Beatriz Marinello
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Beatriz Marinello is a chess player who was born in Chile on May 14, 1964. She is a chess teacher now living in the United States. She holds the title of Woman International Master (WIM) from FIDE.
[edit] Life
She started playing chess at the age of 13. Marinello became a National Women's Champion of Chile when she was 16 years old. In 1985, she was awarded the Women's International Master title. She organized her first national championship in Chile at the age of 20 years old, and later organized other international competitions.
She arrived in the United States from Chile in 1990, and became a chess teacher in Miami. She represented the US in two Interzonals: the 1991 Interzonal in former Yugoslavia and the 1993 Interzonal in Indonesia. She also represented the United States in the 1994 Chess Olympiad held in Moscow.
Marinello started getting involved in scholastic chess in 1991 as an assistant coach of Dalton School in NY and was instrumental in starting several other scholastic chess programs. She was appointed USCF National Scholastic Director in January of 1997.
Her full name is Beatriz Mansilla Marinello. She was briefly married to US chess master John MacArthur in 1992. As a result, her games are listed in the chess databases three ways: Beatriz Mansilla, Beatriz Marinello and Beatrice MacArthur.
[edit] Controversies
In 1999, she was appointed to the position of Scholastic Coordinator of the United States Chess Federation. In May, 2000 she resigned in protest as a result of a controversy with scholastic chess organizer Richard Peterson in which they both accused each other of forging Peterson's signature to the 1999 National Elementary Chess Championship contract.
In August 2003, Marinello was elected United States Chess Federation President and became USCF's first woman president. The financial situation of the USCF called for immediate and decisive actions which were controversial at times, but arguably saved the USCF from financial disaster. Her first act as USCF president was to fire Tom Brownscombe, who had replaced her as scholastic coordinator, along with 16 other members of the USCF staff.
Her last year as president was mired in controversy. In December 2004, she succeeded in forcing out Bill Goichberg as Executive Director of the USCF after writing that she wanted the job of Executive Director herself. In January 2005, she took over as Chief Operating Officer of the USCF. She thereupon implemented a controversial move to Crossville, Tennessee, in order to help the budget of the USCF. She also involved the USCF in the Natrol deal with a company that promises to improve chess playing ability by increasing the brainspeed.
Because of these and other controversial activities, Beatriz Marinello was accused of running the USCF as a one-woman dictatorship. She ran a slate for USCF Election but in July, 2005 all four of her candidates were defeated.
As a result, in election held on August 14, 2005, Beatriz Marinello was voted out as USCF President. She was replaced by Bill Goichberg. After being voted out as president, and since all of her political allies had either resigned or had been voted out of office, Beatriz Marinello resigned from the USCF Execuutive Board. However, Bill Goichberg asked her to reconsider and she has since rejoined the board.
