06 January 2015

January 1965 'On the Cover'

A new year means new bound editions of Chess Life and Chess Review from 50 years ago.


Left: 'See you at the NATIONAL OPEN!'
Right: 'Armed Forces Champions'

Chess Life

The young lady is Patricia Johnson, a dancer in the fifth edition of the fabulous Lido de Paris Revue, now in its fifteenth smash month at the Stardust Hotel. In case you needed it, we've provided you with just ONE MORE reason to play in the USCF's great new NATIONAL OPEN, February 7-13.

Does sex sell chess? Sex sells anything ('in case you needed it').

Chess Review

The Air Force team retained the Thomas Emery Armed Forces Championship Trophy with 18.5 points, followed by the Army with 17.5 and the Sea Services with 15.0. Top individual honors went to Lieut. Donato Rivera, Jr., of Chanute AFB in Illinois on a tie-breaking basis after he and Army Pvt. Bruce Albertson had registered the same 7.5-1.5 game score. [...]

The December 1964 'On the Cover' mentioned,

I can't help but notice that Chess Life had only 20 pages in December 1964 vs. an average of more than 26 for the preceding 11 months. Was this because 'The USCF's annual rating list will appear in the January issue'?

The January 1965 CL had 28 pages, of which almost half were given to the rating list. Fischer at 2734 was the highest rated of 21 Senior Masters (>2400), who were followed by around 110 Masters (>2200), followed by around 6000 other rated players.

Another continuing item from December,

As for my question from November 1964 'On the Cover' -- Let's see when our two magazines report on the 1964 Olympiad. -- CL had three pages on the event, including games. CR had a column on the preliminaries, illustrated with a photo from the 1963 Petrosian - Botvinnik World Championship match.

CL continued with three pages of feature articles on the event, while CR finally weighed in with a five page report.

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