Dr. Brian Lu's Formal Complaint to Bill Hall, Executive Director of US Chess Federation:
Bill Hall – Executive Director
USCF
<mailto:bhall@uschess.org>bhall@uschess.org
Dear Mr. Hall
I am writing you as the parent of a student player to file a formal complaint against Mr. Salman Azhar, the Chief Organizer of Cal Chess State Grade Level Championship, held at the Hyatt Hotel in Santa Clara on Dec. 3 and 4. I will only present to you our accounts of the unfortunate events our family had to go through. I have seen another family being mistreated at this competition, and I hope they will also come forward to you.
o This complaint is about Mr. Azhar’s personal conduct in the day of Dec. 4th during the tournament. He repeatedly insulted my son and my wife by defaming their reputations and integrities directly and indirectly, as detailed out in my wife’s statements (see document labled Order of Events).
I was outraged by his unprofessional behavior of using verbal insulting kids and parents to show his frustrations and aggressions, rather than officially challenge the director’s ruling through proper channels. So, I joined a meeting in the afternoon of Dec 4th, between Mr. Azher and 7 or 8 coaches, TD’s and parents including Ms. Elizabeth Shaughnessy, Dr. Alan Kirshner, Ted Castro, David Lee, two TD’s (I did not catch their names), and Carl Moy, a parent. The meeting was held outside the hotel’s north entrance. I asked him why he is being so unethical and insulting my wife and kid. If there is any dispute of the results, he should appeal to the directors. As the tournament organizer, he should know all the rules. Instead of answering my questions, he continued his aggression with slandering language, and even constantly pointing fingers and waving hands in front of me. I warned him to stop and refrain myself from any physical contact, but all the people present can be my witness. I am also certain that this could have been recorded by the hotel’s surveillance camera since we were all standing right near the entrance doorway. I demanded a personal and formal apology for his unthinkable behavior (as the organizer of such a children event), but he refused to do so and continued to attack other students and even the entire Weibel Chess Team. He is now even getting on-line to spread the attack on Facebook – as shown in the Facebook trail document.
It is a shame that we have to deal with people like this in a wonderful sports like chess where our children come to not just for winning the games, but rather more importantly to exchange with other kids, to make new friends, and to learn good sportsmanship. The kids look up to their coaches, TDs, and organizers as their role models in such competitive events. Mr. Azhar’s irrational behavior is definitely not that role model that our children should follow. Some parents and coaches told me that Mr. Azhar has shown a pattern of such behavior, once even got into a physical fight with a parent a few years ago. I am surprised that this type of personality can be tolerated as the chief organizer for children events.
I am contacting USCF directly based on suggestion by Ms. Elizabeth Shaughnessy. Since we do not know what the formal channel is for filing such a complaint, I am hoping that you will be able to forward this complaint to the proper person or committee. I am requesting a review by USCF of not only our complaint on Mr. Azhar, but on similar insulting incidents. I would also like to request an investigation by USCF on whether Mr. Salman Azhar has shown a pattern of behavior with aggression toward students and parents. I trust that the USCF will act to evaluate whether Mr. Azhar is appropriate for organizing children events like this for the sake of protecting our young students.
In addition, I would also be grateful if the USCF can formally clarify some of the questions in the attached document (see document labeled Additional Questions).
Best Regards,
Brian
Brian Lu, Ph.D