April 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

As I noted last month, in March 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (March 2024), that month was 'the tenth anniversary of the first "On the Cover" post'. Now we start the next ten years of brief, monthly looks at the leading U.S. chess magazine from 50 and 25 years ago.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Alexander Ivanov - Pan American Champion' (also '1999 Yearbook')

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Grandmaster Walter Browne of California, winner of the Hoogover [sic; 'Hoogoven' or 'Hoogovens', see below] tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Games etc. next month. Photo by Nigel Eddis.

A month later the May 1975 CL&R had a report 'Browne Wins at Wijk aan Zee' by Burt Hochberg. It started,

The strong annual tournament sponsored by the Hoogoven steelworks in Wijk aan Zee, Holland, was won this year by American Grandmaster Walter Browne. His eight wins and six draws gave him a convincing 1 1/2 point advantage over second-place Jan Hein Donner, the Dutch grandmaster.

Browne's only loss was to the young Hungarian grandmaster, Andras Adorjan, in the last round when Browne was already assured of undisputed first place. (That was also Adorjan's only win!)

GM Browne's previous cover was May 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (May 2023; 'won the [1973] National Open in Las Vegas'). A couple of pages further in the March 2024 CL&R we see 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg with a paragraph on the rules for the 'semifinals of the 1974 Candidates Matches' (tiebreak: 'a coin toss if the score is tied after 20 games'!). This was followed by a paragraph that started,

The latest in a series of international tournaments hosted by the USCF will be held April 5-19 at the plush new Continental Chess Club in Los Angeles, California. [...] 2nd USCF International in Chicago late last year.

After all these years, I've managed to overlook this series of tournaments. Where are they documented?

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Alexander Ivanov, of Brookline, Massachusetts, won the 1998 Pan American Championship and secured a spot in the FIDE World Championship, a knock-out affair which, as of this writing, is scheduled for August of this year in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I recently covered this event on my World Championship Blog in 1998 Zonals 2.x References (February 2024). The post started, 'In a feature article for the April 1999 issue of Chess Life, GM Ivanov wrote [...]'.

The 'On the Cover' introduction continued with two other stories. The first story was:-

Still no word on a Kasparov - Anyone match, although recent comments by Kasparov (after his victory at Hoogovens) indicate that Alexei Shirov has fallen out of favor with the World Chess Council (WCC), and that Viswanathan Anand (who has already lost one match to Kasparov) is now the frontrunning challenger. Which doesn't sit well with Shirov. [...]

The second story was titled 'Standing on the Terrace'. It started,

A ripple passed through the chess world with the passing of Lazslo [sic; 'Laszlo'] Szabo late last year. And that was followed by a tidal wave, with the loss of Efim Geller. For Americans, however, the darkest monsoon struck on February 4, 1999, when it was announced that Ken Smith had died. We will have articles on all three in future issues of Chess Life, but it is important to say a word or two about the impact Ken Smith had on the development of chess in the United States during the last 30 years. [...]

The name Ken Smith is almost always associated with Chess Digest. This would be a good time to review Smith's contributions to U.S. chess, but I've run out of time for this post. Hopefully later...