Farewell to chess????

I feel like my chess energy has been depleted and my batteries can no longer be recharged. I ran into a crippling situation a week and a half ago and the rug was pulled out from under me, leaving my relationship with chess at an all time low.

Due to the need to be kind on this platform, I will not use the name of the people involved that I feel did me in nor the event. Nevertheless I will tell the story, as it needs to be told. If you need to know who the villain is or the venue, message me and I will provide you with my e-mail and we can discuss it off-platform.

So, starting at the "beginning" you need to know that I suffer from several maladies that restrict my abilities to enjoy some of the day to day adventures that I once relished. I retired from the state after 17 years as a peace officer about 20 years ago due to heart disease, having developed congestive heart failure. According to studies, most cops who retire with a similar diagnosis only live a year or two.

But my resilient spirit caused me to want to break that mold and I undertook a regimen of physical activities that kept my heart from deteriorating too rapidly. In spite of my efforts to keep my heart as strong as possible, the rest of my body didn't resist the aging process so well, as my vision began failing, my knees, which took a pounding from running marathons in my 20's, developed arthritis, and my shoulders began to calcify as well. This took golf off the table. The blood pressure meds prescribed by a cardiologist resulted in slowing my metabolism to the point that in spite of rigorous dieting I gained lots of weight, which aggravated the knees. I was able to ride a recumbent exercise bike at the gym so I was still able to get the cardio workouts I needed but soon I was unable to walk from the driveway to the front door without intense pain and being out of breath. I got in the habit of using two canes to ambulate and stopped for a seated rest every 20-30 feet. I bought a walker with a seat in it, an extra large wheelchair which I used for awhile until the arthritis in my shoulders made it impossible to get around in it unaided, and ultimately an electric scooter that could be transported in my PT Cruiser after removing one of the back seats.

I have played chess since I was a child, that makes it about 60 years plus. Not very good, but always lots of fun. I was not very good at sports as a schoolboy, but played basketball, football, baseball, soccer, and ran cross country and track and field, earning a letter in high school track and playing soccer in the police olympics later in life. So after I retired and other more physical competitions dropped off my list of options, I returned to playing chess after a ten year hiatus from tornament activities. Still not very good, but still it was fun and the fun was a suitable goal for me over the board.

I made arrangements to play in the April, 2019 version of a chess tournament within driving distance of my home. The hotel that hosts the tournament also has a fall tournament in October, same organizers.

I was able to use my electric scooter to get around and the organizers of the tournament, who I will refer to as Mr TD and Mrs TD, were quite accomodating, ensuring that all my games were at the same table and easily accessible with my scooter. I was very enthused and planned to play the following year as well. I skipped the October tournament as the drive to the city where the tournament was held included a trip over the Sierras which sometimes included the need for snow chains, which I didn't have for the PT Cruiser. But the Wuhan virus pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the tournament the following April and though it took a long time, I finally got a refund of my entry fee.

When the pandemic hit, they closed my gym and the lack of a recumbent bike left me focussed more on chess, but my local club (actually all of the otb clubs) stopped meeting and it was up to chess.com to provide me with an outlet for my chess energy.

Meanwhile, my scooter was stolen out of my car, which by then I was no longer able to drive due to my eyesight deteriorating. I played a lot of chess on chess.com. My physical condition was deteriorating due to no cardio work, but eventually the gym re-opened and I started a slow comeback. I bought an e-bike to help on non-gym days.

I played in a couple of tournaments at my local club but have had to give it up as I dont have a way to get there consistently, though it's only a 15 mile drive. I hope that by next spring I will be capable of covering that distance on my e-bike with enough battery left to get home.

Eager to play in the out of town tournament, I made arrangements to ride with a friend, who had room in his car for my extra large walker, which, oddly enough, is wider than my scooter was and problematic for many vehicles.

At the tournament, things started out OK and upon check in with Mrs TD I asked for a table at the accessible row end and was assigned it by Mrs. TD. I won my first round game against a newbie unrated player.

When I appeared that evening for round 2, my friend checked the pairings sheet for me due to limited vision on my part and the usual crowd of players trying to check for their pairing. This congestion around the sheet is complicated by the fact that pairiings go up about 10 minutes before start time. In order for me to actually get close enough to read the sheet, my extra large walker becomes problematical in a crowd. So my friend came back and told me my opponent was "Romero" on board 1. It should be noted that board 1 was about 50 feet away from where I was seated at my assigned board, on the other side of the ballroom a few feet from the wall. I asked my friend to relay a message that board 1 was not accessible to me and request that he come to my assigned board to play. Another player seated near me volunteered to relay the message and headed toward board 1. As he returned from his mission, Sarah Martinez came to my table and sat down. I wrote my name on my scoresheet, handed it to her and she copied it and wrote "Sarah" on the sheet and handed it back to me. I assumed she was Sarah Romero and we started our game. Note: I have noticed that younger players infrequently provide last names or ratings info when exchanging info before a game and usually I end up waiting for the tournament results from USCF before I get that info. She actually was Sarah Martinez and apparently she had not checked the pairings board or for some other reason did not know the name of her opponent.

