Compensation for Chess Personnel Varies By Program

In her negotiations with Texas Tech, Susan Polgar proposed — among other terms — that her pay as SPICE director and chess coach be raised to $250,000 plus benefits.

Figures are approximate and rounded to the nearest dollar. Due to exorbitant costs, The Journal was unable to obtain information for Texas Tech's chess operations prior to the 2011 fiscal year.

Nearly 100 percent of U. of Texas-Dallas requested payroll detail is present. The remaining 0.6% would require an excessive amount of UT-Dallas resources to obtain. Compensation figures provided associated exclusively with the chess program. Student-worker compensation not included.

Sam Palatnik of U. of Maryland-Baltimore County saw his pay in the 2009 fiscal year boosted by a $4,000 grant, as well as $9,000 in state funding. In the 2010 fiscal year, Palatnik’s salary again was boosted by a $6,000 grant.

Susan Polgar and Paul Truong’s compensation at Texas Tech for the 2012 fiscal year respectively reflects three-quarters of each employees' annualized pay. Had the couple stayed at Texas Tech, their salaries would have been $132,225 and $78,795, respectively. Al Lawrence’s compensation in the 2012 fiscal year represents only 1.5 months of pay. Had Lawrence been employed for a full year, his pay would have been $77,500 across the 2012 fiscal year.
Source: Assorted open-records requestsGet the dataCreated with Datawrapper