. For five years, I was the principal of my own stock brokerage firm, Samuel H. Sloan & Co., a market maker in over-the-counter securities. I helped establish Shareholder Communications Corporation, still a major Wall Street proxy solicitation and stockholder relations firm.

I won a famous case in the United States Supreme Court 9-0, which I personally argued orally before the full nine judge panel of that court. The name of that case is S.E.C. vs. Samuel H. Sloan, 436 US 103 (1978). The decision in that case fundamentally altered and changed the regulatory scheme for securities trading in America. I have more than 15 published federal securities decisions to my credit.

I am the author of four books in print: Chinese Chess for Beginners, The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson, How to Take Over an American Public Company, and Khowar English Dictionary.

I have written innumerable newspaper and magazine articles about chess which have been published around the world, principally in Asian countries.

I have attended numerous international chess congresses and events and am much better known internationally than in the U.S. I was present in Iceland in 1972 when Bobby Fischer won the world -chess championship. I continue to maintain relations with many of the world's top grandmasters.

I am a computer programmer and was one of the two original developers of the Rex computer program, later named Rexchess and since re-written and re-named Socrates.

I have traveled to and visited 75 countries of the world. I have represented the United States in the International Amateur Shogi Championship in Japan and in the World Championship of Chinese Chess. I have competed in the finals of the Thailand National Championship of Thai Chess, also known as "Makrook Thai".

I am presently employed as a legal and financial advisor and consultant to various individuals and corporations.

I am not a member of any organization of any kind anywhere in the world except for the USCF.

Sam Sloan

1. I will conduct an open USCF administration, a promise which many pervious candidates have made, but none have ever kept. Secrets which have been kept for years by previous USCF administrations will no longer be secrets, if I am elected.

2. As I believe in sound financial policies, I intend to conduct the affairs this non-profit corporation on a profit making basis. The books and records will be maintained and the annual audit will be conducted in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. I guarantee that the already high dues will not be raised further. The flow of red ink which is currently taking place at the New Windsor office will be stopped, not by a dues increase or by a sale of the capital assets such as the USCF building, but by sound business management, something which is presently lacking.

3. There will be full financial disclosure to the members in accordance with guidelines set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission for publicly traded corporations. For example, the current Executive Director of the USCF, Al Lawrence, makes a salary of approximately $1 10,000 to $120,000 per year, but the true exact amount is not known even to the voting members and delegates. If I am elected, the executive compensation of Al Lawrence and other executives will be fully disclosed in accordance with SEC guidelines.

4. It is now apparent that FIDE President Kirsan lljumzhinov is unqualified and unfit to serve in that office. If elected, I will take steps to have him removed, but not until after a suitable replacement is found.

5. The USCF office in New Windsor never made any effort to organize the Kamsky - Karpov Match for the World Championship. As a result, con men, swindlers and despots had their overtures received with favor. Since Kamsky is "our player" and there has been reason to believe that he has a chance to beat Karpov, the USCF should have made every effort to arrange the match. When such situations arise again, the USCF will support our players.

6. As the future of chess is in our children, the USCF will continue to make ever increasing efforts to get little kids hooked on chess.

7. As an overwhelming number of USCF members appear to be dissatisfied with the current situation in which only 414 members have the right to vote in an organization of 85,000 dues paying members, a study will be done and a recommendation made as to possible solutions to this continuously vexing problem.

8. Unlike almost every major chess playing country in the world, the United States has never hosted a World Chess Olympiad. Accordingly, an exploratory committee will be established to try to secure the financing to host such an Olympiad. I believe that the 1998 Olympiad now scheduled for Elista, Kalmykia, will collapse. I intend to rescue it and have it held in America.

Sam Sloan

I am deeply disturbed by a letter which Mike Goodall mailed to all 414 voting members of the USCF last week. While I am not going to cry about this (as Senator Edmund Muskie once did) Mike's attacks are really beyond the pale, as they pertain to personal and family matters unrelated to chess.

I had last spoken to Mike over a week ago and he made some disturbing remarks about what a great guy Don Schultz is. I was afraid that Mike might send out one of his letters endorsing Schultz, but did not know that he had done so.

Mike is poorly informed. He does not have a computer. He had one for a while but we could not get him even to turn it on. Mike does not read anything. He only knows what he hears.