I later learned that my scheduled opponent's name was actually EZRA TORRES, top seeded player in the section, who eventually won the section. After about 15 or 20 minutes of play against Sarah, I was verbally acosted by Mr TD who chastised me for not playing on board 1 and voided the game between Sarah and I. I reminded him of my disability just about the time that Mrs TD showed up profusely apologizing for having forgotten about me being disabled before pairing me on board 1. As I attempted to relay the events that led up to the situation, Mr TD became quite sarcastic and asked if it would be impossible to walk 20 feet. Board 1 was much farther than his minimal estimation of 20 feet and would require navigating my extra large walker between rows of occupied tables where even smaller able bodied players had to turn sideways to get through. After I insisted that I couldn't access board 1, Mr TD relented in his efforts to make me move to board 1 and summoned EZRA TORRES to my table. MR TD announced I would have a 15 minute time penalty removed from my time for the game. He proceeded to set up the pieces for the game. By then I had relocated to the seat on my walker but I hobbled to the board and tipped over my king and announced I was forfeiting the game. This seemed to infuriate MrTD. My reasoning was simple as I was playing 250+ points over my head in the game and was emotionally distraught from being lambasted by the TD, I didn't feel I had a chance in the game, especially with the time penalty that Mr TD had imposed. I left the tournament hall and sat in the adjoining mazzanine landing awaiting the conclusion of the round.

I was joined a few minutes later by Mrs TD who continued to apologize for creating the problem. Mr TD came out of the hall and chastised me further in a loud and hostile manner suggesting I should withdraw from the tournament. I told him I didn't feel much like continuing under the current hostile environment but I would sleep on it and decide in the morning. He then came up with the most hostile reaction I could imagine and insisted that I be in the tournament hall at 9 am the next morning, an hour before the round was to start, or I would be ejected from the tournament. I reminded him that the tournament rules required that I be in the hall within one hour AFTER the start of the round in order to avoid forfeiture and subsequent ejection from the tournament. A small crowd had gathered due to Mr TD's animated, hostile and vociferous rant. It should be noted that he referred to me as an "asshole that ruined my tournament" when he was transcending the staircase from the mezzanine which was easily heard by anyone on the mazzanine.

As luck would have it, one person in the crowd on the mezzanine was Janelle Losoff, who identified herself as a founding member and original chair of the USCF Accessibility and Special Circumstances Committee. She said that the situation that I had been subject to by Mr TD was exactly why her committee was in existence. She suggested I contact USCF by e-mail and relay the info to the current chair. I have done this and I will assist the committee in any way they need in order help prevent an occurrence of a similar situation at USCF tournaments.

I have received comments from others upon hearing my lament that I would like to share. One person implied that I was lying about thinking Sarah Martinez was my opponent as a female would not be named "Romero". It was also opined to me that in order for a violation of ADA laws to be established it was neccessary that a "pattern" be established and that my own admission that the same folks made a reasonable accomodation for me in 2019 was self-defeating. Another person said that they have always made reasonable accomodation for him and his wheelchair. Several persons suggested "Sue the bastards" and one person offerred "sue him anyway after almost 20 years of ada he should know better you should also consider contacting the news media its a good story . i was an ada trainer for the state of ca" in response to me indicating not wanting to sue.

It is great that they have been accomodating in the past, but it doesn't mean they get to violate ADA now. Imagine that compliance for a long time was adequate to defend a crime of non-compluance. Would that mean that a person with a perfect driving record who gets drunk and plows his car into and kills a family of four isn't guilty of manslaughter not to mention felony DUI? A perfect past is not a pass on following the law now or in the future.

I have made a request to the TD for my entry fee and hotel and transportation costs be reimbursed but have not heard back The USCF posted the crosstables from this event yesterday so Mr TD should have time to take care of business with me. Meanwhie I am seeking an ADA attorney licensed in his state to pursue litigation on my behalf if Mr TD opts to ignore his responsibilities to me and the disabled chess playing community. I am not inclined to want to sue as my Buddhist side wants to be magnanimous, but the hard core reality is that I didnt get anything for my $500 or so and I'm on a fixed income that is presently shrinking due to inflation at much higher rates than I have seen since my retirement. If he forces me to seek damages, I will.

So in the meantime, I'm not feeling much like playing chess as Mr TD has taken the wind from my sails. I hope the desire to play comes back but meanwhile I'm headed in a better direction and I am open to recommendations for legal help.