Fellow Chessplayers:  I read with dismay and some disgust the comments of Mr Aliyev in this forum pertaining to the Carolinas Challenge tournament last weekend. Not that they are unexpected...I was a personal witness to his classless "announcement" on Sunday. I applaud Mr Fuerstman and Mr Causey for the effort in organizing this event. I will be the first to admit (well maybe the second...in deference to Mr Aliyev) that it was not perfect, but apppealing to the USCF?!? That accomplishes nothing positive and implies a level of wrongdoing that simply didn't exist. Mr Aliyev's complaints are: 1) Improper time control...I'm not sure what he meant by this, but as far as I know, the time control was as advertised. If something else was meant please clarify 2) Uncontrolled bye policy...This is probably the closest thing to a valid complaint. There was no bye policy stated in the tournament announcements. Maybe USCF has a policy that was violated...I don't know. All I can say is that I was not personally offended by this. 3) Bad timing...I don't understand what is meant by this 4) Noise...Yes there was noise from a wedding party during the second round and occasional noise from the restaurant kitchen in later rounds. I have played in tournaments for years and have many times experienced similar situations...I don't fault the organizers. If they have to tell the hotel not to book a wedding party so we can have our tournament, fees can only go up and venues become even more scarce. I am fairly noise sensative and always bring earplugs in case there is such a situation. 5) TD's in the tournament...Again, I was not offended and saw no situation where the participation of the TD's compromised anything. The tourney needed all the players it could get. Let's take the positives from this event, open a discussion on how to improve it and promote amateur (yes, AMATEUR, Mr Aliyev) chess in the Carolinas. And let's not fall into the negative cesspool that Mr Aliyev has started down. I have some ideas that I will put forth in another post to come soon. This one is long and I must save the rest for later. Thank you, 32 year USCF member Gary Newsom