January 1970 & 1995 'On the Cover'

Yesterday we started a new decade, as did CL&R 50 years ago. CL reached mid-decade 25 years ago.

Left: 'Announcing the Second International Endgame and Problem Composing Contest of the United States'
Right: 'Kamsky defeats Short in Linares'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

These 3-move mates were composed especially for this important occasion by Pal Benko. Each diagram represents one of the digits in "1970," the year of our new problem tournament. Complete contest details and solutions to the above problems will be found [in 'Benko's Bafflers'].

The First International Composing Contest was announced in the first ever 'Benko's Bafflers' column, April 1967. I covered Benko's CL columns in GM Benko's Last Column (December 2013).

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Graphic artist Bob Marzewski created the cover as one of his early experiments with 3D computer modelling. Using a Macintosh with StrataVision, "View Into a Pawn" was first built as a wire frame model and provides a beautiful example of ray-tracing. Textures, lighting and a camera were added and positioned in the scene. The computer was then instructed to take a picture of the scene and required eighteen hours to generate the final image. CL Art Director Jami Anson used our new DTP equipment to produce the matching type.

Bob Marzewski created "View Into a Pawn" in 1990 in his 15th year as a physics teacher. He has since changed careers, following his interest in computers and design into a career as a graphic artist. Bob currently works as a 3D Computer Modeler for Internet Shopping Network in Silicon Valley.

The cover might well represent a chessic crystal ball, with an eye toward the future, and the future of American chess might well be represented by young Gata Kamsky, who routed Nigel Short in the Professional Chess Association's latest series of challenger matches.

The 1994 Kamsky - Short PCA semifinal match was also mentioned in November 1969 & 1994 'On the Cover'. For the score of the match, see 1994-95 PCA Candidates Matches. The cover description continued,

YOU'LL NOTICE A CHANGE! • USCF's Chess Life has moved into the 20th Century by virtue of a bequest from the late William L Mink, Jr., of Las Vegas. Now CL is being produced in New Windsor [NY] on state-of-the-art desktop technology that eliminates the need for producing old-fashioned mechanical boards. Instead, we now ship the magazine to our printer on disk.

We'll learn how to use the equipment even better with experience, of course. And you can expect more changes in the coming months. We're not married to any particular typeface or layout.

What a world of difference between the 1970 and 1995 covers.