From: Sam Sloan ISHIPRESS COM> Date: 23 may 2000 Subject: Re: World Championship in Armonk At 04:35 PM 5/23/00 -0400, Larry Kaufman wrote: >At 03:18 PM 5/23/00 -0400, you wrote: > >>Therefore your statement: "However, I suspect that if you had let people >>know when you would be arriving, on which flight and airport, there would >>have been volunteers to pick you up" is simply not true. It is wrong to >>assume that the shogi organizers are going to extend any conveniences to >>make up for the fact that they scheduled the event at such a remote location. >> > Sam, I understand why you were unhappy about Chicago, but this time I >told you the situation in personal conversation at the U.S. Amateur Team >Competition about two months before the event, so I don't know why you act >as if it were a surprise that the event was held some distance from NY. >The train ride from downtown NY to the nearest station costs a whopping >five dollars (!), and from there you can either wait for the free hotel >shuttle or take a short taxi ride. Sorry you missed out on a very >memorable, exciting event. As for why the event was not held in downtown >Manhattan, the prohibitive cost of good hotels there is an obvious reason. It is absolutely true that Larry Kaufman did warn me that the event would not be held in New York City. What happened to me last year at the US Shogi Championship was far worse than what happened this year. Last year, I spent $450 to go to Hoffman Estates where I believed I would be competing for the US Shogi Championship. In addition, as I had been secheduled to work that weekend, I lost the $400 which I would have made by working instead of travelling to Hoffman Estates. Therefore, my total loss was more than $800. This year, all I lost was the opportunity to see some professional shogi players play. I did not lose any money as a result. On the official website announcing the Shogi World Championship, Mayor Giuliani says: "I am pleased that our City is hosting the first Shogi World championship held outside of Japan." http://www.webcom.com/nyshogi/SWC/Site-E/Guliani-lt.htm Should we sue Mayor Giuliani for fraud? Why was this statement posted on the website, if not to mislead? Also, please tell me where on the website it says that the tournament will be held in Armonk? The cover page is at: http://www.webcom.com/nyshogi/SWC/Site-E/Coverpage.htm I have looked all through the website and I find no mention of Armonk. The website clearly implies that the event will take place in New York City. One person who was planning to participate in the Shogi World Championship wrote me to ask if he could stay in my house in Brooklyn during the tournament, as he could not afford a hotel room. I agreed. However, he never showed up. The reason is obvious. He like I did not realize that the event was being held at such a far distance from New York City that it would be impossible to stay in my house in Brooklyn and participate in the event. Sam Sloan