Mike says that he owes Don Schultz a favor because Schultz got him the International Arbiter title!

I feel that I should not give Mike's letter the dignity of a response, but I am finding that some members are taking his letter seriously, so I need to address it.

Mike attacks me primarily over family matters, saying, for example, that I do not support my children. The fact is that Mike knows nothing about my personal life. I live with my wife and three children in the Bronx. (I do not give out that address.) My children love me very much. A more devoted family no man could ever want or hope to have.

As to Mike's claim that I am not supporting them, I give money to my children every day, which is the reason why I am always broke.

It is true that I was married previously, my ex-wife hid my children from me for years, I do not even now know their address, and my ex-wife has succeeded completely in alienating those children from me. However, in this regard, I am no different from thousands of other men in America nowadays.

Mike's letter also refers to a court case against me. That concerns child custody matters, and is still pending on appeal before the United States Supreme Court as Sloan vs. Virginia, No. 95-8909.

On other matters, Mike Goodall claims that I haven't had a job in years. The fact is that I am an entrepreneur. Mike himself is my former employee. He worked for my stock brokerage firm of Samuel H. Sloan & Co. in the early 1970s. 1 fired him, not for anything which Mike did wrong, but because my girlfriend at the time (who also worked for me) insisted upon it. Mike has always been upset and bitter about that.

I am a workaholic who spends 14 hours a day, 7 days a week working on various project, rarely taking time for idle relaxation. Mike apparently feels that anyone who does not draw a weekly pay check "does not have a job". Not only am I currently employed (I am typing this in my real estate office) but I can provide references from prominent personalities in the Wall Street financial community who have known me for more than 25 years and who can attest to the quality of my work and the things which I have been able to accomplish in the financial and corporate area.

Then, Mike says that I have "never done anything for chess." Since Mike doesn't read (he really doesn't), he could not possibly be familiar with the books and magazine and newspaper articles which I have written on subjects which include chess. Mike is an organizer and director of chess tournaments in the San Francisco Bay Area. He apparently feels that anybody who does not organize chess tournaments on a regular basis, has "done nothing for chess".

Would Mike, a person who has directed innumerable chess tournaments, be qualified to be USCF President? I don't think so. A man who does not read very much and who knows nothing of what is going on in chess outside of the area where he lives would not be qualified, in my opinion.

Trying to put Mike's slanderous letter on a positive note, Mike has added my name to a distinguished list of those whom have been the targets of hit letters like his in the past. Mike's letter does not merely attack me. Most of his venom is directed at Jim Eade, a candidate for the USCF Policy Board. Jim Eade is currently the editor of two chess magazines, is the President of Chess Journalists of America, is the former President of the California Chess Association, is the publisher of numerous chess books, is a 2350 chess player, and has personally put up the money from his own pocket to finance chess events such as the Pan Pacific International.

I have long been aware that Mike does not like Jim Eade. (Another person who does not like Jim Eade is Eric Schiller, from whom you will be hearing on this subject, I am sure.) Nevertheless, for anyone to say that Jim Eade is not qualified to be a policy board member is ridiculous.

In addition, Mike has sent out hit mail attacking candidates in the past. Mike claims that he personally got Harold Winston elected USCF President. Mike sent out a hit letter endorsing Winston and attacking his opponent, Yassir Seirawan. Mike also opposed Bill Goichberg when he ran for USCF President three years ago. Goichberg was defeated by Denis Barry.

I feel that Seirawan and Goichberg were magnificent candidates for USCF President. I am sorry that they were defeated. If anyone of their stature were running today, I would not be a candidate.

In addition to Mike's letters (which he at least signed himself), there have been numerous anonymous hit mailings by unknown or nonexistent persons. Last year, just before the USCF election, somebody sent out a letter claiming essentially that Fan Adams was a fraud and a fake and just a poor average person claiming to be a wealthy big shot. This letter arrived just before the election and there was no time to put out a refutation. It was later demonstrated that the allegations were utterly false. Fan Adams was elected anyway.

I do not keep up with these matters and cannot cite all the such letters, but there is the one mailed in 1992, which supported Don Schultz for election against Nigel Eddis. That letter was mailed anonymously and the true mailer has never been conclusively identified. It seems fairly certain that both that letter and the 1995 letter attacking Fan Adams were written by Jerome Hanken.

