Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Date: 13 Jan 2007 06:57:03
From: samsloan
Subject: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

[quote="chessoffice"][quote="samsloan"][quote="chessoffice"]I believe
that it is internal corporate information and that USCF officials may
quote from it, but are expected to exercise good judgment. For
example, a misuse of this information is to post a list of checks and
publicly suggest without evidence that these checks were improperly
paid.

Bill Goichberg[/quote]
[quote]It is to be recalled that back in August, Bill Goichberg had me
publicly censured and reprimanded for stating that Polgar had received
$39,000 from the USCF.

However, I have just demonstrated that Polgar has received considerably
more than $39,000 from the USCF.[/quote]

There was no censure or reprimand in August.

What I complained about in August was your claim that $39,000 was paid
to Paul Truong because he "had contracts," including $20,000 because of
Diane Reese's erroneous invitation and $19,000 towards the Olympiad
Training Program.

The $20,000 ($5000 per player bonus) was actually $15,000 and was paid
to Krush, Zatonskih, and Shahade. Polgar waived her claim to $5000.
Contrary to what you wrote, each player had a contract with USCF,
Truong was not part of these contracts.

Bill Goichberg[/quote]You are splitting hairs here. Certainly anybody
reading these postings by Bill Goichberg would reasonably conclude that
neither Polgar nor Truong were paid anything at all.

Now, we finally figure out that when Bill Goichberg stated that Truong
was paid very little, he is referring to Truong individually, not
Truong as the "business manager" (as he calls himself) of Susan Polgar.

I think that everybody else understood my meaning, which was that
Polgar was paid $39,000. Also, as to the claim that Polgar waived for
payment of $5,000, Bill Goichberg omits the fact that Polgar agreed to
take the $5,000 as payment for something else.

Bill Goichberg implies that some of this money went to Boris Gulko or
Garry Kasparov for training the woman's team. However, Kasparov was not
paid anything. To the contrary, the Kasparov Chess Foundation or KFC
paid money to the women players, not the other way around. I doubt that
Boris Gulko was paid anything either.

I have however apologized and expressed regret for my statement that
Polgar was paid $39,000. Polgar was paid more like $40,000 to $50,000.
I regret the error.

In addition, look through Chess Life and you will see free ads for
Polgar. For example, page 71 of the January Chess Life has a half page
ad for Susan Polgar's Group Tour of Hungary, where you can get to meet
Susan Polgar herself! The cost of this tour is $2499.95, inclusive of
airfare. This is clearly a commercial ad and yet Polgar pays nothing
for it. She gets it for free in settlement of a lawsuit she threatened
to bring. There are also free ads for Polgar on pages 38 and 60 of the
January Chess Life and a gratuitous picture of Polgar on page 5 of the
January Chess Life. All this at a time when Polgar is a declared
candidate for election. Why do not any of the other nine candidates get
free ads and free pictures of themselves in Chess Life?

Meanwhile, since August I have been demanding as a board member that
Bill Goichberg provide me with a copy of the contract Susan Polgar
signed with Frank Niro to write a column for Chess Life and also a copy
of the contract she says that she and the other woman players were
"forced to sign" to play on the woman's team. I have also demanded a
copy of the allegedly erroneous letter by Diane Reese. Bill claims that
USCF records have not been lost or destroyed but he still cannot find
the contracts. (By the way, the other contracts that were eventually
produced were found in the lawyer's office, not in the USCF office. The
original contract in the USCF office still has not been found).

Also, by the way, in case you are wondering why you have not heard much
from Donna Aliere lately, that is because she went off to investigate
my allegations for the purpose of proving them wrong and embarrassing
me, only to be discovering one by one that my allegations are true and
correct.

Now you can see why Bill Goichberg had me suspended from posting to the
USCF Forums.

Sam Sloan

Date: 14 Feb 2007 08:44:43
From: samsloan
Subject: Donna Alarie fully supports Sam Sloan for re-election

Donna Alarie has just joined my group after Leroy Dubeck asked her to.
Donna refused to endorse Randy Bauer. Her job is to help Beatriz
inello make sure that SP is not elected. She's done a good job so
far in damaging SP. Donna, Beatriz and Leroy Dubeck endorse my slate.
We need to push our slate of Schultz, Goodall, Lux and me through.

Sam Sloan

Date: 14 Feb 2007 08:28:02
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Again you are new here and you do not know the history. You should
read more and write less. Especially you should read the debate over
these issues that took place over on rec.games.chess.politics long
before this forum was even created.

The wrong doings that occurred in 2003 are well documented and even
more evidence is now mounting.

There are a lot of questions about the "NY Mayors Cup". However,
nobody is doubting that the games were played, especially since I was
there and watched them being played.

There are many other questions about Susan which need to be answered.
For example she has long claimed to have won the World Championship
for Girls Under-16 in 1981 in Brighton, England. However, a researcher
has just discovered that in 1981 the World Championship for girls
Under-16 was held in Denk and Susan did not play in it.

She also claims to have won the World Rapid and World Blitz
Championship for women in 1992. However, those were unofficial events
and her only strong competition were her sisters, Sofia and Judit.

She claims to have won the "Triple-Crown" in chess. That is not true
as there is no such title.

In short, it is not true that Susan is a Four Time World Chess
Champion. She only won the Woman's World Championship once and then
refused to defend her title.

