Sam Sloan

Samuel Howard Sloan (born September 7, 1944) is an American chess player, publisher and political figure based in New York City. In 2006, Sloan served on the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation. In 2006 Sloan was elected as an officer to the Manhattan Libertarian Party County Committee as Director of Media Relations.
In 1970, Sloan established a registered broker-dealer that traded over-the-counter stocks and bonds. Sloan had no formal legal training but orally argued a case before the Supreme Court after litigating against the Securities and Exchange Commission over policies regarding the trading of penny stocks. The Court ruled in his favor, 9–0. Sloan is the last non-lawyer to argue before the court.
Between 2010 and 2016 ran unsuccessfully or attempted to run for several other city, state and national government political offices, including for President of the United States.

Sloan was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1944 to attorney Leroy Bayfield Sloan and child psychiatrist Dr. Marjorie Jacobson Sloan. His family later moved to Lynchburg, where he graduated from E.C. Glass High School. Sloan studied chess from an early age. He claims that he was a winner in the Virginia Science Talent Search and that he scored 800 in the Mathematics section of his SAT.

Sloan left Lynchburg in 1962 to study at University of California, Berkeley; he majored in mathematics and later switched to criminology, but he left Berkeley in 1967 and did not graduate. At Berkeley he became one of the leaders of the Anti-War movement and promoted a branch of the Sexual Freedom League. He held more than forty sexually liberal parties at 2545 Benvenue Avenue and 2714 Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley.

After leaving Berkeley, Sloan worked two years for the Wall Street investment banking firm of Hayden, Stone & Co. in the over-the-counter trading department. In 1970, he established Samuel H. Sloan & Company, a registered broker-dealer primarily trading over-the-counter stocks and bonds. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought civil actions against Sloan & Co. in 1971–5 alleging he had failed to maintain adequate books and records. In 1975, the SEC revoked Sloan's broker-dealer registration. After years of litigation, Sloan in 1978 prevailed in the U.S. Supreme Court. Sloan argued the case pro se. The opposing attorney was Harvey Pitt, who was later Chairman of the SEC from 2001 to 2003. Sloan won before the U.S. Supreme Court 9–0, concerning his claim that the "tacking" of 10-day summary suspension orders for an indefinite period was an abuse of the agency's authority and a deprivation of due process. Sloan is the last non-lawyer to argue before the court.

Sloan claimed that, during the turmoil following the Saur Revolution, he was arrested on June 4, 1978 in Nawzad, Afghanistan. He claims that was soon transported to Girishk and spent one night there in police custody. He was then taken to Lashkargah. He was held there for two weeks and interrogated along with many others who he had encountered previously in Afghanistan all of whom were suspected of being his agents as he was supposedly the master spy. After realizing that he was suspected of being a spy and after the "Oscars" or low level police officers told him that many prisoners were being executed in the jail, he feared being executed himself and therefore he planned an escape, He claims to have later walked away from low-security confinement and to have escaped. He walked along the NorthEast side of the Helmand River by walking along the NorthEast side of the Helmand River where he knew that there were no roads, towns or human habitation thereby making good his escape. Later via bus, narrowly evading police who were searching for him. He claimed to have traveled to Kandahar and Peshawar and finally entered Pakistan in September 1978.

Sloan has written in 1981 a lexicon of Khowar, a language spoken in Chitral, Pakistan. Sloan had a minor role in a 1984 commercially produced film, Mahjong hōrōki, that later became a video game, Mahjong Hōrōki Classic. Since 1994, Sloan has operated Ishi Press.

Sloan is a chess journalist and author. He claims to have traveled to 78 countries, primarily attending chess tournaments. During a speech on April 29, 2006 at a Libertarian Party of New York's convention Sam Sloan has claimed to have "won the World Championship of Chinese Chess in Beijing, China, in 1988". He is rated an FM (Federation Master) by the World Xiangqi Association. Sloan has competed in tournaments in Thai (Makrook) and Japanese (Shōgi) chess.

