Dear USCF Elector:                                                                                                    June 24, 2001

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity of meeting a number of USCF electors at the Marshall Chess Club in New York. Many of those present I knew from my involvement with chess over the years (such as Grandmasters Joel Benjamin and Edmar Mednis and former Chess Life Editor Burt Hochberg) and some were new to me. It was a pleasure to talk with everyone, to answer questions about my candidacy for the Executive Board, and generally be able to expound upon my observations concerning chess and the USCF.

The following is a brief summary of the remarks that I made at the Marshall, some of my responses to questions, and a few additional comments regarding the scope and procedures of the U.S. Chess Federation:

I believe that chess in this country is in a crisis of change, and that USCF is particularly in need of restructuring in some key areas. Fundamental long-term decisions regarding major personnel changes, capital expenditures or anything significant that might impact on the health, growth or operation of USCF must be made by the Delegates, and not just the Executive Board, the President or the Executive Director. There have been too many arbitrary decisions of late where the Delegates’ opinions or wishes were not taken into account. This has to be changed.

I was astounded to learn that the overwhelming majority – virtually all – of the personnel working in the USCF office in New Windsor were not chessplayers. To me, that state of affairs is similar to having staff members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art not knowing the difference between a Van Gogh and a Picasso. We need people, especially in executive and managerial positions in the USCF, who know and love the game, who can talk intelligently about it, and preferably those who come to the USCF who have experience with chess organizations. I cannot believe, for example, that out of 90,000 members, we cannot find a handful of chessplayers who are also experienced and dedicated business people. This is a change that I would like to see introduced into the operation of the USCF office.

Other than Vincent Klemm, who is always polite and knowledgeable, it is difficult to get anyone on the phone at USCF who knows anything about chess, especially in the area of books and equipment. Usually, one must leave a message on the answering machine, and more often than not, the call is not returned. The day-to-day dealing with members and affiliates must be improved. This is not only the proper thing to do for a service organization such as ours, but it is also good business. In the past year, I purchased 10 chess books but only one from the USCF, because I wanted to avoid the usual lackluster response in handling my sales requests.

This leads to the question of whether we should outsource our book and equipment business. Of course, such a decision is a matter of dollars and cents, but is has been my experience (as former Business Manager of the USCF, and also the Editorial Director of two book publishing houses) that outsourcing usually does not pay. It is true that if we continue servicing the members’ sales we must keep an inventory, and have personnel to process the orders, but usually the cost of fulfillment by an outside company is too expensive.

Recently, I asked the person in charge of the books and equipment division of a large international membership organization (not chess), how she handled the fulfillment of orders, and she did outsource most of her orders. "But we don’t make anything on it," she explained. "It was much better, financially, when we handled the orders ourselves." She explained that the reason that they switched to outsourcing was due to a space problem. The organization is located at 50 Rockefeller Center and has little, or no warehousing space for inventory. At New Windsor we have the space.

Years ago, for every membership dollar that came into the USCF, an equivalent dollar was spent on books and equipment. Today there is more competition (from sources such as Amazon.com and other chess providers) but I believe that USCF should be known as the most central, efficient and comprehensive source of chess books and equipment in the country. I was disheartened to learn that there is a movement afoot to "streamline" the books and equipment business and to handle only a few proven best-sellers. I was further dispirited to learn that the USCF was sometimes ignoring having a books and equipment concession at some major tournaments. (Did we even entertain bids from private book and equipment dealers in those cases?) This kind of negative operational thinking has to be revised.

Additionally, I would like to see the USCF get into the book publishing business itself. Years ago, Jack Spence published tournament books of almost all the principal American tournaments and such a venture should be started again. Because of the new computer technology (no typesetting costs!) books can be produced inexpensively, and perhaps also sold as on-line copies.

I believe that the increase of insertion costs for Tournament Announcements in Chess Life is a serious mistake. The listing of tournaments is one of the primary services that we should offer our members. Remember, we once published tournament announcements for free! I don’t think we have to revert to that system necessarily, but to raise an $18 announcement to $90, for example, just hurts chess in so many ways. Small club, local and regional organizers simply can’t afford the new rates. As a result, they will not advertise (or not as often) and their tournaments will suffer with a lack of entries (and, consequently, USCF membership will go down).