There is no doubt that Susan is a very strong player with many great
accomplishments. However, I feel that Susan should stick to the claims
that are verifiable and true and not make claims that are false. She
would have easily won the World Championship for Girls Under-16 had
she played, as she was already the strongest woman player in the world
when she was 15. However, that does not explain why she claims to have
won a title that she did not win. It always does not explain why
distinguished Grandmasters Portisch and Andorian were completely
opposed to her in her native Hungary.

As to the controversy about her demands for payment in 2003, here is a
copy of the invoice Susan sent to the USCF:

Polgar Chess Center

[contact info redacted]

Grandmaster Susan Polgar
4-time Women's World Chess Champion & 3-time Olympic Champion

INVOICE # 102003

KISSIMMEE 2003 (3 days of activities)

Expenses for Susan Polgar, Tom & Leeam Shutzman Polgar and Paul Truong
a) Flight (4 tickets) = $820.00
b) Rental car = $449.86
Total Expenses: $1,269.86

Fee for simul, lectures, book signings, etc.
$2 / participant x 1168 participants = $2,336.00

NATIONAL ELEMENTARY - NASHVILLE 2003 (3 days of activities)

Expenses are already reimbursed.

Fee for simul, lectures, book signings, etc.
$2 / participants x 2396 participants = $4,792.00

US OPEN 2003 (14 days of activities)

Expenses for Susan Polgar and Paul Truong
a) Flight (2 tickets) $494.00
b) Daily allowance for food $50x2x14days = $1400.00
Total Expenses:
$1,494.00
Fee (Simul/Lecture/Book Signings etc.) $1,500.00

ROSEMONT K-12 DEC. 2003 (2-3 days of activities)

Susan's ticket only as agreed $246.50
Fee (Simul/Lecture/Book Signings etc. to be paid later) ($1,500.00)
Chess Life Opening Column - June 03 $500.00
Chess Life Opening Column - July 03 $500.00
Chess Life Opening Column - August 03 $500.00
Chess Life Opening Column - September 03 $500.00
Chess Life Opening Column - October 03 $500.00
_________
$15,638.36

Book & Equipment Balance:
$1,836.21
_________
$17,474.57
To be paid later
($1,500.00)
_________
$15,974.57

Please make check payable to Polgar Chess, Inc. Thank you!

Additional:

TLA amount: ? To be deducted or billed by the USCF

1,300 Women's Olympiad Calendars @ $6 each (payable to the Susan
Polgar Foundation) Only calendars that are sold are to be paid.
Unsold calendars can be returned by ch 31, 2004 at no charge.

****
END STATEMENT
****

Sam Sloan

Date: 14 Feb 2007 05:18:37
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Who's John Hillery?

On 12 Feb, 21:16, "Ray Gordon, creator of the pivot"
<[email protected] > wrote:
> Really, Sam? That sounds like a confession that you never cleaned up
> your web site as you promised you would. Of course, many of us
> already
> knew that your word was of no value, but now we can cite you on the
> subject. (Hmm, if Sam Sloan is a liar, and Sam Sloan says that he
> lied, does that mean ...?)
> _________________
> John Hillery
>
> 1) You fail to note that I was replying (with a quote) to your own
> post. 2) I'd be interested to hear Joel Channing's response to your
> new claim that you never offered to "clean up your web site." One of
> you is lying, and I know which way I'd bet. 3) Since it has been well
> established that Polgar did not receive any free ads in Chess Life,
> the topic of this thread is simply one more of your delusions. The
> only way to continue the thread would be for you to keep repeating
> your debunked claims.
> _________________
> John Hillery

What does John Hillery have anything to do with it?

Date: 13 Feb 2007 23:21:55
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Who's John Hillery?

Date: 13 Feb 2007 23:05:43
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

The claims made by Bill Goichberg and Paul Truong here are directly
contradicted by a BINFO sent by Bill Hall on December 8, 2006.

On December 8, 2006, Bill Hall wrote:

To the USCF Executive Board:

RE: Issues raised by Mr. Sloan

A) Susan Polgar Advertising - Susan had/has a credit for publications
advertising from 1) the settlement surrounding the 2004 Women's
Olympiad, which the EB agreed to settle in August '05 and 2) as part
of a trade agreement that I was involved in for celebrity appearance
at two national events. The appearance trade included free entry for
her children and one free room during the event with no fee to be paid
by the USCF.

B) Candidate's Fees - the three candidate's fees in question were
deposited. They appear in the General Ledger in the operational
Account (111100) as a part of the 97210.28 Access for J transaction.
It is further credited into the 970000 account. This appears as a
monthly batch total transaction, because in NY they were tracking many
of the individual transactions in an Access program and then entering
the transactions as a batch entry into Peachtree and the end of the
month.

C) Disbursements to Susan Polgar - I have already reported that Mr.
Nanna is confident that there was no irregularity in the 13K
disbursement to Polgar that was questioned. ON the issue of further
investigation, Mr. Nanna feels strongly that this would be counter-
productive and costly. I, too, am hesitant to direct him to generally
dig into the matter. This has the following consequences: 1) detracts
from the business of moving the Federation in the direction we need to
go, 2) it is costly with respect to staff time involved, 3) it has the
potential to politicize the office and I feel it is crucial the office
and the staff be protected from the political aspects of this
organization. We will await direction from the EB on this matter.

I hope this helps with these matters.

