| 8-24-13
(Note: This message was published
approximately one year ago) The Ugly Nature of Chess Politics in North Carolina "Newsom seems to have worn out his welcome...LF" by NM Leland Fuerstman I joined the USCF in 1970. My enthusiasm and desire to improve found me at every tournament around in every major city on the east coast! Finally, after 14 years of study and intense competition, I achieved the Title of National Master in 1984! As a Senior Tournament Director, I have Organized and Directed 376 events, and probably equally as many prior to 1992! I founded and have operated the 73 member Charlotte Chess Club (www.charlottechess.com) for almost 40 years! During those years, other chess clubs and tournament organizers have attempted to grab a share of the Charlotte, NC chess market but in almost every case, they pocketed what they could from our chess community and ultimately left town. However, a few years ago, Gary Newsom, who had been a member of the CCC for some time, decided to form his own organization and call it the Queen City Chess Association. In doing so, he promptly notified me that I should "shut down the Charlotte Chess Club and become a member of his organization!?" I indicated to him that I was not quite ready to fold my tent yet! And, that I had no problem with his conducting his new club meetings on a different night from the CCC's, which he reluctantly did. At the onset of the creation of his "association," many CCC members jumped ship. After all, at that time, the CCC was in transition attempting to find a new and better facility. As time went on, Newsom's numbers grew... and as a result of collecting fees and organizing and directing tournaments, ended up (according to that which was published on the QCCA website) accumulating approximately $5,000 in the QCCA club treasury basically funded by members he shanghaied from the CCC and others who had participated in his events... all the while making grand overtures about how the money would be spent for the good of his members! And then, one day he walked in and announced that he was "privatizing" the club and placing the balance of the treasury into his own personal bank account?? Somehow, the chess "bully" got away with it?! During this time, what I was NOT aware of, was a covertly organized effort by Newsom and his henchmen to destroy my reputation behind my back, with lies and innuendo in internet chat rooms?! People who had never met me formed negative opinions based on his rhetoric which inversely prevented them from participating in Charlotte Chess Club events?? For a while there, he was quite successful in poisoning the opinions of local chess players about NM Leland Fuerstman. As a result, his numbers increased, and ours dropped dramatically. If one were familiar with the history of the NCCA, he would have remembered that Newsom took over as President after college student, Victor Beaman resigned in 2009. During that time, the 2009 Scholastic Championship was contested. Without going into great detail, some members had already expressed their concern about such a high entry fee for a "scholastic" event which only paid back a $1,500 scholarship and cheap plastic trophies. In the absence of his posting any official accounting of the event, I personally questioned the Organizer, who seemed to be unable to satisfactorily substantiate his figures. Furthermore, after communicating with the facility where the event took place, conflicting statements caused much concern and raised many questions... In 2009, an ex-CCC member by the name of Charles "Randy" Wheeless (whom I had actually personally recommended for the job of President of the NCCA prior to that), decided to organize the 2009 NC Scholastic Championship. And, why not, since the policy in North Carolina has, for many years, allowed organizers to conduct large chess tournaments without providing any accounting whatsoever, while no one was looking over their shoulder?! By this time, the entry fee had been increased to as much as $50 (now it's $69?) for little kids who could only win a single $1,500 scholarship and cheap plastic trophies?! Considering the extraordinary number who participated, after the smoke cleared, approximately $10,000 was unaccounted for. Nor was any accounting provided to the chess public. Ultimately, the organizer claimed that "he barely broke even!?" Soon after, another popular NC chess figure called me to share his concerns. He simply wanted to know where all the money went?! I communicated directly with the scholastic organizer to find out. I also called the hotel where the event took place. The organizer told me one thing, his hotel account representative, Sarah Foster, told me something different. The first thing that the organizer said was that "he ran the tournament for himself, not the NCCA" which he later recanted in order to jibe with their "coverup." He readily admitted that he was "not very good at