Chess Forum / General Topics / July 2007

I agree with George for a change and I disagree with everybody else. I
believe that Susan Polgar could and indeed almost must be made
president of the USCF now, assuming that she wants the job.

The first reason that Polgar should be made president rather than
Goichberg is that Polgar is more beautiful than Goichberg.

I am not joking. Attractiveness and presentability are important
considerations in choosing a president. Even had I been elected I was
prepared to vote for Polgar for President and I discussed this with
other candidates.

Next, Goichberg has not been a good president. He rarely communicated
with the other board members. If you called him he would talk to you
but otherwise you rarely heard from him. In the one year that I was on
the board, there was only one telephone conference call and that was
because I and Don Schultz insisted on it.

Goichberg basically did what he felt like doing, almost never
consulting the other board members and never telling us what he was
doing.

Then, whenever things went wrong, he would blame me, Sam Sloan, for
whatever the problem was, when I had nothing to do with it. Goichberg
sent out more than 16,000 postcards attacking me, which is one reason
why I did so badly in the election.

I do not think that the new incoming board members will want a
president like that and therefore I do not see any of them voting to
give Goichberg another two years as president.

The real question is whether Susan Polgar wants the job and whether
she is capable of doing the job. Nobody seemed to believe me when I
wrote about this during the election campaign, but there are serious
doubts whether Susan Polgar is capable of reading and writing the
English Language. The other board members will soon find out that I
was right, that none of the campaign statements used in this election
were written by Polgar. All were written by Truong.

That brings up another problem: If Polgar is president, she is likely
to be controlled by Truong. Polgar will be just the front. However,
that could be OK. Historians believe that Woodrow Wilson was not the
real president of the United States. His wife was.

For Polgar to be effective as president she would have to do what
Beatriz Marinello during the two years that she was president. Beatriz
called the other board members on the telephone every day, solicited
their opinions and reached a consensus. As as result, whenever she
went forward with her various projects, she had a solid majority
behind her. Goichberg is just the opposite. He goes forward without
even telling the rest of the board. Then, when and if the rest of the
board finally finds out, it has become a fait accompli, too late to
stop.

In order to use the talents and abilities of Susan Polgar, she must be
made president, because she has no other talents and abilities, except
that she is a strong chess player.

A separate question is whether she has the competence and the
capabilities of doing the job of president. I do not know the answer
to that question and I do not believe that anybody does. All I say is:
Give her the chance by making her president. If she falls flat on her
face, we will all find out soon enough.

Sam Sloan