Bill Hall
Executive Director
United States Chess Federation
P.O. Box 3967
Crossville, TN 38557-3967
Phone: (931) 787-1234
Fax: (931) 787-1200

Date: 12 Feb 2007 18:16:07
From: Ray Gordon, creator of the pivot
Subject: Who's John Hillery?

Really, Sam? That sounds like a confession that you never cleaned up
your web site as you promised you would. Of course, many of us
already
knew that your word was of no value, but now we can cite you on the
subject. (Hmm, if Sam Sloan is a liar, and Sam Sloan says that he
lied, does that mean ...?)
_________________
John Hillery

1) You fail to note that I was replying (with a quote) to your own
post. 2) I'd be interested to hear Joel Channing's response to your
new claim that you never offered to "clean up your web site." One of
you is lying, and I know which way I'd bet. 3) Since it has been well
established that Polgar did not receive any free ads in Chess Life,
the topic of this thread is simply one more of your delusions. The
only way to continue the thread would be for you to keep repeating
your debunked claims.
_________________
John Hillery

Date: 12 Feb 2007 18:12:48
From: Ray Gordon, creator of the pivot
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Really, Sam? That sounds like a confession that you never cleaned up
your web site as you promised you would. Of course, many of us already
knew that your word was of no value, but now we can cite you on the
subject. (Hmm, if Sam Sloan is a liar, and Sam Sloan says that he
lied, does that mean ...?)
_________________
John Hillery

1) You fail to note that I was replying (with a quote) to your own
post. 2) I'd be interested to hear Joel Channing's response to your
new claim that you never offered to "clean up your web site." One of
you is lying, and I know which way I'd bet. 3) Since it has been well
established that Polgar did not receive any free ads in Chess Life,
the topic of this thread is simply one more of your delusions. The
only way to continue the thread would be for you to keep repeating
your debunked claims.
_________________
John Hillery

Date: 14 Feb 2007 12:57:37
From: Chess One
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

-----
I'll let everyone read Bill Hall's letter and come to their own conclusions:
but it seems to me that these were not free as in gratis or in gratuity or
as perquisities, but in exchange for services already rendered, and the
exchange was by mutual in-kind exchange, rather than cash.

I must assume that the Mr. Nanna cited below is some kind of auditor, or
USCF's CPA. I note his recommendation in (C) below, and in his own words,
'no irregularity'.

Should board-members wish to spend their time invigilating board-candidates,
an unusual reversal, then I could only suggest that no one is minding the
store, and a better use of their invigilating time might be to look at the
interim financials which are drawn large in red ink to the tune of -$314,000
according to Donna Alarie.

Of course, most of that has happened on the watch of the current board...
therefore I do not expect to be reading any serious responses here, dogging
down /this/ year's financials

EVEN if I assume the very worst case of all, that Paul Truong has worked
some sort of Jackie-Chan Ninja keting trick on Bill Goichberg's mind
using one of his famous hypnotic ties; that Mr. Nanna is in fact the janitor
and a hopeless financial dupe, and finally, Susan Polgar actually did take
the money and bought herself a couple of nice emeralds.

Why look at a number x30 the amount of this exchange of services when it
happened on your own watch?
Would that imply a self criticism x30 what is mooted here?

I am tempted to answer my own question by replying that if the same sort of
dogged-vigilance to the present had actually been present these past 8
months, then I could perhaps remember why board members are necessary at
all.

Phil Innes
Vermont
-----

On December 8, 2006, Bill Hall wrote:

To the USCF Executive Board:

RE: Issues raised by Mr. Sloan

A) Susan Polgar Advertising - Susan had/has a credit for publications
advertising from 1) the settlement surrounding the 2004 Women's
Olympiad, which the EB agreed to settle in August '05 and 2) as part
of a trade agreement that I was involved in for celebrity appearance
at two national events. The appearance trade included free entry for
her children and one free room during the event with no fee to be paid
by the USCF.

B) Candidate's Fees - the three candidate's fees in question were
deposited. They appear in the General Ledger in the operational
Account (111100) as a part of the 97210.28 Access for J transaction.
It is further credited into the 970000 account. This appears as a
monthly batch total transaction, because in NY they were tracking many
of the individual transactions in an Access program and then entering
the transactions as a batch entry into Peachtree and the end of the month.

C) Disbursements to Susan Polgar - I have already reported that Mr.
Nanna is confident that there was no irregularity in the 13K
disbursement to Polgar that was questioned. ON the issue of further
investigation, Mr. Nanna feels strongly that this would be
counter-productive and costly. I, too, am hesitant to direct him to
generally dig into the matter. This has the following consequences: 1)
detracts from the business of moving the Federation in the direction
we need to go, 2) it is costly with respect to staff time involved, 3)
it has the potential to politicize the office and I feel it is crucial
the office and the staff be protected from the political aspects of
this organization. We will await direction from the EB on this matter.

I hope this helps with these matters.

Bill Hall
Executive Director
United States Chess Federation
P.O. Box 3967
Crossville, TN 38557-3967
Phone: (931) 787-1234
Fax: (931) 787-1200

Date: 12 Feb 2007 14:04:49
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Prior to the Executive Board meeting in Los Angeles, I asked Bill Hall
to bring to the meeting information about all the Free Ads for Polgar
that keep appearing in Chess Life.

For example, on page 68 of the February 2007 Chess Life there is an ad
that lists Polgar as a "Gold Affiliate".

Under the rules, to be a "Gold Affiliate" one must pay $350.

