July 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'

Last month's 'On the Cover' post, June 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (June 2024) had news about the World Championship (50 years ago) on the left and the National Open (25 years ago) on the right. This month the roles are switched.

Left: '?'
Right: 'FIDE World Championship Begins July 30th in Las Vegas • NxP?! (c) Jose Angel Pardo'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

On the left is GM Arthur Bisguier, winner of the 8th National Open in Las Vegas. Story [inside]. Photo by Galati. On the right is GM Walter Browne, winner of the 4th Statham Tournament in Lone Pine, Cal. Story [inside]. Photo by Nigel Eddis.

GM Bisguier was last seen in June 1973 & 1998 'On the Cover' (June 2023). GM Browne was last seen in April 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (April 2024). Both of those stories '[inside]' began with complications arising from contemporary global affairs. U.S. chess was grappling with troubled times.

Let's start with 'National Open: No Shortages' by Ed Edmondson. First, some bad news:-

No Gas Shortage • Three months before the 8th National Open, the nation was caught up in the Arab Oil Embargo and experiencing very serious gas and oil shortages. We in the North were faced with the possibility of an inadequate supply of fuel oil for heating purposes, and it looked as though -- even if we could pull up roots -- we might not be able to find enough gasoline to drive south and avoid freezing to death.

From a planning standpoint, we were much afraid that drastic cutbacks in driving and curtailed airline schedules would mean not many people could make the trip to Las Vegas for our tournament. As it turned out, the problem had eased considerably in mid-March; by then, however, we had already changed playing rooms at the Stardust Hotel in anticipation of a turnout no greater than 1973's (246 players).

Then some good news, tempered by a bit more bad news:-

No Player Shortage • We changed our reservation from a playing room which could have held more than 400 players in great comfort to one which would hold 250 quite adequately. With fuel restrictions eased, the 1974 National Open set a new attendance record with 296 players. As a result. we did have a Playing Room Shortage. To those who (like me) played and felt a bit crowded at times. I apologize. For 1975. we have already reserved a much larger, better lighted and air-conditioned room which will accommodate 500 players in luxury.

As for the tournament itself, it was covered in two more sections, No Thrill Shortage (the results) and No Fun Shortage (after all, we're talking Las Vegas). The other cover story was 'Louis D. Statham Masters-Plus Tournament' by Isaac Kashdan, Tournament Director. It started,

The fourth annual Louis D. Statham Tournament was again held in Lone Pine, California. We expected it to be the strongest, but not the best attended of the series. As it happened, it excelled on both counts.

First the results. Walter Browne of Berkeley was the highest rated player, and justified that status by winning with the fine score of 6-1. He won his first two games, lost to Ruben Rodriguez of the Philippines, then took his last four games in a row. The streak included former U.S. champion Larry Evans of Reno, and present co-holder of the title, John Grefe of Berkeley.

Grefe finished with 5 1/2, points, tied with Pal Benko of New York, who beat Florin Gheorghiu of Rumania [sic] in the final round to make it. Evans, Julio Kaplan of Puerto Rico, Kim Commons of Los Angeles and Andrew Karklins of Chicago all tied at 5 points For the other prize winners and details of the play read the round by round summary which follows.

Skipping ahead 25 years, we're approaching the end of the millennium.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Maybe this artistic cover is what things looked like up close in the Nunn - Nataf game from the French Team Championship (Letter from Europe, [inside], Move 14). Jose Angel Pardo put together the artwork for Chess Life in Adobe Photoshop. He holds a BA in Fine Arts from Jersey State College.

At that time in its evolution, CL had been featuring regularly artwork on its cover for several years. The previous such cover was March 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (March 2024).

The 'On the Cover' write-up continued,

World Championship • FIDE is holding the second World Championship Knockout tournament in Las Vegas July 30-August 29 at Caesar's Palace. Invited are 100 of the top players in the world. Accepting invitations are all eight invited Americans -- including Gata Kamsky! The other U.S. players are U.S. Champion Nick de Firmian, Joel Benjamin, Dmitry Gurevich, Tal Shaked, Boris Gulko, Sergey Kudrin, and Alexander Ivanov.

Kasparov and Anand (who recently won the Chess Oscar for the second time) aren't playing in the FIDE Knockout World Championship because they are piay1ng each other for the Ultimate World Championship and a $3,000,000 prize fund some time during the last quarter of the year. We don't know as we go to press where they are going to play, but it will be a 16-game match, with Kasparov maintaining his title in case of a drawn match.

Alexei Shirov, who qualified as Kasparov's challenger by defeating Vladimir Kramnik in a match late last year, is not involved in this Ultimate World Championship, despite being ranked number two just ahead of Anand and Kramnik, on the World Chess Ranking that Kasparov has set up in competition with FIDE.

Other forthcoming events mentioned in the long preview of the issue were the 1999 U.S. Open, the Interplay U.S. Championship, and Kasparov vs. the World, plus a call to help cover the costs of IM John Watson's medical urgency.