Libertarian party

From 2002 to 2006, Sloan was active in the Libertarian Party of New York attempting to influence its policy agenda and candidate nominations. In an April 30, 2006, email to Michael Badnarik's 2004 presidential campaign mailing list, an individual claiming to be Sloan announced his intention to seek the Libertarian Party nomination for Governor of New York State. In 2006 Sloan was elected as an officer to the Manhattan Libertarian Party County Committee as Director of Media Relations. He was not re-elected to that position in 2007. He was a delegate to the 2008 Libertarian National Convention and the 2010 Libertarian National Convention. On May 25, 2008 in Denver, Colorado, Sloan was nominated to the National Committee of the Libertarian Party and made a speech addressing the Libertarian National Convention.

Election to USCF Board

In July 2006, Sloan was elected to the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation (USCF). He advocated a major expansion of scholastic chess, stating that the USCF should establish a program to certify school chess teachers. He criticized the USCF's recent move from New Windsor, New York to Crossville, Tennessee. As second-place finisher (out of five) in the special election, Sloan was elected to a one-year term on the board (the first-place finisher received a three-year term). Sloan's term of service began in August 2006. In 2007, Sloan ran for reelection to the USCF Executive Board, but was unsuccessful, finishing a distant ninth out of ten candidates. On October 2, 2007, Sloan filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking to overturn the results of the 2007 USCF election, and alleging that more than 2,000 obscene "Fake Sam Sloan" newsgroup postings prior to the election had been made by a rival candidate. On August 28, 2008, US District Judge Denny Chin dismissed the suit with prejudice pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2) and 12(b)(6). The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal but modified it, saying that it was "without prejudice" as the case had not gone to a hearing.

USENET postings incident

On April 3, 2008, posts appeared on USENET, apparently placed by Mr. Sloan, claiming that some of his websites had been closed down by law enforcement in Amherst County, Virginia, apparently because Sloan listed the home addresses of parties involved in his long-running but moot child custody dispute involving his daughter. The USENET posting mentions County investigator Christopher Smith. During that same time, Smith was conducting a broad campaign against Internet crime in the State.

2010 New York gubernatorial candidacy

Sloan renewed his bid for governor in the New York gubernatorial election, 2010, facing off against attorney Warren Redlich and former madam Kristin M. Davis. Sloan, by his own admission, was not popular within the Libertarian Party of New York and did not expect to win the nomination. He has testified that a faction in the party who opposed non-Libertarian Redlich's nomination needed another candidate. Sloan eventually lost the nomination to Redlich in a two-way battle, by a vote of 27 for Redlich and 17 for Sloan, after Davis refused to show up at the convention. Despite his failure to secure the nomination, Sloan was the first to submit petitions to the board of elections with the Libertarian Party line, which effectively gives him the nomination; the down-ballot selections on Sloan's petitions are identical to those confirmed by the party committee. However, because his petitions failed to contain anywhere near the requisite 15,000 signatures, the nomination will go to Redlich; it has been speculated that Sloan is using the ploy to file a lawsuit against Redlich in his long-running dispute with the state Libertarian Party. Prior to the November elections, Roger Stone Davis's campaign manager, claims that Sloan fed him information that Stone passed on to a group entitled "People for a Safer New York", who created a flyer labeling Redlich a "sexual predator".

Mentions in 2011 media

In a 2011 book about Bobby Fischer, Frank Brady wrote "Aided by an eidetic memory, [Sloan] was the last non-lawyer to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court – a case he won. Bobby trusted him."

Three dialogues with Sloan are incorporated in the 2011 documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World.

Sloan tied for the lead in the 3rd round of the 2011 World Championship of Chinese Chess (the total number of rounds or his final result was not stated).

Sloan won the 2011 Silver Medal in Senior Division (of two entries) at the World Memory Championship in Guangzhou, China.

2012 presidential candidacy

In January 2012, Sloan announced his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's 2012 presidential nomination. He lost the nomination to Gary Johnson.

2013 mayoral candidacy

In November 2013, Sloan was on the ballot for the New York City mayoral election, 2013, as an independent under the War Veterans line; he received 166 votes (0.02%, or 1/5,000 of the total vote).

Xiangqi championships

Sloan competed in the World Championship of Chinese Chess in 2013 and 2015, held in Huizhou, China and in Munich, Germany respectively.