However, the CD that was distributed to the board and the finance
committee at my insistence fails to show that Polgar has ever paid any
money at all to the USCF. Not only has she never paid this money, but
she has never paid ANY money. She has never even paid rating fees for
events held at her club.

The CD shows that the USCF has paid 50 or 60 checks to Polgar, often
for large amounts, but Polgar has never paid the USCF anything at all.

Bill Hall replied that these ads were in exchange for services. The
services include signing autographs and posing for pictures with
scholastic players, while rarely or almost never playing a single game
of chess.

In other words, Miss Polgar has become like Anna Nicole Smith, who was
famous for being famous.

As to Donna's objection that these free ads in exchange for "services"
should be recorded on the books, Bill Hall stated that he will start
doing that in the future. He did not explain why he has not done it in
the past.

Sam Sloan

Date: 13 Jan 2007 14:32:53
From: Louis Blair
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Bill Goichberg
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:54 pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[samsloan wrote:]
[Bill Goichberg] wrote:
[samsloan] wrote:
[Bill Goichberg] wrote:
I believe that it is internal corporate information
and that USCF officials may quote from it, but
are expected to exercise good judgment. For
example, a misuse of this information is to
post a list of checks and publicly suggest
without evidence that these checks were
improperly paid.

Bill Goichberg

It is to be recalled that back in August, Bill
Goichberg had me publicly censured and
reprimanded for stating that Polgar had received
$39,000 from the USCF.

However, I have just demonstrated that Polgar
has received considerably more than $39,000
from the USCF.

There was no censure or reprimand in August.

What I complained about in August was your claim
that $39,000 was paid to Paul Truong because he
"had contracts," including $20,000 because of
Diane Reese's erroneous invitation and $19,000
towards the Olympiad Training Program.

The $20,000 ($5000 per player bonus) was actually
$15,000 and was paid to Krush, Zatonskih, and
Shahade. Polgar waived her claim to $5000.
Contrary to what you wrote, each player had a
contract with USCF, Truong was not part of these
contracts.

Bill Goichberg

You are splitting hairs here. Certainly anybody reading
these postings by Bill Goichberg would reasonably
conclude that neither Polgar nor Truong were paid
anything at all.

Sam, you are confusing two different things here:

1. Payments for the erroneous Olympiad invitation and for
the Women's Olympiad Training Program.

2. Other payments to Susan Polgar, for simuls, lectures,
book purchases, her column, etc.

The total paid to Polgar for all these things may well be
more than $39,000, but what you alleged was that #1
alone was $39,000 and that this sum was paid to Paul
Truong. This is highly inaccurate. The amount paid as a
result of the Olympiad error was $15,000- $5000 each to
Zatonskih, Krush, and Shahade. The amount paid for the
Olympiad Training Program was about $19,500, all
matching funds based on receipts for training. I believe that
Truong received none of this money, but Polgar did receive
some in return for training the other members of the team.
I don't remember the exact amount she received but think it
was under $5000. I have posted all this before.

[samsloan wrote]:
Now, we finally figure out that when Bill Goichberg
stated that Truong was paid very little, he is referring to
Truong individually, not Truong as the "business
manager" (as he calls himself) of Susan Polgar.

No, I was not saying this. The alleged "$39,000 to Truong"
was really $34,500 of which I believe nothing was paid to
Truong, either individually or as the business manager of
Polgar.

[samsloan wrote]:
I think that everybody else understood my meaning,
which was that Polgar was paid $39,000.

I don't know if many people think that when you say
"Truong was paid $39,000" you mean "Polgar was paid
$39,000." But even if we grant that you said Truong when
you meant Polgar, to claim that Polgar received $39,000
from the Olympiad error plus the Olympiad Training
Program is not close to being correct.

[samsloan wrote]:
Also, as to the claim that Polgar waived for payment of
$5,000, Bill Goichberg omits the fact that Polgar agreed
to take the $5,000 as payment for something else.

This is misleading. She waived the payment on the
condition that she be hired to appear at the National
Scholastics, but the fee was her usual fee (the lower fee
agreed to after Niro left, not the much higher one Niro
agreed to). USCF was probably going to hire her anyway
for this fee.

[samsloan wrote]:
Bill Goichberg implies that some of this money went to
Boris Gulko or Garry Kasparov for training the woman's
team. However, Kasparov was not paid anything.

USCF received a receipt from KCF showing that Kasparov
was paid.

[samsloan wrote]:
To the contrary, the Kasparov Chess Foundation or
KFC paid money to the women players, not the other
way around. I doubt that Boris Gulko was paid
anything either.

KFC sponsored the 2004 Women's Olympiad Team and
paid the players' fees and expenses, but why do you infer
from this that the Training Program didn't pay Kasparov
and Gulko?

[samsloan wrote]:
I have however apologized and expressed regret for my
statement that Polgar was paid $39,000. Polgar was
paid more like $40,000 to $50,000. I regret the error.

You alleged that Truong (you now say Polgar) was paid
$39,000 for the Olympiad error and Olympiad Training
Program. Now that this has been shown to be totally
wrong, you are trying to defend it by bringing in money that
Polgar was paid for tournament appearances and her
Chess Life column.

