Chess Forum / General Topics / July 2007

Several pundits have suggested that I have been humiliated by my
election loss yesterday, in which I received only 677 votes.

I do not feel humiliated. I was the target of the most vicious attacks
ever in the history of USCF Election politics. Even Mother Theresa
could not have withstood the attacks to which I was subjected. Those
attacks started more than two weeks before I even took office in my
first seat on the board.

Among other things, Bill Goichberg sent out more than 16,000 or 17,000
postcards attacking me, all filled with lies. Since I used the same
bulk mailing company that he did, I know that the postage costs more
than 24 cents each. This means that he spent more than $4,000 just to
defeat me, plus printing costs.

In addition, Bill Goichberg sent tens of thousands of emails attacking
me, all filled with lies. Here is a quote from his email of July 20,
2007 just five days before the votes were counted. This was the last
email in time to influence the election results.

      "This election is very important to the future of American
chess; it is especially important that the board member who has
disgraced USCF with reckless attacks and an indecent website and cost
us sponsorship be removed. CLICK HERE http://www.checkmate.us/ "

Then, on his website referenced above, Bill Goichberg makes the
following statement:

      "In 2006 I made no public comments or endorsements, and in view
of the outcome now consider this a mistake, and believe that with
active campaigning I might have been able to avoid the electoral
disaster (Sloan) that resulted."

Now, what is the "electoral disaster" that resulting from my election?
What happened was the membership received a steady stream of
information from me about what the Executive Board was doing, more
information than the membership had received from any previous board.
By disseminating this information, I kept a campaign promise that I
made when I ran for election, when I stated that if I am elected, the
Official Secrets of the USCF wlll not be secret anymore.

And what were the lies mentioned above? There are many. One is his
claim that I "cost us sponsorship". Goichberg is obviously referring
to his claims that it would have been possible to make deals with
AF4C, Merrill, Lynch or Eric Moskow had I not been elected to the
board.

All of this was a lie. Erik Anderson told Bill Goichberg at a meeting
in February 2006 that he would not be putting any more money into the
US Championship. Erik Anderson did not even show up for the prize
awards ceremony at the conclusion of the US Championship in March,
2006. Erik Anderson's contract to organize the 2007 US Championship
expired in May 2006. End of Story. At the August, 2006 meeting which
was my first meeting of the board, Goichberg told the board that he
had not been able to contact Erik Anderson in months because Erik
Anderson would not return his calls.

That never changed. In January 2007, Henderson (not Anderson) who
works for ICC said that he was preparing a proposal to be submitted to
Erik Anderson. It was at that point that Erik Anderson contacted Don
Schultz and told him again that he was not interested in sponsoring
the 2007 US Championship.

As to a supposed deal with Merrill, Lynch, there never was any such
deal. Neither Bill Goichberg nor anybody else on the board ever spoke
to anybody at Merrill, Lynch with decision making authority about a
deal to sponsor the US Championship.

In addition, the deal supposedly to be discussed was that the US
Championship would be a knockout tournament played online with finals
to be a rapid-play event in a gambling casino in Las Vegas. This
proposal in part by Bill Goichberg was patently ridiculous plus it
could not have been rated by FIDE and the results would not have
counted for title norm purposes or qualification to the World
championship cycle, as this was a zonal year. If it was me who stopped
such a ridiculous deal from taking place, I would be justly proud of
it, but this deal existed only in the mind of Bill Goichberg.

As far as a deal with Eric Moskow was concerned, Eric told me on the
telephone in February 2007 that he would never make a deal with the
USCF as long as Bill Goichberg is President. End of that story too. I
wonder why Bill never mentions this fact.

In addition to being attacked in 16,000 postcards sent by Bill
Goichberg, I was also attacked by Susan Polgar on her blogspot. I need
not go into that one. That I will leave for my best-selling book.

What is ironic is that Bill Goichberg created the monster that is
about to devour him. It was Bill Goichberg who allowed Susan's picture
to appear in every issue of Chess Life for one year, even though she
had done nothing newsworthy. It was Bill Goichberg who allowed her to
have a cover story in Chess Life, even though the only thing she had
won was a minor rapid-play side exhibition event with only one other
player rated over 2400. It was Bill Goichberg who allowed her to have
free ads in every issue of Chess Life for one year.

Somehow, Bill Goichberg believed that if Polgar was elected she would
allow him to continue as USCF President, so he attacked me, when I
represented no threat to him, none whatever.

Sam Sloan