School pride is understandable, but when I read an article like this (article has been pulled) I start worrying. How am I going to continue pitching chess as improving scholastics, when a major chess power can’t even count to four? Gentlemen, a Grand Slam is four events, not two.

Yes, they listed three, but one of the events is the President’s Cup. It’s an invitation-only event, which alone should exclude it from the “Grand Slam” moniker. How does one get invited? By being one of the top four US finishers in the Pan-Am. Given that, it can hardly be surprising that the team which wins the Pan-Am also won the President’s Cup, now, can it? Children, can we say “redundant”?

Calling it a “Triple Crown” would have been at least defensible; now I have to reassure educators that chess really doesn’t impair your ability to count.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2004 at 8:53 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.