[samsloan wrote]:
In addition, look through Chess Life and you will see
free ads for Polgar. For example, page 71 of the
January Chess Life has a half page ad for Susan
Polgar's Group Tour of Hungary, where you can get to
meet Susan Polgar herself! The cost of this tour is
$2499.95, inclusive of airfare. This is clearly a
commercial ad and yet Polgar pays nothing for it. She
gets it for free in settlement of a lawsuit she threatened
to bring. There are also free ads for Polgar on pages 38
and 60 of the January Chess Life and a gratuitous
picture of Polgar on page 5 of the January Chess Life.

I am not aware which ads are free, but believe that Polgar
did make a deal with USCF which included free ads. The
January Chess Life was prepared before Polgar was an
announced candidate.

[samsloan wrote]:
All this at a time when Polgar is a declared candidate
for election. Why do not any of the other nine
candidates get free ads and free pictures of
themselves in Chess Life?

Unlike the other candidates, Polgar is a chess celebrity,
and news reporting about her activities should not stop
because of the election. However, I agree that now that
she is a candidate, the editor should avoid the type of
special feature coverage she has been receiving.

[samsloan wrote]:
Meanwhile, since August I have been demanding as a
board member that Bill Goichberg provide me with a
copy of the contract Susan Polgar signed with Frank
Niro to write a column for Chess Life and also a copy
of the contract she says that she and the other
woman players were "forced to sign" to play on the
woman's team. I have also demanded a copy of the
allegedly erroneous letter by Diane Reese. Bill claims
that USCF records have not been lost or destroyed
but he still cannot find the contracts. (By the way, the
other contracts that were eventually produced were
found in the lawyer's office, not in the USCF office. The
original contract in the USCF office still has not been
found).

I don't have any of these documents. However, I believe
that all or most exist, either at the USCF Office or that of
our attorney. The Board has supported making them
available to Board members and I will remind Bill Hall
about this. There may be an exception to this as if you are
referring to an Olympiad contract between KCF and the
players, USCF was not involved and wouldn't have that. I
think there were both KCF and USCF agreements with the
players.

[samsloan wrote]:
Also, by the way, in case you are wondering why you
have not heard much from Donna Aliere lately, that is
because she went off to investigate my allegations for
the purpose of proving them wrong and embarrassing
me, only to be discovering one by one that my
allegations are true and correct.

Donna has already answered this. As she says, the office
is currently investigating some specific issues. The only
allegation of improper behavior relating to Polgar that I
believe has been shown to be correct is the one by Donna,
that Niro was on the Polgar board at the same time that he
was USCF Executive Director.

[samsloan wrote]:
Now you can see why Bill Goichberg had me
suspended from posting to the USCF Forums.

Sam Sloan

The USCF President does not have the authority to
suspend anyone from posting.

Bill Goichberg

Date: 13 Jan 2007 14:23:02
From: Louis Blair
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Bill Goichberg
Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:54 pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[samsloan wrote:]
[Bill Goichberg] wrote:
samsloan wrote:
[Bill Goichberg] wrote:
I believe that it is internal corporate information
and that USCF officials may quote from it, but
are expected to exercise good judgment. For
example, a misuse of this information is to
post a list of checks and publicly suggest
without evidence that these checks were
improperly paid.

Bill Goichberg

It is to be recalled that back in August, Bill
Goichberg had me publicly censured and
reprimanded for stating that Polgar had received
$39,000 from the USCF.

However, I have just demonstrated that Polgar
has received considerably more than $39,000
from the USCF.

There was no censure or reprimand in August.

What I complained about in August was your claim
that $39,000 was paid to Paul Truong because he
"had contracts," including $20,000 because of
Diane Reese's erroneous invitation and $19,000
towards the Olympiad Training Program.

The $20,000 ($5000 per player bonus) was actually
$15,000 and was paid to Krush, Zatonskih, and
Shahade. Polgar waived her claim to $5000.
Contrary to what you wrote, each player had a
contract with USCF, Truong was not part of these
contracts.

Bill Goichberg

You are splitting hairs here. Certainly anybody reading
these postings by Bill Goichberg would reasonably
conclude that neither Polgar nor Truong were paid
anything at all.

Sam, you are confusing two different things here:

1. Payments for the erroneous Olympiad invitation and for
the Women's Olympiad Training Program.

2. Other payments to Susan Polgar, for simuls, lectures,
book purchases, her column, etc.

The total paid to Polgar for all these things may well be
more than $39,000, but what you alleged was that #1
alone was $39,000 and that this sum was paid to Paul
Truong. This is highly inaccurate. The amount paid as a
result of the Olympiad error was $15,000- $5000 each to
Zatonskih, Krush, and Shahade. The amount paid for the
Olympiad Training Program was about $19,500, all
matching funds based on receipts for training. I believe that
Truong received none of this money, but Polgar did receive
some in return for training the other members of the team.
I don't remember the exact amount she received but think it
was under $5000. I have posted all this before.

[samsloan wrote]:
Now, we finally figure out that when Bill Goichberg
stated that Truong was paid very little, he is referring to
Truong individually, not Truong as the "business
manager" (as he calls himself) of Susan Polgar.

No, I was not saying this. The alleged "$39,000 to Truong"
was really $34,500 of which I believe nothing was paid to
Truong, either individually or as the business manager of
Polgar.

[samsloan wrote]:
I think that everybody else understood my meaning,
which was that Polgar was paid $39,000.

I don't know if many people think that when you say
"Truong was paid $39,000" you mean "Polgar was paid
$39,000." But even if we grant that you said Truong when
you meant Polgar, to claim that Polgar received $39,000
from the Olympiad error plus the Olympiad Training
Program is not close to being correct.

