Stan Vaughan has been the WCF world champion since 1994, defending his title eight times. He is also the 32-time American Chess Federation Champion. His latest WCF ELO rating is 3592, much higher than the second highest rated player on the list, Bobby Fischer (2897), and over 1000 points higher than the next highest active player, Ron Gross (2581).
I could find only one event that he played in that was outside of his own club. His rating appears to be based on beating hundreds of very low rated players. Never heard of his “titles”. This seems very much a man who is a legend in his own mind. How many people has he duped into believing his story? BTW, I looked at some of the games on his site and they are, ahem, rather devilishly bad games. Some look like reprints of opening traps.
If Stan Vaughan was once a legitimate master-strength player, judging by his MSA record, it was before 1992. He seems to have a habit of playing lower-rated players to raise his rating off of his 2200 floor, only to crash back down when he starts playing experts or strong A-players. (His floor has now been lowered to 2100)
Since 1992, he has scored (opponents post-rating)
66.7% aganist 1900-1999
48.3% against 2000-2099
52.9% against 2100-2199
37.5% against 2200-2299
0% against 2300+ (7 games)
Looks to be about expert strength, so perhaps he was a legitimate master in his younger days.
If memory serves, Mr. Vaughan used to be on the suspended members list. (I recall seeing his name there back in the olden days, when we used printed rating supplements.) That may have been related to some shenanigans with trying to make his own NV state affiliate, though I don’t know as much about those.
If you Google “Stan Vaughan chess”, you’ll find, among other things, some rather, er, humorous ChessBase “news” articles about an apparently aborted “$6 million WCF World Chess Championship Match” with GM Akobian.
Stan Vaughan’s WCF (World Chess Federation) rating has now reached new heights, reaching an all-time high of 4250, more than 1300 points higher than the 2nd highest rated player on the list, Bobby Fischer. wcfchess.org/wp/wcf-ratings/
Unfortunately, Mr. Vaughan’s success in WCF has not translated to winning USCF tournaments. In a recent tournament, he lost to three players rated under 2000. uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201312088982.1
It appears that the WCF World Champion has set his sights a bit lower for his next match than his previous $6 million stake. Interesting match conditions, too.
The champ is apparently in good form, though, having won the Nevada state championship. Particularly impressive to me is how he has managed to gain so many rating points, even though he only scored 4/5 in the state championship against a field where he likely out-rated everyone by over 1,000 points.
If God’s rating is 3000, and Mr. Vaughan’s true unofficial rating is 4250, I’d guess Mr. Vaughan would do quite well in a match against the Almighty, and even with his new official rating of 2999, he should score about 50%.
(I’m sorry for continuing to post these, I just can’t help myself)
I have been told that Vaughan did play in Georgia many years ago and did achieve a NM rating. I was also told that “Stan was involved in a terrible auto accident that affected his brain", according to a Kentucky native who knew him back in the day. The friend who passed that on to me commented that “He is to be pitied, not ridiculed. He was not always a nut”.
While I cannot vouch for the facts behind his history, I join my friend in suggesting that we all show a modicum of compassion.
I won’t speculate on the mental health of another individual (AUG violation?) but I do see that about half of the posts in this thread were written by me, so in the interest of moving on, I will follow Mulfish’s and Disney’s advice and “Let it go”.