I must mention here that I am convinced that Don Schultz had nothing to do with Mike's letter and did not even know about it. Mike has told me that he has not spoken to Schultz in a long time and that he "barely knows the man." This, by the way, is one of my complaints. Mike has come out endorsing a candidate whom he knows nothing about.

I realize that now any of you who have not seen Mike's letter are going to want to read it. I hope that you do not do so, because it contains the sort of defamatory allegations and obscene suggestions which really should not even be read. However, just to provide an idea of the tone of Mike's letter, here is part of his conclusion: "Unless Don Schultz is discovered in bed with a live boy or a dead woman between now and election day, vote for Don. It's unfortunate that we don't have more of a choice.

" I might add here that, in my opinion, even if these things were discovered about my opponent (which I am sure that they will not be), that should have no bearing on this election, because that would concern matters unrelated to chess or to the qualifications of a person to become USCF President.

Sam Sloan

Throughout the entire period that Don Schultz was the US delegate to FIDE, Schultz invariably backed FIDE President Florencio Campomanes in whatever he wanted to do, often acting against official USCF policy as set by the Policy Board, and frequently voting against American interests. It was substantially in part due to the efforts of Don Schultz that Campomanes was able to remain as FIDE President during the period when Schultz was the US delegate.

At the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, 1987, Schultz campaigned to have International Master Ricardo Calvo of Spain declared persona non grata by FIDE, solely because of an article which Calvo had written which was published in 1986 in New In Chess magazine, No. 8, pages 6-9, entitled "One Bridge Too Far." This was an excellent article, brilliantly written, and the best article on chess politics I have ever read. The article described Calvo's efforts in the failed bid by Lincoln Lucena for FIDE President. Schultz, who backed Campomanes even though he had been instructed by the USCF Policy Board to vote for Lucena, wanted to punish Calvo in retaliation for his election campaign against Campomanes, and had Calvo declared "persona non grata".

Schultz was one of the drafters of the notorious proposed FIDE "Code of Ethics" which would have set up a procedure whereby errant journalists who wrote articles critical of the FIDE administration would be punished by being banned from all chess competition for up to five years. In 1987, Schultz voted to have Grandmaster Miguel Quinteros of Argentina banned from playing chess for three years, even though this ban was a clear violation of FlDE's own statutes and of international law. The FIDE Statute in existence at that time, which Schultz helped to draft, provided for a ban of only one year. In 1986, Grandmaster Quinteros was the most active grandmaster in the entire world and played more FIDE rated games than any other grandmaster in the world. Because of this ban, Grandmaster Quinteros was not able to play chess at all from 1987 until 1990. The way that this ban was enforced was that, if Grandmaster Quinteros was allowed to play in a tournament, then all the results of all of the players in that tournament would be invalidated for FIDE rating and title norm purposes.

Schultz favored having Grandmaster Karl Robatsch of Austria banned from chess for one year.

Schultz voted to have Grandmaster Ludek Pachman banned from chess for one year. Grandmaster Pachman had only recently emerged from three years in political prison in Czechoslovakia, only to be banned from chess by an equally Stalinist FIDE General Assembly.

In 1986, Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili was banned from chess by both the USCF and FIDE during the period when Schultz was both a USCF and a FIDE official, on grounds pertaining to an all night poker game in which Grandmaster Dzindzichashvili had played. This followed a FIDE policy under Campomanes that any FIDE member nation had the authority to ban its own players from playing chess worldwide. This had not been the policy under Fridrik Olafsson and other previous FIDE presidents.

Schultz voted to award 100 free rating points to every woman chess player in the world, except for Zsuzsa Polgar, solely because Zsuzsa Polgar had defeated 13 male grandmasters in the 1985-1986 rating period, more grandmasters than Maya Chiburdanidze had ever defeated in her entire life, and was going to become the highest rated woman player in chess history, had not the 100 free rating points been awarded to her rivals.

When Elena Akhmilovskaya defected to the US during the 1988 World Chess Olympiad in Greece and married US Team Captain John Donaldson, Schultz tried to reverse the defection and to coerce Donaldson to return his blushing bride to the Soviet authorities for deportation back to the Soviet Union and possible imprisonment there. Schultz stayed in contact with a known KGB agent, Gufeld, in their mutual effort to secure the return of Akhmilovskaya to the Soviet Union.

