Christy Lin's Complaint Against Salman Azhar Filed with the U.S. Chess Federation:

To:  USCF Director
I would like to bring this incident to your attention.  On the weekend of Dec 3-4, I witnessed one of the most unorganized CalChess state Grade Level Championship.  My daughter, now a 4th grader, has attended this event since 1st grade.  In the past three years, this event was hosted by Sacramento Chess Club. Although we needed to drive two hours to attend the event in Stockton, we usually came home with big smile.

This year, the same event took place in Hyatt Santa Clara.  We were happy about the location.  However, after two very frustrating days, we decided that this will be the last time for us.  Starting with the first round, the color coding for each grade was very confusing.  Lots of players were in wrong section causing the tournament to start quite late.  The room for 4-6 grade chess players was very tiny.  The chess boards were set almost side by side without much space for water or notation book.  With all the players and parents in this tiny room, I am sure it maxed out the legal occupation limit for the room.

After the late start for the first round, every round afterwards was late.  The pairing was not available online.  It was posted outside of the playing room next to the entrance.  For some reason, the pairing was only posted two minutes before the round.  This caused a huge chaos.  Player and parents all jammed in front of the door so people started pushing.  We have been in some of the national event which has thousands of players.  There was not a time that I felt the situation was out of control until this event.

Most of the parents were tired of this unorganized event.  Maybe this was the reason that one of the parents yelled at a boy, who sat next to my daughter, and made the boy cry.  The TD did not stop or say anything to the adult.  All of them ignored the crying boy.  The boy attends the same school with my daughter so I do know him.  My daughter was very shocked about why a stranger would yell at her friend for three minutes right before the last round. There was no reason any adult should talk to a kid without his parents or coach around.  We managed to calm the boy down so he can finish the last round of the chess tournament.

Because of safety issue, I decided to wait for my daughter outside of the playing room.  There was no place to sit so I was standing about 4 ft from the door.  After thirty minutes, I saw the organizer Salman Azhar ran out of the door and the little boy was following him.  I quickly asked him what happened and he said he does not know.  I asked Mr. Azhar why he took the boy out of the playing area and where were his coach and parents.  He did not answer me but keep walking toward the escalator.  The little boy seemed very scared and asked Mr. Azhar whether he can get his belongings (chess clock and notation book).  Mr. Azhar told him to keep following him and eventually led him to the back door outside of Hyatt.

My concern is why an adult can take a kid out of the tournament without his/her parents present.  From the playing area to the door, there are couple minutes of walking distance.  As a parent, how can we make sure that all the TD or organizers have zero criminal background? Is it legal for any TD to tell my kids to follow him outside of the playing area where there were no other adults? To ensure the boy’s safety,  I followed Mr. Azhar and the little boy to the back door because I know this little boy.  I highly doubt if I will ever let my kids attend any of chess events organized by Mr. Azhar.  It could be a huge issue if something happened to the little boy between the tournament room and the back door of hotel.  I believe Mr. Azhar abused his power as the organizer and created an unacceptable situation.