Chess for All Ages

In last month's look at U.S. chess magazines from 50 and 25 years ago, March 1975 & 2000 'On the Cover' (March 2025), we saw a non-American player on the left (GM Robert Huebner) and an American player on the right (George Koltanowski, the 'Dean of American Chess'). This month the pattern continues, with a pair of Soviet players on the left and a quartet of American teams on the right. Was U.S. chess more attentive to international chess 50 years ago?

Left: '?'
Right: 'The Teams! A 30-year Odyssey • Upcoming Scholastic Nationals!'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Winners of the 1974 USSR Championship -- Mikhail Tal (left) and Alexander Belyavsky. See [inside] for the story by Paul Keres. Photos by TASS from Sovfoto.

The story '[inside]' was the 'Keres Annotates...' column, titled 'USSR Championship, Leningrad 1974'. It started,

The USSR chess organization, with its 35 grandmasters, has the ability to put together a very strong group for its national championships. As an example, the 1973 USSR Championship, with all the leading grandmasters competing, was one of the strongest tournaments ever held in the Soviet Union.

With this in mind, the 1974 Championship was probably a little disappointing. Most of the leading grandmasters were unable to take part for various reasons and were replaced by other players, while the number of participants was reduced from 18 to 16. Despite this fact, it was quite interesting to see experienced grandmasters such as Tal, Polugaevsky, Vasiukov and Taimanov fight their younger rivals, many of whom had splendid records in last year's tournament, and to see just how good the young players are in really strong competition.

The tournament was a hard fight from the very first round. One is used to seeing grandmasters like Tal and Polugaevsky leading the field, but this time they did not have it so easy, being severely pressed by Belyavsky, Vaganian, Romanishin, Alburt, Dvoretsky, and other young stars, most of whom are not very well known in international chess. And when we look at the final crosstable, we see that the young players came out very well in this tough test against their experienced "examiners."

It's noteworthy that, besides Keres, the other authors of feature articles in the same issue were Pal Benko, Laszlo Szabo, Lubosh Kavalek, Svetozar Gligoric, and Edmar Mednis. All had roots in Eastern European countries.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Thank you, Ed Edmondson. If you were convinced that an idea was good, you ran with it. And 30 years ago, the idea of an amateur team championship, as presented by Denis Barry, sounded good. No bids, no committee approval. You just filled your station wagon with books and equipment and drove out to the VFW Hall in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and ran a concession for the 17 teams that played in that first event. Your faith and Denis' enthusiasm grew "The Teams" to over 100 teams, playing in Atlantic City.

Ed is gone. Denis is still around, kicking up dust here and there. But they left a legacy and a framework that will last forever. Hire a good staff, put the players first, chess for fun and chess for blood, in equal proportions. Steve Doyle (who celebrated 25 years of being associated with the event) operates within that framework and has built the USATE into a 200+ team event. Friday's snow and ice storm had almost no effect, and more than 920 players took part in the 30th Anniversary of the U.S. Amateur Team Championship (East). Worthy of a cover? You betcha. And a special report in our annual yearbook section.

The related article was 'Turning the Big 3-0 Was Totally Brutal at the U.S. Amateur Team East' by Al Lawrence. The mysterious title referred to the winning team, Total Brutality, a 'three-master team'. The report on the event started,

Over the telephone from St. Louis, my brother Leo was having a hard time with what would take place at the U.S. Amateur Team East Chess Championship. "Team chess," he said, "wouldn't that be like four-man diamond cutting?" After a few forced chuckles, I said "No, it's more like having four brothers backing each other up in a schoolyard scrap." From our old days on South Chicago's playgrounds -- in an era when fights were barehanded and forgotten as soon as the shiner faded -- he understood the point.

As tournament chessplayers, we're normally lone operators. In more jet-age terms, we sit in a room full of would-be top guns whose weekend happiness is a net-sum war game. For every ace exhilarated to see black smoke pouring out of his counterpart's engines, there's a wounded pilot spinning miserably down in flames. Strangers, friends, roommates -- all morph into hoped-for airplane silhouettes painted below the cockpit glass, plusses on the wall chart.

After the one-page introduction to the USATE, the story continued on the first page and across the outer column of the next 12 pages of the '2000 USCF Yearbook - Our Heritage'. A footnote to the story informed,

The U.S. Amateur Team East Championship is one of over 25 national title events co-sponsored by the USCF and participating affiliates. Al Lawrence, president of OutExcel! Corp., is the author of eight books on a variety of subjects.

A common thread united the April editions of the two magazines. Just as with the March 1975 edition of CL&R, Burt Hochberg's April 1975 column 'Editor's Page - News & Views' carried news of the ill-fated 1975 Fischer - Karpov World Championship title match. The April 2000 edition of CL carried opinions on the controversies surrounding the World Championship in 2000: Who was the real World Champion?

Last month's post about American chess 50 and 25 years ago, February 1975 & 2000 'On the Cover' (February 2025), was all about the American Open. This month's post, somewhat more diverse, is a mixture of American and international chess.

