<Over the next few weeks, I was occasionally drawn into one dull conversation after another, seemingly Rob and Mike trying to "sell me" on the Street Chess project. I didn't understand why they kept coming back to this.Finally I said: "Look. We need a project plan to show to the Trump Organization before we get distracted by anything else. It would be an impossible task to try and coordinate two projects of this size simultaneously. When can I see your detailed plan regarding the Video Production aspect so that I can integrate it into my own plan to show to George Ross?"
I heard Rob say: "Can you hold on a second Ed?"
He must have covered the phone up, because all I heard was what sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher talking in a phone booth, underwater.
After a while, I set my phone down, walked to the upstairs refrigerator, got a protein shake out, walked downstairs, picked up the phone, and they were still muttering away.
Finally Rob said "Yeah, Mike can have that whole thing for you in a week or two."
"Great," I said, "I'll get on the phone to New York right now and set a date."
Well you might think I said I was going to come over and ransack his house by the way Calger reacted. He was like "Don't do that... this is just an estimate... can't hold us to anything.... we won't sign this or that... blah blah blah" and Rob finally had to just cut him off.
"Mike has a few irons in the fire." he said. I asked for no elaboration, but I had to get off of the phone and get back to work.
My gut instinct: Something fishy was in the works.
It was not too long after, that, by some miracle, they had reached both Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer. Or, so they said.
"What ?!?" was all I could say. "This is great news! How did you pull that off??"
I forget what the answer was. I was not focussed on what was being said, I was too excited. I was pacing the floor practically jumping up and down. Now it was time to get down to brass tacks. Rob said it was time for us to sign a "Deal Memo" and start framing the constructs of a contract.
"Fine, fine, send it right away."
The first version of this memo was too one-sided. Talk of money being paid to them without any delineation of responsibilities associated with this figure. I was too happy to be picky, I just worded my concerns, Rob was polite and gracious as ever, and then came iteration #2 of the deal memo.
OK, this one was much better, but the initial dollar figure had risen, no costs were tied specifically to this increased number, but it had greater accountability on their end, so it was moving in the right direction.
Finally, "Revision 3" had arrived.
If you click on the photo of that letter, you can read items #7 and #8 as follows:
7. CMM will be paid a one-time $35,000 stipend as an initial infusion of capital to be used for the general operational budget of the current project.
8. CMM, in good faith, will be responsible for obtaining initial player contracts and maintaining player participation but will not be held liable if the participants, for whatever reason, failed to agree of perform. The players who have initially agreed to participate are Mr. Robert James Fischer and Mr. Anatoly Karpov. In case of default by the above named participant, alternate players will be sought by CMM and agreed upon by GCF.
Two things should jump right out at you.
THEY ARE CLAIMING THEY HAVE FISCHER AND KARPOV'S AGREEMENT TO PLAY.
THEY WANT $35,000.
Now, look closely at the date on this deal memo. It is January 5, 2006. This date would come back to haunt them, big time. You see, it was a little more than one month later that I found out from Anatoly Karpov that he never heard of Rob Mitchell or Mike Calger, had no offer from Chess Masterminds, and was unaware of the game of Gothic Chess.
How was it then, that Chess Masterminds had the agreement of Karpov, let along Fischer????>
Kibitzing
