Cory Evans Gets Bullied

LACASA Chess Team

I was having what seemed like a normal email conversation with board member Cory Evans, and it quickly metastasized into something unpleasant and unsavory.

The conversation was about whether there should be classes for children at the club.  My short answer for this is no.  This activity is being pursued by the administration because it seems profitable, and doesn't involve pesky adult chessplayers (except the ones making money from the classes).

Archie Waters

It creates an undue liability situation for the club.  As I understand it, one child has already been seriously injured.  There are is also a lack of space for adults to play chess.  Of course we should continue to have some junior members, but there are other venues that are more suitable for all-child activities.  Schools and community centers love such activities because they can profitable for them, they have the space for it, and that's what they do.

While the overwhelming majority of the kids taking chess lessons at the club are white kids from middle class or well off families, it turns out that there is a class or classes for "underprivileged" kids.  So Cory accused me of being racist and elitist and hating kids, and threatened to tell Nelson Farber.  Then he started lecturing me on inter-generational poverty.  Kind of ironic for a Baruch teacher to lecture a City Tech teacher on inter-generational poverty.

Ted and Nagib

You probably don't know or care who Nelson Farber is, but he is a former board member.  I'm not quite sure how he got put in charge of deciding who is or is not a liberal.  In any case, I have no secrets at the club, and I have no personal relationship with Cory, so I called his bluff by sending copies of our correspondence to Nelson and posting it on Facebook.

GM Marshall

I told Cory that I would sue him if he libeled me.  He is a politician, so I told him that I would donate to his opponent if he ran for office again.  I told him that I would speak to his opponent.  Cory said that I was bullying him, and that I was threatening his job.


Cory's remarks border on slander.  I wish he was not inclined to stray so close to the line, but if he goes over the line, litigation will be my only recourse.  It matters whether something is true or not.  As Cory presumably uses his actions on the board to garner campaign contributions, he should know that he is garnering campaign contributions for his opponent as well.

Blitz Chess

- Steve in background

To the best of my knowledge, he has never won an election to hold public office, so I am not threatening his job.  But if he was running for public office, his honesty or lack thereof would be an issue.  I have no idea what Cory means when he says I am bullying him.  I have no special powers to bully anyone.  I don't threaten to throw people out of the chess club because they are saying something other than what I want them to.   But if he says its so, then it is so.

I should add that I called him a fascist.  In my view a fascist is someone who believes that the end justifies the means, and their only end is to personal power.  All else is just a matter of scale.

Some people just don't get it.

Anyhow after this exchange, the board started the process to throw me out by an email vote.  I don't know what became of that.  I imagine they will soon meet in person to throw me out.  Its an ideal activity for those who don't want to deal with the club's real problems.  Notice that they didn't consider reprimanding Cory for insulting me or threatening me.  It doesn't work both ways.   Nothing there does.

This kind of nasty "when are you going to stop beating your wife" type of politics accompanies the takeover of the Marshall from the members by a small elitist clique.  This is an unfortunate result of chess being fashionable.

The question has been circulating as to whether the Marshall has ever had an African American Governor.  I know of at least two:  Roy Barker, who was good friends with Johnny Marks, and Ted Vialet who is a good friend of mine going back to the Manhattan Club days.  I think there may have been others, perhaps Erskine Robinson, but it would have been during times I wasn't around much so I don't remember.