The USCF Executive Board, at their Jan. 2004 meeting, appointed Bill Goichberg as Executive Director.

Bill received his Bachelor of Arts from New York University in 1963. He played in his first chess tournament back in 1961, only after reading every chess book in the Mt. Vernon, New York library and every column in Modern Chess Openings-9! Bill�s initial USCF rating was 1940, and after three years reached 2200.

Between 1964-1967 Bill worked in the USCF office, located at that time in Manhattan, as Ratings Statistician. Bill ran his first chess tournament (New York City Junior) in 1964 and actually �invented� USCF Scholastic Chess. Bill went on to hold the first ever USCF rated Scholastic tournament in 1966, which brought in 134 new USCF members. Later that year, he held another scholastic tournament which drew over 600 players, including 400 new USCF members! In 1964, Bill was the 3rd most active player in the country.

In 1967, USCF moved to Newburgh, New York. Bill had become very active in holding both open and scholastic tournaments in and near New York City, and opted to leave his position with USCF rather than move from this area.

Bill created the National High School Championship, which had a successful debut in 1969, drawing players from as far away as Hawaii. He followed by originating the National Junior High School Championship in 1973 and National Elementary School Championship in 1976. In 1983 Bill sold all three events to the USCF for $8,000.00. In 1991, he went on to create the National K12 Grade Championship, which he later gave to the USCF.

Since 1968, Bill has operated the Continental Chess Association, which has held tournaments in 26 states. Bill�s most successful event is the World Open which he organizes and directs every year. This event awards the largest prize fund and is the best attended open chess event in the world. Over its 31 year history, the World Open has awarded over $3,000,000.00 in prizes to players. This tournament also offers opportunities for players for norms and titles.

Bill is a FIDE Master who made a plus score at Lone Pine 1974, won a round robin Futurity ahead of two International Masters in 1976, and missed the IM norm by a half point in Gausdal, Norway in 1978. He also won both the Toronto Open and Montreal Open. He is a National Tournament Director and an International Arbiter.

In the past 50 years our US Olympiad team has only won a Gold once. It was in 1976, the only year that Bill was the non-playing captain.

Bill has focused on bringing chess tournaments to areas lacking them, such as Vermont, which had no rated chess for the entire decade of the 1980s. He organized the Vermont Resort Open in 1990 and many other events in that state since, contributing to Vermont�s USCF membership approximately tripling since 1990.

As Executive Director of the US Chess Federation, Mr. Goichberg agreed to serve without pay due to the financial situation of USCF.

Bill volunteered many months of his time to write the 4th edition of the Official Rules of Chess along with Carol Jarecki and Ira Lee Riddle. We expect that Bill�s history of many actions as a volunteer will serve to inspire others to take the same course, which can only be of value to the success of the Federation.

The United States Chess Federation, founded in 1939, serves as the governing body for chess in the United States and is devoted to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game of chess, for its own sake as an art and enjoyment, and as a means for the improvement of society. The USCF is a not-for-profit membership organization with more than 90,000 members. For more information, please see http://www.uschess.org.