1-8-18 Erroneous Information Posted on NCCA Website Confusing... BTW Where does all of the Scholastic Championship money go? Charlotte, N.C. 1-8-2018: According to an ad which is published on the NCCA website, they are touting the appearance of an up and coming 11 year old chess prodigy by the name of Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu? from India to possibly become the "youngest Grandmaster in history at an upcoming CCCSA event!" The problem is, there is no such player by that name!? Actually, his name is Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and he is already 12 years old. Nor, will he be become the youngest Grandmaster in history unless his results and the FIDE average rating of the event justify the "Norm." Furthermore, according to an article published 44 days ago on November 26, 2017, in the Hindustan Times, he fell short of that record at the recently contested World Junior Under 20 Championships in Italy. The current record is held by GM Sergey Karjakin who achieved the Title at age 12 years and 7 months. Therefore, "Rami" still has until March 5, 2018 to break the record, and I hope he does! (Considering their many years of utter incompetence and neglect, it is easy to understand why the NCCA would get his name and age wrong with their remaining, so called officers "all working full time jobs and having little time else to perform chess duties," but our friends at the CCCSA should pay closer attention to what they post. - I intend to introduce myself and wish Rami well! This kid may become the WC some day!). However, some North Carolina chess pundits are more concerned about the prize structure for the upcoming Scholastic Championship and where all of the money goes? For the past 2 years, the event was sponsored exclusively by the NCCA. This year, it is organized by the CCCSA. According to their advertisement, the Entry Fee for the 2018 N.C. K-12 State Chess Championship will be as little as $60 (today is the cutoff for that) and the late EF as much as $80? Yet, they only intend to payout scholarships totaling $2,450?? Last year at this same event which was held in Raleigh, a total of 717 players participated!! Now, assuming that approximately 700 scholastic players pay an average entry fee of $70, that would be an estimated gross of over $50,000! Not to mention sponsors fees and team rooms which generate thousands of extra dollars. Now, I am sure there will be a few doubters who might point to the "expenses" associated with an event of this magnitude, however, it can only be assumed that the "organizer" has arranged the standard hotel deal of trading an agreed number of "room nights" for the use of their ballroom facilities. Furthermore, they recruit many "unpaid" volunteers to help out. So, after another $2,500 in expenses for Directors fees, pencils and score sheets, (and an unspecified tax per player to the NCCA), what happens to the remaining  $45,000? -- The real problem is, heretofore, little or NO accounting for the past 6 such events has been forthcoming nor published on their own web pages. So, no one really knows what the expenses really are, nor how much profit they generate, or whether one individual puts it into his pocket?! Look, if this event were paying back a huge prize fund proportionate to the total entry fees, that would be one thing. (In the case of the LOTS, last year, the percentage of payback worked out to be appx. 60% - yes, that is correct; the organizer took $4 from every $10 received for "expenses."). But, it's not. In fact, this years scholastic championship offers a payback of 5%??? or less. The current annual tuition for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is over $25,000; Yale University is $66,000! A $1,500 scholarship is a joke and a slap in the face. One might assume that the Vice President of Scholastics for the NCCA would be involved in attempting to correct this "out of wack" payback, but unfortunately, no one has held that important NCCA office for many years as the position continues to be VACANT? (Sort of like doing away with the EPA because they don't believe in climate change...?) This event was originally designed for the benefit of North Carolina scholastic chess players. In my humble opinion, the organizers should be returning $45,000 to the winners and keeping $5,000 as profit! You ask, just how did it get to this point? How about 10+ years of NCCA incompetence and negligence? (I refuse to use words like avarice and greed...) USCF Executive Director Carol Meyer admits that this unfortunate situation can be observed from other affiliates all over the country and agrees that USCF policies should be rewritten and enforced. Until that time, little Johnny's parents will shell out $80 (plus hotel, transportation and food expenses) so he can play 5 games of chess in a hotel for little, or no monetary return, even if he finishes with a perfect score! And, that, my friends, is wrong. A $20 entry fee would be more than enough to fund this entire tournament and still make a handsome profit. I remain, NM Leland Fuerstman