Did David Mehler really do this?

Thursday, November 22, 2007

THE MORALS OF CHESS:COMPLETELY IGNORED

On Sunday November 18, 2007, the Washington Post ran an article by author Paul Hoffman entitled, "Winning by Rook or by Crook". The article particularly detailed cheating scandals in the age old game/sport of chess.

Chess was a demonstration game in the 2000 Olympics.

Twenty-three or more universities in the US offer full or partial scholarships for chess.

In Maryland, in 2005, a twelve year old boy won three and one half chess games in a tournament, and was awarded a full scholarship to the University of Maryland at Baltimore County. During the spring of this year (2007), in Brownsville, Texas, two fourth graders were offered full scholarships to the University of Texas because of their chess skills.

One of the most infamous, yet untold, true stories of cheating took place over the last fourteen (14) years in Washington, DC. To the point, in 1993, Sarah Mehler became the highest provisionally rated player ever in the history of chess, by achieving an rating of 3019! Sarah accomplished her "historic" rating by defeating Alex Sherzer (who was one of the top rated players in the world).

In 1993 Sarah Mehler was one (1) year old!

In 1994, Sarah and her brother John Mehler both defeated a "black belt" of chess, (the then twenty-seventh (27), ranked player in the world), grandmaster (GM) Vladimir Epishin. They beat Epishin in a chess tournament called, Sarah's Triangle. As a result of defeating Epishin, both Sarah and John ended up with a rating of 2538 while Epishin's dropped from 2650 to 2608.

In 1994 John Mehler was eight (8) months old and Sarah was two (2) years old!

If you don't believe me, go to www.uschess.org and look up Sarah and John's tournament history and rating under player/rating lookup. After you look them up, you might wonder; How could this happen?

Attorney David Mehler is the father of Sarah and John. Mehler is also Executive Director of the US Chess Center Foundation (USCCF) that, since 1992, has made $4 million. Mehler claims to have taught 12,000 "especially inner city [Black] children" chess. The USCCF is located at 1501 "M" Street NW, Washington, DC, (two blocks from the Whitehouse), where it has enjoyed a twenty (20) year rent free lease on 13,000 square feet, since 1992!

While under oath on December 22, 2004, when Mehler was asked by Attorney Donald Temple if he knew of any Black children that were good chess players in DC, Mehler said "No." and followed up with, "There were no good chess players in DC."

Also on December 22, 2004, while under oath, Mehler stated that he had "arranged" for his son and daughter to defeat (current GM) Alex Sherzer and GM Vladimir Epishin. Mehler had one of his workers at the USCCF Accountant Sam Bisbey sign off on the United States Chess Federation (USCF) tournament report forms, verifying that the documents were "true". When officials from the USCF called and asked about the tournament reports, Mehler told them that they had to honor them because they were true.

The truth is that from 1992 until 2001, Mehler allowed the USCF to house their asset, the US Chess Hall of Fame Museum, inside of the US Chess Center Foundation, RENT FREE! So Sarah's and John's fraudulent ratings stood as the truth in 1993 - 1994, and still stand to this day!

The Morals of Chess, by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, was published in 1786. (Google it). During his time, Dr. Franklin was one of the most foremost players in the United States. What do you think he would say today about all of trickery and deception in the sport of chess?

From Vaughn Bennett’s Myspace BLOG