Polgar is right for once

As everybody knows, I have been extremely critical of Paul Truong and
Susan Polgar. However, a posting by Polgar that became public today is
so obviously correct that I need to point that out.

In an online debate with Bill Goichberg, in a message dated 5/6/2008
10:05:55 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, SusanPolgar writes:

"You on your own made a number of decisions shortly after that
without consulting other board members. This clearly contributed to
the current problems. It is not too late to fix things but being
defensive about your records will not help alleviate these serious
problems."

"I am not interested in arguing with you. The USCF is in serious
trouble and it should no longer be the Bill Goichberg show. You need
to listen and take the advice from others in areas you have no
expertise in. If you continue the attitude that Bill Goichberg does
not lose any debate / argument, the USCF is doomed."

During my one year on the board there were constant problems with
this. Bill Goichberg would use his position as USCF President to do
things without even telling the other board members. It started right
after I was elected but before I took office when Bill Goichberg wrote
five letters without board approval to the USCFs litigation lawyer
asking for ways to stop Sam Sloan from taking office. The legal bill
that the USCF had to pay just for responding to these five letters was
$4800.

Later, Bill Goichberg did other things like deciding on his own
without asking the board that there should be four women players in
the US Championship and when only two women with reasonably high
ratings accepted Goichberg when down the list as token woman after
token women declined until finally two women were accepted who were
rated below 2200.

Worse than that, Bill Goichberg decided on his own to make the
formerly prestigious US Championship into an open Swiss tournament
where anybody could play. The entry fee for a rank beginner was
$20,000. Although no rank beginners accepted, this got many people
upset as it demeaned the prestige of the US Championship.

These are just a few examples of the long list of things that Bill
Goichberg did without even telling the board about it.

Worse yet, when anything went wrong, Bill Goichberg would blame me,
Sam Sloan, for it, when I had nothing to do with it.

After this kept happening, I became so desperate to somehow get Bill
Goichberg removed as president that I even offered the USCF presidency
through an intermediary to Joel Channing, who I thought was a terrible
person. Channing declined apparently thinking he would become
president after the next election, which was not to be.

Now, after I was defeated and lost my seat on the board, Goichberg is
doing the same thing again. Susan Polgar writes, “You on your own made
a number of decisions shortly after that without consulting other
board members.”

This is exactly what is wrong with Bill Goichberg. He seems simply to
be incapable of understanding that he might be wrong about something.
Since he is never wrong, there is never any need for him to consult
other members of the board before making a decision.

Goichberg's so-called New Plan is to make Chess Life magazine
optional. This will cause Chess Life to lose so many readers that
before long the print version of the magazine will be stopped
completely. If you read his proposal, you will see that he recognizes
this.

The reason Goichberg gives for this drastic measure is that we are
losing big money again this year. He thinks that since he along with
only the Pope is infallible it must be the "Internet" that is causing
these huge financial losses every year.

However, during the eight years that Al Lawrence was executive
director the USCF enjoyed a big surplus every year on much smaller
revenues than the USCF receives. Al Lawrence got along on about $1.7
million. The USCF now gets $3.2 million but under Goichberg still
loses money every year.

So the real problem causing all these losses is Bill Goichberg and
Bill Hall. To stop the losses the USCF keeps suffering it is not
necessary to stop publishing Chess Life. It is only necessary to
remove Bill Goichberg from the position of USCF President.

I am calling on the board to vote Bill Goichberg out of office right
now. The only suitable candidates to replace him are Randy Bauer and
Jim Berry or possibly Randy Hough. Take your pick but at all cost
remove Bill Goichberg now. It will be a disaster if he goes to the
Delegates Meeting in Dallas as USCF President with his plan to stop
the publication of Chess Life. This disastrous plan must be nipped in
the bud now.

Truong and Polgar will vote this. Hough is always afraid to vote
against Goichberg but in view of the desperate nature of the situation
even he might vote to remove Goichberg.

Sam Sloan