Left: '?'
Right: 'George Koltanowski 1903-2000'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Robert Huebner, winner of the Houston International, with his trophy which, as Lynne Babcock writes, is "custom made, gold plated and does everything a chess trophy should -- nothing." Photo by Fred Bunch. Story [inside].

The 'Story [inside]' was titled 'Another USCF Success: The Houston International 1974' by Edmar Mednis. It started,

The Houston International Chess Tournament, fourth in the series of international events organized and sponsored by the USCF, was by far the most successful one for American chess, and it ended 1974 on a number of truly positive notes.

The first seven paragraphs of the report were about the organization of the tournament and its norm possibilities for American players seeking a FIDE title. It then continued,

And now back to us, the players -- the absolute requirement for any tournament. West German GM Robert Huebner was the clear favorite and fulfilled the high expectations by finishing first. Some of the wins did not come easily, yet his high class usually showed through. Yugoslav GM Aleksandar Matanovic is known the world over as editor-in-chief of the Informants and the new Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. At Houston he also demonstrated his fine playing ability. He was the only one never to have a dubious position and deservedly finished undefeated and in second place. My third place and GM result [by Mednis] was fashioned in a rather steady way [...]

Huebner died at the beginning of 2025. See Wikipedia's Robert Huebner (wikipedia.org; '6 November 1948 – 5 January 2025'), for his biography.

For the last year or so, we've been tracking the monthly CL column 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg, as it provided a monthly summary of the evolving situation about a 'match that never was', i.e. 1975 Fischer forfeits to Karpov (m-w.com). In March we learned a number of details about the organization of the forthcoming match, e.g.

John Prentice, Deputy President of FIDE, announced in Amsterdam on February 17 that President Euwe's choice for the site of the 1975 World Championship Match was Manila. [...]

There is far too much detail in the report for this post and the topic would be more appropriate for my WCC blog.

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

George Koltanowski, the Dean of American Chess, had thousands of favorite chess stories, and everyone he met, left with a favorite story about George. I invite you to share your reminiscences about this great ambassador for chess with other Chess Life readers. That way, as we continue to promote the game to which he devoted his life, we can add to the legacy he left behind. George could charm the feathers off a jaybird, if that's what it took to get a chess program started, or to secure a donation or a sponsor. And we definitely want others to benefit from his expertise.

Send your thoughts to the USCF, in care of the Editor, or use our e-mail address: cleditor@uschess.org.

We wish to thank the San Francisco Chronicle and photographer Chris Stewart for providing our cover this month. It was taken in May of 1999. You can check out Steve Rubenstein's tribute to George Koltanowski at www.sfgate.com.

A two page appreciation by CL Assistant Editor Peter Kurzdorfer and Editor Glenn Petersen gave more details about Koltanowski's career. I'm sure we'll be seeing more about 'the Dean of American Chess' in future 'On the Cover' posts. The 'Dean' was also featured on the right side of November 1971 & 1996 'On the Cover' (November 2021).

By the guiding principle of consistency, the title of this month's Yahoos post should have echoed the title of last month's post, World Championship Yahoos 2025 1/? (January 2025), where '1/?' was supposed to mean the start of a new series of undetermined length centered on a dispute:-

The dispute is about FIDE's claim to have the exclusive right to any 'World Chess Championship'.

I should have written '1/1' or omitted the numbering completely, because the dispute evaporated as quickly as it had developed. For the nitty-gritty on its resolution, see FCPC Backs Down (February 2025; 'Freestyle Chess Players Club') on my WCC blog.

Back to this month's Yahoos post (see the footnote for an explanation of 'Yahoos'), Google News returned 101 stories, of which three were old stories from previous months. The only stories receiving special mention from Google News were three grouped under a heading titled, 'Magnus Carlsen talks about chess and life', e.g. 'World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen cannot beat his smartphone in chess'. Neither can anyone else, so what's the news? More interesting were several news stories like the following.

• 2025-02-06: Chess Makes Historic Debut At Esports World Cup 2025 With $1.5 Million Prize Pool (chess.com) • 'Chess.com and GM Magnus Carlsen have announced a major partnership with the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), which means that competitive chess will be featured for the first time in the 2025 Esports World Cup (EWC), the world’s largest gaming and esports festival. The prestigious event is set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 31 to August 3, 2025 and the partnership means the world’s top chess players will be competing for a massive $1.5 million prize pool. It’s a significant deal for the chess world as the game for the first time will be showcased to a new generation of esports enthusiasts.'
  
  
• 2025-02-21: Carlsen wins again as he qualifies for the $1.5m Saudi Esports World Cup (theguardian.com; Leonard Barden) • 'The Norwegian world No 1 beat Hikaru Nakamura twice at the Chessable Masters despite endgame lapses'

Neither story gave any details about the future event, so let's switch to an older news item that reads like a press release.

