What do the
Chess Life issues of December 1974 and December 1999 have in common? Yes, they are obviously the next in the 'On the Cover' series last seen in
November 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'
(November 2024). On top of that, they were both dominated by rating lists.
Left: '?' (also 'Special Yearbook Issue!')
Right: '1999... 2000... and still going strong!'
Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)
Anatoly Karpov: if
he beats Korchnoi, and
if Fischer and FIDE
cannot resolve their
differences, he will be
World Champion in
1975. Match games continue [inside].
Karpov's previous cover appearance was
May 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'
(May 2024; 'Anatoly Karpov and Tigran Petrosian, winners of their quarterfinal candidates matches.') Everyone who knows anything about modern chess history knows what happened in 1975. I suppose we'll see the story unfold in next year's 'On the Cover' posts.
The December 1974 CL&R was 108 pages. Of those, 70 were allocated to the '1975 USCF Yearbook', and of those, 52 were allocated to the rating list.
The Karpov - Korchnoi match, the inspiration for the cover, was a single page, with only raw game scores for games 11-21.
Chess Life (25 Years Ago)
No, we will not enter into the argument as to
when the millennium arrives. We do knows that
the end of December 31, 1999, will usher in a new
year. Appropriately, the babe (2000) is playing the
decisive Rg7+ against the old man (1999). The
artist, Jose Angel Pardo, of Orlando, Florida,
notes "That was the winning move I played in the
first game I was ever able to beat my father."
Whether you consider it to be the millennium
or just the beginning of a new year, one thing is
clear: Chess is still going strong. Of our 86,000
members, fully 74,000 played at least one rated
game of chess between October 1998 and October
1999. We've separated the Annual Rating List
from the rest of the magazine and included a few
items we hope you will find useful throughout
the new year. And that includes a comprehensive
listing of all changes to the Official Rules of
Chess, 4th Edition.
Again we see a rating list. Of the 128 pages in the December 1999 CL, 49 were allocated to the list. Interspersed throughout the list were a number of interviews by Jerry Hanken, including one with 13-year old Lawrence Trent for the World Open and another with 8-year old David Howell. The same Howell, now a GM, commentated for FIDE on the recent World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh.
There was more to the 'On the Cover' introduction for the same December CL. It continued,
Transition is never easy or particularly palatable
for many. The Executive Board, in closed session,
passed an enigmatic resolution to terminate the contract of Michael Cavallo as our Executive Director. I
say enigmatic not as a judgement as much as a statement of fact.
After four paragraphs on the same subject I still didn't have a clue why this was newsworthy for the general CL readership. There is a ton of relevant information in the rgcp archive at groups.google.com, e.g. search?q=Cavallo,
but who has the time to plow through it?
For a previous cover illustration by Jose Angel Pardo, see
September 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover'
(September 2024).