One of the arguments is that TLAs are cutting into the editorial and advertising matter of Chess Life. When I inquired about what we are doing about soliciting new advertising for Chess Life, I was told that we have no real program. In other words, virtually all of the advertising that appears in Chess Life comes in "over the transom" as they say in the field, unsolicited by us. Although magazine advertising in this country is down (because of the generally poor economy) by 9.4%over last year, this applies mainly to business magazines that focused on the so-called new economy which had been fattened by tech advertising. Other magazines that might be considered somewhat comparable to ours have shown increased advertising this past year. (Travel and Leisure Golf, for example, is actually up 9%). With a 90,000 circulation, and perhaps a 125,000 readership (Chess Life goes to hundreds of libraries) we should be able to bring in considerably more advertising to Chess Life than we are doing.

I suggest that we hire a few advertising salesmen on a commission basis (chessplayers only!) and see what we can do to build our advertising base. I’m willing to train the salesmen myself. Cutting back the number of pages of Chess Life is not the answer (unless we are definitely forced to do so because of lack of funds). With increased advertising, we will be able to keep up the number of pages of Chess Life.

It has always dismayed me that our country could not be as good as Russia (or any other country) in consistently capturing the top honors in chess. I believe that we should be establishing a more structured and formal program in helping talented young players to reach the highest echelons. Chess in the Schools is a wonderful program, and as an educator, I’m all for it, but I would like to have ten or so of our Grandmasters take five or six of our most promising players under their wings and become their teachers. When I suggested this at the Marshall, someone came up with the idea of seeking external funding to accomplish it, and I believe that such an approach should be attempted. To my knowledge, there have been few attempts to secure funding by the USCF for educational purposes. I would say that this should be one of the top priorities of the Executive Director of the USCF.

More: adult membership in USCF is down and although some people are claiming that internet chess is the cause, I am not at all certain that that is the case. I would like to see a survey or study done to try to determine the true cause, but additionally I would like to know what we are doing to promote membership. Have we tried inexpensive test mailings to target audiences? Are we establishing a presence at major tournaments and other chess events? Do we issue press releases and other publicity material on a regular basis to get our name – and the name of chess – out into the general press?

Other areas of my concern, such as fiddle points (I’m against them), and the contract with Games Parlor (we must be careful with trapping ourselves into a contract that appears unsound at face value, any what was wrong with ICC’s offer anyway?) are just too complicated to go into the scope of this letter. I can only tell you that if I am elected to the Board, I will carefully and fully involve myself in answering the questions and concerns that I pose here.

I’ve heard that some delegates feel that I have been out of chess too long to be an effective Board member. I’ve never been out of chess, although I have had a low profile as far as national chess is concerned. In the last ten years, I have organized and served as president of chess clubs, I have lectured on the game to chess clubs and other groups, I play, or play over, at least one game of chess virtually every day of my life.

Currently, I am serving as Chief Arbiter of an International Chess Tournament at St. John’s University. (Go to Smartchess.com and click on the St. John’s tournament official website for more information) and later this summer I will select some of the members of the St. John’s Chess Club (of which I am moderator) to teach 200 children the game on our campus during the Inner City Games. I recently edited Kasparov’s newest book, Kasparov Against the World, and my biography of Bobby Fischer, Profile of a Prodigy, continues to remain in print (for over 35 years).

I am planning another major chess tournament of some kind next summer, perhaps at St. John’s newest campus (opened last week) in a skyscraper building that we bought in lower Manhattan (it has 120 dorm rooms, perfect for players to stay).

Your confidence in selecting me as a member of the Executive Board will be well founded, and I hope, if elected, to be able to utilize my varied experience as a publisher, editor, writer, teacher and chessplayer, to strengthen the USCF and improve the quality of its services and activities.

                                                                                                    Sincerely,

                                                                                                    Dr. Frank Brady

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