During the 1986 FIDE General Assembly in Dubai, after Florencio Campomanes had defeated Lincoln Lucena in the race for FIDE President, Schultz was hand picked by Campomanes to become a member of the FIDE Executive Council, which is the highest body of FIDE. Campomanes selected Schultz along with Ghobash, because he knew that they were absolutely secure pro-Campomanes votes. Schultz supported Campomanes because he believed that Campomanes was going to retire and to nominate Schultz as his successor. Schultz failed to realize that the Cold War was going on and that no American, nor any Soviet Bloc member for that matter, could possibly be elected as FIDE President. The idea of a Schultz regime as FIDE President burned brightly in the mind of Don Schultz, but scarcely in anybody else's.

Schultz later filed a lawsuit against Grandmaster Larry Evans for $21 million for defamation of character, solely because of the journalistic writings of Grandmaster Evans with which Schultz did not agree. It was alleged that Schultz stayed in expensive five star hotel suites and flew first class at USCF expense, whereas the US team players stayed in normal hotel rooms and flew economy class. The remarks of Grandmaster Evans were so bland and un-controversial compared with the truth that nobody could even understand what Schultz was complaining about. Nevertheless, Schultz alleged in his lawsuit that, due to the remarks of Grandmaster Evans on Leisure Linc, Schultz had lost his chance to become President of FIDE. In Schultz's Second Amended Complaint of August 31, 1989, he referred to his unpaid service as America's FIDE delegate as a career. In Schultz vs. Evans, Case No. CL-88-7337 AD, in the 15th judicial circuit of the circuit court, in and for Palm Beach County, Florida, Schultz stated, under oath:

" 16. SCHULTZ was one of the most respected FIDE delegates in the world, as evidenced by his election to the FIDE Executive Board by receiving the greatest number of votes in FIDE history. SCHULTZ is only the second American to be elected to the Executive Board, and stood a solid chance of becoming the first American president of FIDE. As the direct and proximate result of EVANS's libelous statements, Plaintiff is damaged in his ability to continue in his career as an international delegate."

Schultz was elected to the USCF Policy Board in 1992 and he voted to have Grandmaster Larry Evans investigated by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, at USCF membership expense.

During the 1986 FIDE meetings in Dubai, Schultz pressed hard for a grandmaster title to be awarded to his friend Dake, while making no effort to support the grandmaster title applications of Benjamin and Fedorowicz. Schultz did not even attend the meetings of the FIDE Qualifications Committee where the applications for the grandmaster title for Benjamin and Fedorowicz were taken up, even though Schultz had been sent to Dubai at USCF expense for that purpose. Benjamin and Fedorowlcz were eventually awarded the grandmaster title anyway, in spite of rather than because of the efforts of Schultz, who agreed with his friend Denker that Benjamin and Fedorowicz were young boys who should wait and who would have other chances.

As a Policy Board member in 1992, Schultz used his influence to have the column of Grandmaster Larry Evans dropped from Chess Life. Grandmaster Evans had been writing for Chess Life since the mid- 1950s and is one of the most popular chess journalists in America and has made a greater contribution, over a longer period of time, than any other American journalist in chess. Evans was reinstated in Chess Life after Max Dlugy was elected USCF President in 1993.

The record of Don Schultz shows that he tries to use political power to help his friends and to punish those whom he perceives to be his enemies. The President of the USCF should be an even handed person who will deal fairly with all, including the popular and the unpopular. Schultz is not that person and is unsuitable ever to become USCF President.

Sam Sloan

Although the Russians often pass up minor chess events, in a big one like this they don't fool around The initial 24-member Soviet chess delegation arrived in Dubai last evening.

Included are 13 top Soviet grand masters. These, in order of their current ratings as published by the International Chess Federation, are: Kasparov (2740) Karpov (2705), Yusupov (3660), Sokolov (3620), Vaganian (2600). Polugaevsky (2575), Smyslov (2555), Geller (2490), Kupreichik (2490), Tsheshkovsky (2290), Gufeld (2480). Averbakh (2465) and Krogius (inactive). The first five are on the team, plus Tsheshkovsky, the Soviet national champion. In addition, there are four with the ladies grandmaster title, all from Tbilisi in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. These are: Akhmilovskava (2290), Alexandria (2290), Chiburdanidze (2435) and Gaprindashvili(2350). The latter two have been given honorary grandmaster titles among men, without having made the usually required three norms, in defense to their female status.