accounting" and thus had no formal statement for anyone to see. He proceeded to tell me that he had to pay over $4,000 for the use of the hotel? - Ms. Foster indicated that, and I quote, "the organizer had promised 200 room nights, fell short by 12, but we called it even, so he got the use of the entire hotel for FREE!?" So, who was I supposed to believe? In my conversation with the organizer, he also indicated to me that "he had given 30 FREE ENTRIES away (30 X $35 = $1,050), but didn't remember who he had given them to nor did he offer any legitimate explanation as to why? However, common sense would tell you that he offered FREE entry to parents who would book a room for a night; in order to increase his "room night numbers" and get the use of the hotel for no charge; which is precisely what transpired and was verified by the hotel agent to me!? He also failed to mention all of the income from the many "Team Rooms" which were rented to Coaches from all over the state for hundreds of dollars each!? Needless to say, his responses and behavior indicated that something wasn't quite right...?!? The President of the NCCA at that time, Gary Newsom, for selfish reasons, decided to join ranks with the organizer in a grand cover-up?! At that point, the shot had been fired and the war was on. In protest, I immediately "renounced my Life Membership" to the NCCA ("...until those administrators were replaced"). The Organizer employed an attorney, who had been an NCCA officer in the past, who declared that "the NCCA was under marshal law and that no one was allowed to discuss the issue on the NCCA message board?!" Finally, eight MONTHS later, after totally improper accounting whereby no original receipts were verified, the attorney published a decree that the organizer actually lost money on the event, and that NM Leland Fuerstman, because he "falsely accused" the organizer of malfeasance, and "renounced" his membership to the NCCA would be the person who should be punished?? Considering that this attorney had appointed himself judge, jury and executioner, I completely ignored his pompous blather. After all, he was not an officer of the NCCA, nor even an active member at the time. Nor, was I even a member of the NCCA anymore?! It was nothing more than unfriendly hate mail designed to save the Organizer's reputation and make me look bad. The fact was, according to your Articles of Incorporation, the NCCA was clearly responsible for controlling most of the details associated with that event, ie. entry fee, Scholarship, trophies, city location, etc. Though Newsom did not assume the position as President until after the event had taken place, he inherited a situation whereby, had he shown a bit more interest in solving the dispute, it probably would not have gotten blown out of proportion as it did. Unfortunately, when I shared with Newsom our concerns about the accounting and the destination of the proceeds, instead of responding and allowing me to state my case, he shut off all communication? Though we had known each other for some time, (he was an active member of the CCC for at least 5 years prior), he never once attempted to call me on the phone or E-mail me to discuss the situation? Why he would not agree to allow me to attend a meeting with him, the organizer and any other concerned member is anyone's guess? Instead, he promptly banded together with other "Leland haters" and hired an attorney to protect his crony from being exposed and inversely make me out to be the "bad guy?!" It was at about that time that I asked them to take my name off the NCCA membership list ("...until those administrators had been replaced"). The perennial problem is, your presidents never seem to do anything by the book; that is, follow the rules and responsibilities of their Articles of Incorporation?! And Newsom was no expection. Had he paid attention and asserted at least some control after the scholastic tournament, probably none of this verbal turmoil would have ever occurred!? But, his bias attitude toward me prevented him from doing that. Subsequently, he and his cronies launched personal attacks against me which were unwarranted and untrue, but ultimately had a negative effect on my reputation and the turnout at the Charlotte Chess Club. Unfortunately, the NCCA, Gary Newsom, President, and his cohorts refused to answer any questions and chose to ostracize me, instead. Of course, one should understand that making me look bad would increase the participation at Newsom's personal chess club and tournaments here in Charlotte. (The President of any chess organization must set aside personal differences and be an impartial ambassador for the good of the game of chess, period.) Newsom seems to be motivated by jealousy, self aggrandizement and avarice. God bless him... But, the real tragedy of this entire affair is that there is still NO proper accounting of scholastic events and, in fact, the entry