The Washington Post reports today that Susan Polgar had requested the $250,000 in salary for herself and $150,000 for her husband, Paul Truong.
She says that she makes less than that at Webster University now however.
I think that the posting of direct links is prohibited but you can find the article by searching "
Is Webster University spending $1 million to dominate college chess and crush UMBC?"
Why is this issue specific to USCF? Should it be moved to “All Things Chess”?
Susan Polgar is a former Chairman of the USCF and her husband Paul Truong is a former Vice-President of Public Relations.
I’ve moved this topic to “All Things Chess.”
Obviously this is a political issue as Susan Polgar has not played a game of chess in years.
Did you move it just to get it out of sight, as Susan Polgar is a hot topic in chess?
Strange thread. Competition is at the heart of Chess. When one considers the national championships won by GM Polar and Truong at Texas Tech and
Webster College, 4 now, 5??, it is easy to make the point they are the cream of the college chess coaching profession. The results speak for themselves.
It is good, I believe for the growth of the sport that more career opportunities are becoming available.
Rob Jones
I moved the topic because this is not a USCF issue.
Moving it to “All Things Chess” makes it visible to more folks than if it were in the USCF issues forum.
There’s no restriction on posting links to relevant web sites, but posting the full text of the article would be a copyright violation.
Here’s a link to the Washington Post story: washingtonpost.com/local/is- … ctab=all_&
Note that the Washington Post does have a paywall implemented, but you can access up to 10 articles a month before it triggers.
$250k is what head coaches typically make at Texas Tech, so asking for that isn’t unreasonable.
On the other hand, some sports bring in a lot more money to the school than others. A good football program can actually be a profit center for a school, providing justification for those high coaching salaries. I doubt chess was a profit center for Texas Tech.
Kliff Kingsberry, Texas Tech’s head football coach, makes around $2.2 million a year. Of course that’s less than half of what Charlie Strong is making in Austin.
I think Tubby Smith (TT’s men’s basketball coach) makes about $1.8 million a year.
This source appears to be about a year out of date, but it says that Alex Onischuk makes $70,000 as Texas Tech’s chess coach.
Basketball and football coaches make big money because they bring in big money. Fans pay to catch the games and TV rights are sold. This does not mention the billions of dollars in sports betting.
How much money does a successful chess coach bring in?
Sports betting is irrelevant to the issue, as bookmakers are not sharing profits with the schools.
That said, any employee is worth whatever the market is willing to pay. If Webster wants to pay their chess coach, or anyone else, $250,000, that’s their right. Why on earth would USCF care, as long as we’re not footing the bill?
Browsed the comments. I wonder how many were posted by PT under various handles.
For example, one commenter claimed SP was the greatest woman player in the history of chess. When someone else replied that sister Judith was stronger, a third poster claimed that SP had a plus score against “little sis”. Now, anybody steeped in chess stats deeply enough to trot out this little factoid (assuming it’s actually true) wouldn’t be so ignorant as to claim this indicates SP is stronger than Judith since the games were probably played long before the younger player approached full strength.
Yes, I beat a top master once… well, um, that is I beat a kid in one of his first tournament games,
when we were both youths, and my opponent many years later became a master. Same thing, right??
Rob Jones
I gotta agree. I’m in the same boat, with a plus score against guys against whom I’d be lucky to score in a simul nowadays. Get 'em before they mature, I always say.
Way too much money for Polar and her husband. Plus her husband just transferred federations.
Buy books and computer programs from the USCF bookstore. Participate in USCF rated tournaments as stepping stones to titled FIDE tournaments. Become a titled player and demand whatever price the market will bear for your services. And I agree the USCF should not foot the bill for any of this. With the right spin it could make for good publicity. Please don’t bother mentioning that GM Susan Polar was trained by her dad in Hungary we wouldn’t want to let facts get in the way of my promotional “why we should care” idea.
I always enjoy reading the comments of a Susan Polgar story to see what Paul Truong is saying to himself.
To himself, or about himself?? I think there is a lofty image there/
Rob Jones