There is also a ladies captain, Bilunova (2175). and there are Soviet arbiters: Beilin, Gasanov, Muratbekov, Pushkunigis. Then there is Nikitin, a friend of Kasparov and the co-author of a book on the Sicilian Defense. Chikuaidze, the new president, Sevastianov, a famous astronaut, and Gavrilin, a top Soviet sports official, are expected later.

The Soviet Union is a country with a great tradition for democracy. Although there are more than one million Soviet chess players of first category strength or better, that still leaves more than 250 million who do not play chess very well, if at all, and they, too, deserve to be represented at the World Chess Team Championship. The Soviet Union appear to have sent, or is in the process of sending, a number of such persons to Dubai. In addition to a number of unknown Soviet faces at the airport, we have the following names: Kulestov, Karamov, Bogdanov, Prigarina, Nasimov, and Khromykh.

Kasparov has recently confirmed his status as world chess champion and it is rumored that as a reward for this he will kick out some of the old cronies and replace them with his own new men. This may account for some of the unknown names on the list. Gone seems to be Baturinsky, who was a very strong man in at least two ways He is said to have been a high official in the Soviet secret police under Stalin, and he was also a very strong chess player, over 2100 in his heyday, which is not bad for a mere policeman.

It is thought by some that many of the unknown Soviet individuals are here to protect the Soviet grandmasters from being bothered or harassed by outsiders. There is a story about this. I am told that this story is not technically exactly true, but, with that caveat, I will repeat it anyway.

Two Soviets, Ivanov and Razuvaev (both now grandmasters) were on a non-stop Aeroflot Polar flight from Havana to Moscow. For technical reasons, the flight had to make a non-scheduled stop in Newfoundland. On the ground in the airport Ivanov said to Razuvaev, 'I'll see you in five minutes." Razuvaev did not see Ivanov again for another five years.

Ivanov now plays for Canada but, decided at the last moment not to come to Dubai: Razuvaev was also supposed to come, but did not show up.

Hungary Women Stronger: In most major sporting events around the world the tension builds as everyone wonders who will be the winners.

The expected Soviet team of Kasparov, Karpov, Sokolov and Yusupov is simply unbeatable. They are the four best players in the world. Although Sokolov was somewhat low-rated on the FIDE list published in July, his recent surprise win over Yusupov justifies his placement in the top four.

The Russians have only lost once in Olympiad history. That was their shock second place finish behind Hungary at the Buenos Aires Olympiad in 1978.

In Greece in 1984, they lost an individual match to the United States in a tremendous upset-but they beat Hungary 4-0 and took first place.

The women's Olympiad events have been even more one-sided. There is no question of the Russians ever losing a match. It is a great upset if they even lose a single game.

This year, however, for the first time, there is just a chance that a Russian team may lose. Hungary has suddenly emerged a major power in women's chess.

A 17-year-old girl named Madl, who was unknown outside Hungary until just a few months ago, recently won the world women's under-20 championship with an overwhelming score. Another Hungarian woman, Ivanka, beat two top male grandmasters in a row including sometimes US Champion Walter Browne in a Las Vegas tournament in March.

Since a women's team consists of three players, Madl and Ivanka alone could carry the Hungarian team to the title.

Meanwhile, the most famous Hungarian female chess players of all, the three Polgar sisters, are safely ensconced in their condominium apartment in Budapest. They only study chess 10-12 hours per day, seven days a week, which leaves them with plenty of time for other activities!

They either will not or cannot come to Dubai, or play in any other world event until the myriad of disputes with the Hungarian Chess Federation are settled.

This includes 10 players rated 2600 or better: Kasparov, Karpov, Yusupov, Sokolov, Spassky, Short. Portisch, Ljubojevic, Nikolic, and Vaganian in rating order. In the range between 2595-2550, there are 19 Nunn, Ribli, Sax, Seirawan, Suba, Polugaevsky, Miles, Rogueries, Velimirovic, Chandler, Adorjan, Chnstiansen, H. Olafsson, Ftacnik. Gheorghiu, Kavalek, Pinter, Smyslov, and Barlov.

Since the games will began today, this is the last chance to mention those few teams and players who will not be coming. You can be sure that every strong chess player in the world really wants to be here, since this event in Dubai will clearly be the most important chess tournament of all time.