[samsloan wrote]:
Also, as to the claim that Polgar waived for payment of
$5,000, Bill Goichberg omits the fact that Polgar agreed
to take the $5,000 as payment for something else.

This is misleading. She waived the payment on the
condition that she be hired to appear at the National
Scholastics, but the fee was her usual fee (the lower fee
agreed to after Niro left, not the much higher one Niro
agreed to). USCF was probably going to hire her anyway
for this fee.

[samsloan wrote]:
Bill Goichberg implies that some of this money went to
Boris Gulko or Garry Kasparov for training the woman's
team. However, Kasparov was not paid anything.

USCF received a receipt from KCF showing that Kasparov
was paid.

[samsloan wrote]:
To the contrary, the Kasparov Chess Foundation or
KFC paid money to the women players, not the other
way around. I doubt that Boris Gulko was paid
anything either.

KFC sponsored the 2004 Women's Olympiad Team and
paid the players' fees and expenses, but why do you infer
from this that the Training Program didn't pay Kasparov
and Gulko?

[samsloan wrote]:
I have however apologized and expressed regret for my
statement that Polgar was paid $39,000. Polgar was
paid more like $40,000 to $50,000. I regret the error.

You alleged that Truong (you now say Polgar) was paid
$39,000 for the Olympiad error and Olympiad Training
Program. Now that this has been shown to be totally
wrong, you are trying to defend it by bringing in money that
Polgar was paid for tournament appearances and her
Chess Life column.

[samsloan wrote]:
In addition, look through Chess Life and you will see
free ads for Polgar. For example, page 71 of the
January Chess Life has a half page ad for Susan
Polgar's Group Tour of Hungary, where you can get to
meet Susan Polgar herself! The cost of this tour is
$2499.95, inclusive of airfare. This is clearly a
commercial ad and yet Polgar pays nothing for it. She
gets it for free in settlement of a lawsuit she threatened
to bring. There are also free ads for Polgar on pages 38
and 60 of the January Chess Life and a gratuitous
picture of Polgar on page 5 of the January Chess Life.

I am not aware which ads are free, but believe that Polgar
did make a deal with USCF which included free ads. The
January Chess Life was prepared before Polgar was an
announced candidate.

[samsloan wrote]:
All this at a time when Polgar is a declared candidate
for election. Why do not any of the other nine
candidates get free ads and free pictures of
themselves in Chess Life?

Unlike the other candidates, Polgar is a chess celebrity,
and news reporting about her activities should not stop
because of the election. However, I agree that now that
she is a candidate, the editor should avoid the type of
special feature coverage she has been receiving.

[samsloan wrote]:
Meanwhile, since August I have been demanding as a
board member that Bill Goichberg provide me with a
copy of the contract Susan Polgar signed with Frank
Niro to write a column for Chess Life and also a copy
of the contract she says that she and the other
woman players were "forced to sign" to play on the
woman's team. I have also demanded a copy of the
allegedly erroneous letter by Diane Reese. Bill claims
that USCF records have not been lost or destroyed
but he still cannot find the contracts. (By the way, the
other contracts that were eventually produced were
found in the lawyer's office, not in the USCF office. The
original contract in the USCF office still has not been
found).

I don't have any of these documents. However, I believe
that all or most exist, either at the USCF Office or that of
our attorney. The Board has supported making them
available to Board members and I will remind Bill Hall
about this. There may be an exception to this as if you are
referring to an Olympiad contract between KCF and the
players, USCF was not involved and wouldn't have that. I
think there were both KCF and USCF agreements with the
players.

[samsloan wrote]:
Also, by the way, in case you are wondering why you
have not heard much from Donna Aliere lately, that is
because she went off to investigate my allegations for
the purpose of proving them wrong and embarrassing
me, only to be discovering one by one that my
allegations are true and correct.

Donna has already answered this. As she says, the office
is currently investigating some specific issues. The only
allegation of improper behavior relating to Polgar that I
believe has been shown to be correct is the one by Donna,
that Niro was on the Polgar board at the same time that he
was USCF Executive Director.

[samsloan wrote]:
Now you can see why Bill Goichberg had me
suspended from posting to the USCF Forums.

Sam Sloan

The USCF President does not have the authority to
suspend anyone from posting.

Bill Goichberg

Date: 14 Jan 2007 12:31:20
From: Vidmar
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

When visiting the psychiatric ward, it is best not to attempt rational
conversation with the patients.

