USCF Membership Card

I recently renewed my United States Chess Federation membership, paying $109 for 3 years of membership. I've always paid year-to-year. I'm not sure what I expected to be different this time, if anything. Maybe I thought I'd get a larger-than-normal "thank you" or something like that, for paying so far in advance.

I opened the letter from USCF, and included was a letter thanking me for renewing my membership, and two full color advertisements for different online chess retailers. On the bottom of the letter was a perforated card, meant to be my USCF membership card. This letter was printed on something barely resembling card stock. I wouldn't print a business card on this type of paper, let alone an ID card I'm supposed to keep for three years.

Now, imagine my surprise when, as I tear the card along the perforated edges, I noticed that on the back of this letter, is yet ANOTHER full page color advertisement. Yes, including the back of the card! So, on my membership card is my name, my USCF ID number, my membership type, expiration date, and on the reverse, a picture of Hikaru Nakamura playing chess with a wooden chess set that is being advertised. There are also some chopped off letters, making the rest of the text unreadable.

I was outraged. Appalled. Angry.

My first thought was, "I'm supposed to keep this f*ing thing for three years!?" I'm not paying to be advertised to. I'm paying for the magazine, which is outrageously priced, and the "privilege"of maintaining a USCF rating through tournament play, which I have to pay extra for anyway.

So, I ripped through uschess.org until I found someone I could contact about this problem I'm having. I finally found a "contact us" page, with a basic form to fill out my question/comment. My question/comment follows.

• "I send payment for three years' worth of membership, and you send me a membership card that's printed on the back of a full page color advertisement!?!?!? I am outraged. There is no way I'm keeping this thing. I'm trashing it right now, and either want a refund for my membership dues or a new card with either a blank back, or with actual relevant information."

This is immediately forwarded to Bill Hall, the Executive Director of the USCF, and Judy Bisner, Chief Business Officer. A supervisor in the Membership Department sent the following response:

• "Membership ID cards are printed out in batches of hundreds at a time, all on the same paper stock. There is no other way to print them.
  
  "We will be glad to cancel your membership and refund your dues, ( $109.00 ) if you wish."

The exchange continued:

• "All I ask is that you print one copy on different paper. That must be possible."

• "I'm sorry that you are upset about your ID card. The ONLY thing I can do for you is have it printed out on a plain sheet of copier (zerox) paper. We do not have any thing that is heavier. If this would be agreeable to you, let me know."

• "Can you laminate it?"

• "No, but you can."

• "If I'm going to do anything myself, I'll do it properly on heavy card stock, and then laminate it. I can just photocopy this thing you gave. I'm shocked that you expected me to keep this thing for 3 years."

To which I have not received a reply. I'm ashamed of my national chess organization.

Mate in 7

This is from a game I played on the Internet recently. I actually mated him in fewer moves, but only because I was lucky. Computer analysis showed a forced mate in 7 that I thought had a beautiful finish.

Black to play: mate in 7

January Swiss

This month we had 12 players so we decided to having
3 quads. Congratulations to Jacob, Jeff and Chris for
winning there sections! Also, We would like to welcome
back Krishnan Sudharsan!

Section 1

-----------------------------------------------
|   Player Name       |Total|Round|Round|Round|
|      Rating         | Pts |  1  |  2  |  3  |
-----------------------------------------------
| JACOB D FORTUNA     |2.5  |D   2|W   4|B   0|
|      1841           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| ANTHONY T NICHOLS   |2.0  |D   1|D   3|W   4|
|      2035           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| KRISHNAN SUDHARSAN  |2.0  |W   4|D   2|H   0|
|      2023           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| BRUCE I ROTH        |0.0  |L   3|L   1|L   2|
|      1646           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------

Section 2

-----------------------------------------------
| Player Name         |Total|Round|Round|Round|
|  Rating             | Pts |  1  |  2  |  3  |
-----------------------------------------------
| JEFFREY P GUILFOYLE |2.5  |W   2|W   3|D   4|
|      1671           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| ERIK ROBINSON       |1.5  |L   1|W   4|H   0|
|      1541           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| RICHARD WILSON      |1.0  |D   4|L   1|H   0|
|      1595           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| JOHN L GRIFFIN      |1.0  |D   3|L   2|D   1|
|      1508           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------

Section 3

-----------------------------------------------
| Player Name         |Total|Round|Round|Round|
|  Rating             | Pts |  1  |  2  |  3  |
-----------------------------------------------
| CHRIS IRWIN         |3.0  |W   4|W   2|W   3|
|      1397           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| JERRY D CRYSLER     |1.0  |W   3|L   1|L   4|
|      1461           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| LARRY HODGE         |1.0  |L   2|W   4|L   1|
|      1242           |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------
| QUENTIN METZMAKER   |1.0  |L   1|L   3|W   2|
|    1018P10          |     |     |     |     |
-----------------------------------------------

Submitted Game

Jacob Fortuna was nice enough to comment on one of his recent games, from the January Mini Swiss.

Date: 2008.01.13
White: Fortuna, Jacob
Black: Roth, Bruce
ECO: E87
White USCF: 1841
Black USCF: 1659

This is an interesting game in the Samisch King's Indian.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be3 O-O 6. f3 Nbd7 7. Qd2 e5 8. d5 a5 9. O-O-O

Castling here was risky and gives black a slight plus, but I wanted a position with opposite side castling. In these positions the more aggressive attacking player is usually favored.

9... Nc5

Black is playing very well and with an f5 break will have a good game. I was concerned about the pressure that black had on the queen side.

10. Nge2 Bd7 11. g4 Na4

Here I got an idea to lock the position on the queenside, so that I could focus on a kingside attack.

12. Nxa4 Bxa4 13. b3 Bd7 14. a4 Qc8 15. Ng3 Rd8 16. g5 Ne8 17. h4

White is moving fast on the King's side.

17... f5 18. gxf6 Nxf6 19. h5 Rf8 20. hxg6 hxg6 21. Bh6 Bxh6 22. Rxh6 Kf7 23. Qg5 Rg8 24. Bd3

This prepares a possible knight to f5 later and allows the d1 rook to enter the attack.

24... Rg7 25. Nf5

This is a strong move that cannot be directly refuted.

25... Bxf5

The following variations are given to demonstrate this fact.

(25... Rg8 26. Rh7+ Nxh7 27. Qe7#)
(25... Ng8 26. Nxg7 Nxh6 27. Qxh6)
(25... gxf5 26. Qxf6+ Kg8 27. Rdh1)

26. exf5 Qg8 27. Rdh1 e4

This allows white to open the f-file with a rook at its base. This proves to be instrumental in the ensuing attack.

28. fxe4 Re8 29. Rf1 Re5 30. fxg6+ Rxg6 31. Rxf6+ Rxf6

(31... Ke8 32. Qxg6+ Qxg6 33. Rfxg6)

32. Rxf6+ Ke7 33. Qxg8

I missed Re6+, with mate to follow.

(33. Re6+ Kd7 34. Qxg8)
(33... Kf7 34. Qf6#)
(33... Kf8 34. Qe7#)

33... Kxf6 34. Qd8+ Re7 35. Kd2 Kf7 36. Ke3 Re8 37. Qxc7+ Re7 38. Qxd6 Ke8 39. e5 Rg7 40. Bg6+ Rxg6 41. Qxg6+

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