There are four major reasons why some top players are not here. In the case of the Soviet Union, the team is so strong that a few of the very top players in the world are still too "weak" to make the team.

These include Tal (2600) a former world champion, and Beliavsky (2585), who just won a very strong tournament in Holland. The Soviets say that had they known about the result on time, then Beliavsky would have been on the team.

Another reason is that the national federations of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland, each having one or two top Grand masters have decided not to send teams. Timman, Andersson, Van der Wiel, Larsen and Agdestein fall into this category.

Then there are those who have not come for other reasons These include Korchnoi, Hubner and Benjamin, among the top 50 in the world .

Finally, there are those who are embroiled in some sort of petty dispute with their federations and either cannot or will not come. The best example of this is the three Polgar sisters of Budapest.

At 2455,the oldest, 17-year-old Susan, is the number one rated woman in the world. The Russians, of course, maintain that their own Chiburdanidze (2435) is better until proven otherwise. However, Susan has not lost a single rated tournament game since she lost to Grandmaster DeFirmian in April. She has played around 44 games since then, with many Grandmasters and International Masters.

Her up-to-date rating, as calculated according to the formula published by the International Chess Federation, is 2500. More than that, the two younger sisters, Judy and Sofia, will have ratings in the range of 2250-2300 when they get their first ratings next January, even though they just turned 10 and 12 years old.

Now for the petty disputes: Susan Polgar says that intellectually a woman is just as good as a man and therefore she refuses to play in any women's tournaments. Many of the other top women. on the other hand, never play in any tournaments with men. A rule was passed at a recent FIDE congress requiring a woman to play in at least one all-female tournament in order to receive the woman's Grandmaster title. Susan was the only woman in the world who was directly affected by this rule. (Since then, however, many women from Western Europe and America are objecting to this rule, since they say there are not enough strong women chess players in their local area to qualify for a woman's international chess tournament.)

In any event, this new rule does not have retroactive application. Susan made all her woman's Grandmaster norms back in 1982 when she was only 13, before the rule was passed. FIDE officials and legal experts all agree that if the Hungarian Chess Federation would only agree to submit her name in nomination, she will unquestionably be given the title.

The second petty dispute is that Susan wants to play in the World Junior Championship. The Hungarians refuse to send her, even though she has been the highest rated junior in Hungary for the last several years. Instead, they say that she must play in the World Girls' Junior Championship. For the past two years, the Hungarians have sent their highest rated boy, Cseba Horvath, who is rated 95 points less than Susan. He has done badly. The tragedy of this is that otherwise Susan could have been the first female world junior champion

Third, and most important, in May, Susan became the first woman in history ever to qualify for a men's zonal tournament for the World Championship. Suddenly some "problems" developed. It seemed that Poland, the basis of the zonal tournament, did not have as much money as expected, or perhaps there had been some miscalculation as to the number of places that Hungary was entitled to get. In any event, Hungary was going to be sending only five players to the zonal tournament, rather than the previously announced six, and Susan was going to be dropped.

The grounds for this were that four of the players had been seeded. These were Sax, Pinter, Farago and Csom. Naturally, it would be terribly unfair to kick any of them out. Susan had qualified by tying with Hazai. However, Hazai had more Berger points.

It is absolutely unheard of to use Berger points as the sole basis to break a tie in a World Championship qualifying round Usually, in a case like this, a long match is played. If the match still results in a tie, then Berger points are used, but both players are in formed of this in advance. To change the rules after the game has been played is absolutely not allowed .

The Hungarians are not going to allow Susan to play a match for the simple reason that they know that she would be the favorite to beat either Hazai or Csom (the logical opponents). Last weekend, Susan won a Grandmaster five-minute tournament in Czechoslovakia. The simple fact is that Susan cannot be beaten on a chessboard by any of the opponents at the level which she is facing now.

Certain knowledgeable persons state that the real reason for this is that Susan's father is a trouble maker. However, in America, we also once had a promising child prodigy. He, too, was a tremendous trouble maker. However, we all knew in our hearts that Bobby Fischer would be the world chess champion some day.

P.S.: Veroci of Hungary is really mad at me because I did not mention her at all in my article yesterday. At 2320, Veroci is the seventh ranked woman in the world and officially she is number one on the Hungarian team. However, I am still willing to bet that 10-year-old Judy Polgar can beat her in a match.