I may be well behind in the news, but I heard that Excalibur Electronics has gone bankrupt. Is that true? If so, what is the status of the National Chess Museum on their property?
Yeah, I heard they closed, including the museum.
Yes, you’re behind, this was discussed back in early August.
The possibility of moving the Hall of Fame and its collection of chess artifacts to another location, possibly in St. Louis, was mentioned in some of the meeting at the US Open, but I don’t know the status of any negotiations.
Perhaps we should be grateful that the USCF didn’t move to Florida and co-locate with the Hall of Fame, as Frank Nero proposed to the Delegates in 2002.
Don’t want a tan huh?
I live in Nebraska, Michael, and have no plans to move anywhere.
If I go outside during the summer here, I can get a heckuva sunburn.
Haven’t the Palmetto Bugs eaten the entire collection?
Does anyone have access to an inventory of the collection’s holdings? They might be assets in bankruptcy depending on their ownership.
I believe Excalibur merely provided free space to house the collection. The company certainly didn’t own the exhibits. This is pretty old news, mentioned at the Delegates’ meeting in Harold Winston’s Chess Trust report. If you want more information, Harold would probably be the one to ask.
St. Louis would be nice. Its geographically much more ideal than Florida.
How about putting it in New Orleans near the Voodoo Museum near Paul Morphy’s old family home?
Peoria, Illinois would be the best, really.
The world headquarters of Caterpillar is in Peoria.
It is in the Heart of Illinois.
It is in the Middle.
It is where I am…
But, where do you want to be? 
As a Chicagoan, I have to grit my teeth saying this, but aside from New Orleans (which has the aforementioned Morphy connection), the only place for a U.S. Chess Hall of Fame that makes any sense at all is New York. I don’t think there’s any other city in the nation that not only can claim a continuously active chess scene, but can claim that scene as an essential part of its local character. It seems like everywhere else, an active chess scene is at most a curiosity. Certainly this is the case in Chicago. Cambridge, Mass., might be able to make a claim . . . to the same extent that Dennis Kucinich could make a claim on the Democratic presidential nomination.
I vote for moving the museum to Montreal. I’d be happy to be the full time executive director if it were there. 
There’s some vacant office space not too far away in New Windsor.
So what’s happened to our former building in New Windsor anyway?
3054 Route 9W became the Home Away From Home Day Care Center.
The Hall of Fame will be in St. Louis and the items in the Museum were not owned by Excalibur.
So not all that different, then. 
Sorry, all, couldn’t resist that one.*
-LaughingVulcan, analyzing and feeling like a 5 year old atm.
[size=80]* LaughingVulcan specifically does not feel chess, nor its players, are actually children. Except for the ones that are. Most of which can beat me, apparently.[/size]
OK, now I’m just feeling nosy about something: How many square feet of office space does the USCF headquarters occupy?