fee for the 2013 NC Scholastic Championship was increased to as much as $69?? while more than $40,000 in total revenue went unaccounted for? So, unfortunately, our altruistic attempt to protect NC scholastic players was all for naught. But, I don't give up so easily... In spite of the adversity, for the next couple of years, the CCC rebuilt its ranks with reactivated loyal members and many brand new players! As time went on, our numbers began to increase. Our new location at the Skyland Family Restaurant for the past 4.5 years has seen evenings where we were literally bursting at the seams! Now, I am proud to report, with 73 currently paid members, that the Charlotte Chess Club is again the largest adult chess club in 2 states! Everyone who participates at the CCC has fun!! Present: A few months ago, I decided to formulate a plan to promote a Charlotte City Chess Championship. I checked the NCCA website to make sure that other events were not planned for our weekend. I submitted the information to the USCF for publication in Chess Life and online TLA's. And, I submitted it to be posted on the NCCA "Upcoming Events" list. I promptly received a response from NCCA President, Rudy Abate, that my request had been denied? I also noticed the announcement of a QCCA "fundraiser tournament" which had been hastily organized and intentionally scheduled to take place on the weekend before our event?? In the mean time, a loyal CCC member posted our tournament info on the NCCA Message Board which was quickly removed. A few days later, someone else posted the tournament info again! This time, Newsom responded with the following message: "With
all due respect Tony, this announcement has no
business on this page. This tournament is put
on by an organization which to my knowledge
(someone please correct me if I am mistaken)
is not recognized by the NCCA due to past
indiscretions. Supporting this event is
basically thumbing your nose at the progress
made in North Carolina Chess over the past 5
years. Let's play chess? Of course.
Elsewhere." Gary Newsom Former NCCA
President In spite of all of the bad luck, ie. the Chess Life was not delivered until after the event, a preview article written by a Charlotte Observer reporter who got mixed up on the date, the info was stripped from the NCCA "Message Board" and the extremely damaging statements authored by Gary Newsom, the event was professionally conduced with the assistance of Senior Tournament Director Tom Hales, the money was paid out and trophies were presented to the Champions! 2013 Charlotte City Chess Champion NM Pat Sciacca had this to say the following day: ...I would have thought that no chess association would ever discourage players or an organizer from playing or organizing a chess tournament. That, after all, should be the main focus of their existence, that is, to promote playing organized, competitive chess. Thus, displaying details of tournaments being held in their state and providing a clearinghouse for organizers to prevent overmuch conflicting, simultaneous events is, again, what should be a state chess association main purpose/concern. There is no official endorsement of those events, except for the ones specifically run by the state association. Gary Newsom's statement about thumbing one's nose at the progress of NC chess (the NCAA?) by playing in the 2013 Charlotte City Chess Championship is absurd and selfishly contentious. If one doesn't like a chess organizer, or the manner in which he conducts an event, one can choose to not participate in his tourney. But don't be telling other players that it would be improper or disloyal to NC chess or the NCCA (as if NCCA deserves loyalty). So, thanks to NCCA and Gary Newsom, my success
in winning the 2013 CC Chess Championship is a hollow
one due to the poor showing at the top level. I know
I'm not the best chess player in Charlotte. But I'm
sure I would have a fair chance at winning such an
event amongst the city's best.
Very Truly Yours, Patrick R. Sciacca,
Esq.
Apparently, some people are in this game for the money, the power and the desire to control the will of others. In my senectitude, I love chess because of the many friends I am able to enjoy the company of each week! Considering the effort I have made to make sure the CCC Website is always informative and up to date, this has become more a "love of labor, than a labor of love!" If money were my motivation, I would have abandoned chess long ago. I wish to thank every individual player who participated in the 2013 Charlotte City Chess Championship and encourage you not to be dissuaded by the negative rhetoric of a few self-serving zealots. Our next event will be Knights Templar V on Saturday, August 24. Regardless of what anyone says, the spacious room on the 7th floor of the DOWD Y is absolutely the best chess venue in town!! Hope to see you there. Long live the CCC!! NM Leland Fuerstman Charlotte Chess Club |