"Louis Blair" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Bill Goichberg
> Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 2:54 pm
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> [samsloan wrote:]
> [Bill Goichberg] wrote:
> samsloan wrote:
> [Bill Goichberg] wrote:
> I believe that it is internal corporate information
> and that USCF officials may quote from it, but
> are expected to exercise good judgment. For
> example, a misuse of this information is to
> post a list of checks and publicly suggest
> without evidence that these checks were
> improperly paid.
>
> Bill Goichberg
>
> It is to be recalled that back in August, Bill
> Goichberg had me publicly censured and
> reprimanded for stating that Polgar had received
> $39,000 from the USCF.
>
> However, I have just demonstrated that Polgar
> has received considerably more than $39,000
> from the USCF.
>
> There was no censure or reprimand in August.
>
> What I complained about in August was your claim
> that $39,000 was paid to Paul Truong because he
> "had contracts," including $20,000 because of
> Diane Reese's erroneous invitation and $19,000
> towards the Olympiad Training Program.
>
> The $20,000 ($5000 per player bonus) was actually
> $15,000 and was paid to Krush, Zatonskih, and
> Shahade. Polgar waived her claim to $5000.
> Contrary to what you wrote, each player had a
> contract with USCF, Truong was not part of these
> contracts.
>
> Bill Goichberg
>
> You are splitting hairs here. Certainly anybody reading
> these postings by Bill Goichberg would reasonably
> conclude that neither Polgar nor Truong were paid
> anything at all.
>
> Sam, you are confusing two different things here:
>
> 1. Payments for the erroneous Olympiad invitation and for
> the Women's Olympiad Training Program.
>
> 2. Other payments to Susan Polgar, for simuls, lectures,
> book purchases, her column, etc.
>
> The total paid to Polgar for all these things may well be
> more than $39,000, but what you alleged was that #1
> alone was $39,000 and that this sum was paid to Paul
> Truong. This is highly inaccurate. The amount paid as a
> result of the Olympiad error was $15,000- $5000 each to
> Zatonskih, Krush, and Shahade. The amount paid for the
> Olympiad Training Program was about $19,500, all
> matching funds based on receipts for training. I believe that
> Truong received none of this money, but Polgar did receive
> some in return for training the other members of the team.
> I don't remember the exact amount she received but think it
> was under $5000. I have posted all this before.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> Now, we finally figure out that when Bill Goichberg
> stated that Truong was paid very little, he is referring to
> Truong individually, not Truong as the "business
> manager" (as he calls himself) of Susan Polgar.
>
> No, I was not saying this. The alleged "$39,000 to Truong"
> was really $34,500 of which I believe nothing was paid to
> Truong, either individually or as the business manager of
> Polgar.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> I think that everybody else understood my meaning,
> which was that Polgar was paid $39,000.
>
> I don't know if many people think that when you say
> "Truong was paid $39,000" you mean "Polgar was paid
> $39,000." But even if we grant that you said Truong when
> you meant Polgar, to claim that Polgar received $39,000
> from the Olympiad error plus the Olympiad Training
> Program is not close to being correct.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> Also, as to the claim that Polgar waived for payment of
> $5,000, Bill Goichberg omits the fact that Polgar agreed
> to take the $5,000 as payment for something else.
>
> This is misleading. She waived the payment on the
> condition that she be hired to appear at the National
> Scholastics, but the fee was her usual fee (the lower fee
> agreed to after Niro left, not the much higher one Niro
> agreed to). USCF was probably going to hire her anyway
> for this fee.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> Bill Goichberg implies that some of this money went to
> Boris Gulko or Garry Kasparov for training the woman's
> team. However, Kasparov was not paid anything.
>
> USCF received a receipt from KCF showing that Kasparov
> was paid.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> To the contrary, the Kasparov Chess Foundation or
> KFC paid money to the women players, not the other
> way around. I doubt that Boris Gulko was paid
> anything either.
>
> KFC sponsored the 2004 Women's Olympiad Team and
> paid the players' fees and expenses, but why do you infer
> from this that the Training Program didn't pay Kasparov
> and Gulko?
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> I have however apologized and expressed regret for my
> statement that Polgar was paid $39,000. Polgar was
> paid more like $40,000 to $50,000. I regret the error.
>
> You alleged that Truong (you now say Polgar) was paid
> $39,000 for the Olympiad error and Olympiad Training
> Program. Now that this has been shown to be totally
> wrong, you are trying to defend it by bringing in money that
> Polgar was paid for tournament appearances and her
> Chess Life column.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> In addition, look through Chess Life and you will see
> free ads for Polgar. For example, page 71 of the
> January Chess Life has a half page ad for Susan
> Polgar's Group Tour of Hungary, where you can get to
> meet Susan Polgar herself! The cost of this tour is
> $2499.95, inclusive of airfare. This is clearly a
> commercial ad and yet Polgar pays nothing for it. She
> gets it for free in settlement of a lawsuit she threatened
> to bring. There are also free ads for Polgar on pages 38
> and 60 of the January Chess Life and a gratuitous
> picture of Polgar on page 5 of the January Chess Life.
>
> I am not aware which ads are free, but believe that Polgar
> did make a deal with USCF which included free ads. The
> January Chess Life was prepared before Polgar was an
> announced candidate.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> All this at a time when Polgar is a declared candidate
> for election. Why do not any of the other nine
> candidates get free ads and free pictures of
> themselves in Chess Life?
>
> Unlike the other candidates, Polgar is a chess celebrity,
> and news reporting about her activities should not stop
> because of the election. However, I agree that now that
> she is a candidate, the editor should avoid the type of
> special feature coverage she has been receiving.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> Meanwhile, since August I have been demanding as a
> board member that Bill Goichberg provide me with a
> copy of the contract Susan Polgar signed with Frank
> Niro to write a column for Chess Life and also a copy
> of the contract she says that she and the other
> woman players were "forced to sign" to play on the
> woman's team. I have also demanded a copy of the
> allegedly erroneous letter by Diane Reese. Bill claims
> that USCF records have not been lost or destroyed
> but he still cannot find the contracts. (By the way, the
> other contracts that were eventually produced were
> found in the lawyer's office, not in the USCF office. The
> original contract in the USCF office still has not been
> found).
>
> I don't have any of these documents. However, I believe
> that all or most exist, either at the USCF Office or that of
> our attorney. The Board has supported making them
> available to Board members and I will remind Bill Hall
> about this. There may be an exception to this as if you are
> referring to an Olympiad contract between KCF and the
> players, USCF was not involved and wouldn't have that. I
> think there were both KCF and USCF agreements with the
> players.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> Also, by the way, in case you are wondering why you
> have not heard much from Donna Aliere lately, that is
> because she went off to investigate my allegations for
> the purpose of proving them wrong and embarrassing
> me, only to be discovering one by one that my
> allegations are true and correct.
>
> Donna has already answered this. As she says, the office
> is currently investigating some specific issues. The only
> allegation of improper behavior relating to Polgar that I
> believe has been shown to be correct is the one by Donna,
> that Niro was on the Polgar board at the same time that he
> was USCF Executive Director.
>
> [samsloan wrote]:
> Now you can see why Bill Goichberg had me
> suspended from posting to the USCF Forums.
>
> Sam Sloan
>
> The USCF President does not have the authority to
> suspend anyone from posting.
>
> Bill Goichberg
>
>