2014 candidacies

In June 2014, Sloan ran for the Democratic nomination for New York's 15th congressional district, against incumbent José E. Serrano. He lost the primary election by 91% to 9%.

Later that summer, Sloan attempted to submit petitions for the 2014 gubernatorial election, one for the Democratic primary (with Nenad Bach as the running mate) and another an "ambush" of the Libertarian Party line similar to the one he attempted in 2010 (with Tom Stevens as the running mate). Both petitions were ruled invalid.

2016 presidential candidacy

On September 29, 2015 Sloan filed with the FEC to run for the Democratic Party presidential candidates, 2016. He was only on the New Hampshire ballot and received 15 votes. He lost to Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016.

2016 Congressional candidacy

In 2016, Sloan ran in the Democratic primary for US Congress

in the New York's 13th congressional district (upper Manhattan/lower Bronx area). The primary was held June 28, 2016 and he received 197 votes (0.46%), placing 8th in a field of 9 candidates and losing to Adriano Espaillat.

Sloan has stated several political positions in his campaign, including:

• Drugs: support for the legalization of marijuana, but not other drugs
• Foreign policy:
  • general isolationist but with continues U.S. military presence in South Korea
  • supports the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran
• Estate tax: supports the restoration of federal estate tax to pre-Bush levels
• Adoptee rights: supports the right of every adult who was an adoptee in every U.S. state to have access to their original birth certificate and thus know the names of their biological parents
• Illegal immigration:
  • supports all immigrants in all U.S. states to be able to obtain a drivers license
  • supports the strengthening of immigration controls
• Economy
  • generally supports the economic policies of the Obama administration
  • supports the Keystone Pipeline
  • supports the continuation but not the expansion of ObamaCare

• "Sam Sloan Candidate For U.S. Presidency 2016". Retrieved May 22, 2016. 
• "Sam Sloan (D) For President 2016 Presidential Candidate Interview". October 7, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2016. 
• Sloan, Sam. "Sam Sloan Runs for President, here is his platform". anusha.com. Retrieved June 20, 2016. 

Sloan has been married three times. Sloan's second wife, Honzagool, was a native of Chitral (Pakistan) and they had a daughter named Shamema. Sloan and Honzagool soon separated and Sloan left New York for Virginia with Shamema, leaving Shamema in the care of a Virginia couple, while Honzagool returned to Chitral. Sloan was subsequently locked into a child custody struggle, which lasted several years, with that Virginia couple over that same daughter. On September 5, 1991, during an attempt to regain custody of his daughter Shamema, Sloan was arrested. Sloan was convicted of attempted abduction of Shamema and spent 18 months in state prison.

One of Sloan's daughters, Jessica Vithanage Sloan, died December 18, 2010 of a Neisseria meningitidis infection.

Shamema served as a US Marine (4 years and six months) during the Iraq war and married a former Marine.

Sloan lives in Morris Heights, the Bronx with his girlfriend.

As of 2016, Sloan's FIDE chess rankings were 1896 and 1923 for blitz.

• Khowar English Dictionary (as Mohammad Ismail Sloan, 1981) (originally published in Pakistan) (reprint in 2006 by Ishi Press) ISBN 0-923891-15-3
• Chinese Chess for Beginners (1989) ISBN 0-923891-11-0
• How to Take over an American Public Company (1992) ISBN 1-881373-01-0
• The Farm Book by Thomas Jefferson with light notes and annotations by Sam Sloan ISBN 0-923891-80-3
• Sam Sloan Teaches A+ 50 Helpful Questions ISBN 0-923891-06-4

Among his cases that petitioned or reached the federal level are:

• Sloan v. Nixon, 60 FRD 228 (1973)
• SEC v. Sloan, 436 US 103 (1978)
• Sloan v. Virginia, No. 95-8909 (1995)

• "Sloan vs. Nixon, 60 FRD 228 (1973)". anusha.com. Retrieved June 25, 2016. 
• "SEC v. Sloan". anusha.com. Retrieved February 1, 2012. 
• "Sloan vs. Virginia, No. 95-8909". anusha.com. Retrieved June 25, 2016.