November 1965 'On the Cover'

Chess isn't just about the professional level, as in Bobby Fischer and the Capablanca Memorial featured in October 1965 'On the Cover' It's also about the amateur level, as in these two U.S. chess magazine covers from 50 years ago.

Left: 'Armed Forces Chess'
Right: 'Knight of the Golden West'

Chess Life

Air Force Retains Armed Forces Crown : For the third straight year the U.S. Air Force won the Armed Forces Championship played in Washington D.C. The five Air Force players scored 28 points in the nine rounds of play to retain custody of the Thomas Emery championship trophy. The individual champion, not decided until the very last moment, is Airman David M. Lees...

Chess Review

Golden Knights Champion Doe : Raymond E.A. Doe has won the 11th annual Golden Knights Postal Chess Championship. He began play in the tournament in 1957...

What presence do those amateur champions of yesteryear have on the web today? A search on the Armed Forces champion leads to David Lees on Chessgames.com. Oops! Wrong David Lees...

I knew of David Lees as U.S. Armed Forces champ, and for years followed a David Lees in the BCM and CHESS, always assuming it was two different people. Why no mention in the bio above of that British connection?

...The person we want is David Michael Lees.

In 1993, he published The Chess Games of David Lees.

A similar exercise on 'Raymond Doe' leads to Golden Knights (chess) on Wikipedia. Both players present and accounted for -- I'm impressed!