August 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover'

In last month's post for the 'On the Cover' series, titled July 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (July 2023), I observed, 'we find two foreign-born GMs dominating both covers'. This month is mostly about the World Chess Championship both 50 and 25 years ago.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Shirov to Challenge Kasparov'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Robert Byrne, who finished 3rd at the Leningrad Interzonal and thus qualified for the Candidates' Matches, relaxing after his return to the States. Bulletin [inside], complete story and games next month. Photo by Burt Hochberg.

The bulletin summarized the Interzonal like this:-

At the peak of his strength, Robert Byrne had the greatest success of his career to date by finishing third in the Leningrad Interzonal, one point behind tournament winners Victor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov. Korchnoi, Karpov and Byrne have thus qualified for the Candidates' Matches, the next step on the road to the World Championship. The two Russians scored 13.5 points in the 18-player tournament, while Byrne scored 12.5. Korchnoi had 11 wins and one loss (to Rukavina), Karpov had 10 wins and no losses, and Byrne won 9 games, losing only to Korchnoi. [...] A full crosstable and reports will appear in our next issue.

After winning the 1972 U.S. Championship, Byrne made the cover a few months ago in April 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (April 2023). In the post I added a summary of his 'progress in that World Championship cycle [C09]'.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Over the years, thanks to the pioneering efforts of previous editors such as Burt Hochberg, Frank Elley, and Larry Parr, our Senior Art Director Jami L. Anson has a morgue file which includes samples of the work of almost 2,500 cartoonists, illustrators, and artists. And new work comes in every week. Jami has developed quite an eye for spotting "good stuff," and our cover this month is no exception.

Knights on Easter Island (or "Statues that aren't in any travel books.") was one of 13 computer generated works submitted by Jon F. Buckley of Naperville, Illinois. I am sure Mr. Buckley would enjoy hearing your comments and you can reach him by snail-mail at [postal address]; by e-mail at [email address]; or by visiting his website: [URL].

In 2023 you might end up on the wrong side of a privacy case if you publish someone's postal and email addresses in a national magazine. It's still OK to publish a web address, which was given as:-

members.aol.com/jfbuckleyl

I should say more about the cover art, but it will take more time than I have for this post. Maybe later.

As for the Shirov/Kasparov news on the cover, the story inside was titled, 'Shirov Defeats Kramnik (continued)' by GM Leonid Shamkovich. Part I, in the July issue of CL, was titled 'Shirov Defeats Kramnik in WCC Match: Kasparov Next' by GM Leonid Shamkovich. It started,

Two outstanding young grandmasters, Vladimir Kramnik (22) and Alexei Shirov (25), crossed chess swords in the best of ten World Chess Council (WCC) World Championship candidates' match. The match started May 24 and finished June 5 in the small Spanish city of Cazorla, in Andalusia. Alexei Shirov, who won the match with a score of 5.5-3.5, will meet Garry Kasparov in October for the WCC World Championship.

This duel represents great interest for the chess world, in both the sporting and psychological aspects. These great rivals have demonstrated an almost permanent success at the top level in recent years. Kramnik came into the match ranked third in the world, behind only Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, while Shirov was ranked fourth. Each has his own distinctive chess style; Kramnik is a classical virtuoso a la Capablanca, while Shirov is a knight of combinations and attacks in the Mikhail Tal style. No wonder he titled his book of best games Fire on Board.

Going into the match, Kramnik and Shirov have met over-the-board about 20 times, with Shirov leading by an impressive 8-1.

Part II issued a correction to the score: '10.5-8.5 in favor of Shirov'. The Kasparov - Shirov match never took place. For more about its collapse, see 1998-99 World Chess Council ('and more'; m-w.com).