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Date: 13 Jan 2007 13:07:48
From: Ambassador
Subject: Re: Goichberg, Polgar, Truong, Free Ads in Chess Life and the $39,000

Sam

It isn't enough just to flame your political opponets. You have to
adopt your own poliicy, and then shut up (or quiet down) if you get
what you want. You can't just attack without offering a solution.

cus Roberts

samsloan wrote:
> [quote="chessoffice"][quote="samsloan"][quote="chessoffice"]I believe
> that it is internal corporate information and that USCF officials may
> quote from it, but are expected to exercise good judgment. For
> example, a misuse of this information is to post a list of checks and
> publicly suggest without evidence that these checks were improperly
> paid.
>
> Bill Goichberg[/quote]
> [quote]It is to be recalled that back in August, Bill Goichberg had me
> publicly censured and reprimanded for stating that Polgar had received
> $39,000 from the USCF.
>
> However, I have just demonstrated that Polgar has received considerably
> more than $39,000 from the USCF.[/quote]
>
> There was no censure or reprimand in August.
>
> What I complained about in August was your claim that $39,000 was paid
> to Paul Truong because he "had contracts," including $20,000 because of
> Diane Reese's erroneous invitation and $19,000 towards the Olympiad
> Training Program.
>
> The $20,000 ($5000 per player bonus) was actually $15,000 and was paid
> to Krush, Zatonskih, and Shahade. Polgar waived her claim to $5000.
> Contrary to what you wrote, each player had a contract with USCF,
> Truong was not part of these contracts.
>
> Bill Goichberg[/quote]You are splitting hairs here. Certainly anybody
> reading these postings by Bill Goichberg would reasonably conclude that
> neither Polgar nor Truong were paid anything at all.
>
> Now, we finally figure out that when Bill Goichberg stated that Truong
> was paid very little, he is referring to Truong individually, not
> Truong as the "business manager" (as he calls himself) of Susan Polgar.
>
> I think that everybody else understood my meaning, which was that
> Polgar was paid $39,000. Also, as to the claim that Polgar waived for
> payment of $5,000, Bill Goichberg omits the fact that Polgar agreed to
> take the $5,000 as payment for something else.
>
> Bill Goichberg implies that some of this money went to Boris Gulko or
> Garry Kasparov for training the woman's team. However, Kasparov was not
> paid anything. To the contrary, the Kasparov Chess Foundation or KFC
> paid money to the women players, not the other way around. I doubt that
> Boris Gulko was paid anything either.
>
> I have however apologized and expressed regret for my statement that
> Polgar was paid $39,000. Polgar was paid more like $40,000 to $50,000.
> I regret the error.
>
> In addition, look through Chess Life and you will see free ads for
> Polgar. For example, page 71 of the January Chess Life has a half page
> ad for Susan Polgar's Group Tour of Hungary, where you can get to meet
> Susan Polgar herself! The cost of this tour is $2499.95, inclusive of
> airfare. This is clearly a commercial ad and yet Polgar pays nothing
> for it. She gets it for free in settlement of a lawsuit she threatened
> to bring. There are also free ads for Polgar on pages 38 and 60 of the
> January Chess Life and a gratuitous picture of Polgar on page 5 of the
> January Chess Life. All this at a time when Polgar is a declared
> candidate for election. Why do not any of the other nine candidates get
> free ads and free pictures of themselves in Chess Life?
>
> Meanwhile, since August I have been demanding as a board member that
> Bill Goichberg provide me with a copy of the contract Susan Polgar
> signed with Frank Niro to write a column for Chess Life and also a copy
> of the contract she says that she and the other woman players were
> "forced to sign" to play on the woman's team. I have also demanded a
> copy of the allegedly erroneous letter by Diane Reese. Bill claims that
> USCF records have not been lost or destroyed but he still cannot find
> the contracts. (By the way, the other contracts that were eventually
> produced were found in the lawyer's office, not in the USCF office. The
> original contract in the USCF office still has not been found).
>
> Also, by the way, in case you are wondering why you have not heard much
> from Donna Aliere lately, that is because she went off to investigate
> my allegations for the purpose of proving them wrong and embarrassing
> me, only to be discovering one by one that my allegations are true and
> correct.
>
> Now you can see why Bill Goichberg had me suspended from posting to the
> USCF Forums.
>
> Sam Sloan