• 2024-12-17: It’s Official: Chess is Coming to the Esports World Cup 2025 (esportsworldcup.com) • 'Chess is one of the world’s most popular and enduring strategy games. And now, with its addition to the Esports World Cup [EWC] 2025 lineup, we are settling the debate: It’s officially an esport, too! [...] Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen is joining Esports World Cup Chess as a Global Ambassador.'

The article also informed,

Esports World Cup 2025 Chess Format • Chess at the EWC will be played in a rapid 10+0 chess format. [...] Twelve players hoping to compete at the EWC will qualify through the Champions Chess Tour, which will host two online tour events in February and May of 2025. A final Last Chance Qualifier will take place in Riyadh to select the final four competitors.'

The following infographic, from the same article, summarized the most important info.

The headlines of other Google News stories mentioned more top players besides Carlsen: GMs Caruana, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi, and Yu Yangyi. It's not completely clear what sets this event apart from the other online events with the same players. Maybe it's the prize fund.

Another event had even more stories than the EWC. The most recent story at the time of this post was:-

• 2025-02-26: Three-way tie sets up explosive final round at FIDE WGP Monaco (fide.com) • 'With three players -- [Kateryna] Lagno, [Aleksandra] Goryachkina, and [Batkhuyag] Munguntuul -- now sharing the lead, the final round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Monte-Carlo promises a dramatic showdown. [...] The ninth and final round of the third leg in the 2024/25 Women’s Grand Prix series starts on February 27th in Monte-Carlo, Monaco.'

For the full, final crosstable, see Monaco FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2025 (theweekinchess.com).

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

The leading American chess magazine -- both 50 years ago and 25 years ago -- featured the American Open. For last month's post in the series, see January 1975 & 2000 'On the Cover' (January 2025).

Left: '?'
Right: 'The Beauty of Chess'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Kim Commons, left, and Peter Biyiasas, co-winners of the American Open. Story [inside]. Photo by Carl Budd.

The 'story [inside]' by Carl Budd, 'Vice President, Santa Monica Bay Chess Club', was titled '10th American Open'. It started,

The tenth anniversary of the American Open resulted in co-champions for the first time since its inception. Kim Commons, formerly a California Champion, and Peter Biyiasas, current Champion of Canada, led the field after the eighth and final round to tie for top honors. [...]

Altogether there were 168 entries in the Championship Section. And with 300 entered in the Amateur Section, the grand total of 468 players makes this American Open the largest rated tournament ever held in California and the third largest open tournament co-sponsored by the U.S. Chess Federation. It is surpassed only by the U.S. Open in Chicago in 1973 with 778 players and the U.S. Open in New York in 1974 with 549 players.

For the previous edition of the American Open, 51 years ago, see February 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (February 2024; 'James Tarjan, winner of the American Open in California').

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Again we thank Steven Seward for his excellent work, providing us with a cover portrait of the winner of the 35th American Open, Grandmaster Eduard Gufeld. Jerry Hanken's happy recap begins on [inside] and is followed by an interview with Gufeld. Keeping with the theme of the interview, Gufeld's "Artistic Beauty in Chess" begins [inside].

That's a lot of Gufeld for one issue of CL: cover portrait, winner of the 35th American Open (four page story), interview (two pages), essay on beauty in chess (five pages). The 'On the Cover' introduction continued with a Gufeld anecdote:-

You should also note that Bobby Fischer's last sacrifice -- was Gufeld. When Fischer forfeited his match against Karpov in 1975, the Soviets were desperate to prove that Karpov was worthy of the title. Gufeld was scheduled to travel (a rarity) to Ljubljana for the Third Vidmar Memorial, a super-strong event. That's right, Eddie got bumped -- sacrificed if you please -- in order to allow Karpov to participate (Karpov won, ahead of Gligoric, Ribli, Furman, Hort, Parma, Portisch, et. al. [June 1975, Karpov: +7-0=8]).

By some unusual coincidence, the February 1975 issue of CL&R had news about the Fischer - Karpov match, so I'll come back to that story after finishing with Gufeld. The tournament report was titled 'Gufeld Tops 35th American Open' by Jerry Hanken. It started with a bit of chess history:-

A little over a year after Lyndon Johnson announced his "Great Society" and "War on Poverty" and 14 months before Super Bowl I, the American Open was born. A brainchild of Al Bisno of the Santa Monica Bay Chess Club and USCF Executive Director Ed Edmondson, this tournament became part of the original "Triple Crown" (along with the U.S. Open and National Open). The first running drew over 200 players to the Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica and was won by then-super GM (twice a world championship candidate in the 50's and 60's) Pal Benko. [...]

In 1979 the American Open achieved "American Classic" status (marking the difference between a National and one run by a local organization which has drawn over 400 players three years running). And in 1989 it was awarded the "American Heritage" designation for lasting 25 consecutive years. Only one other tournament holds both these distinctions — the World Open, of course.

This information is for historical perspective in reporting on the just-completed 35th Annual American Open, held Thanksgiving weekend at the spacious LAX Sheraton Gateway.

The report then turned to a discussion of the winner.

Quite fittingly, the tournament, an eight-round Swiss, was won by a grandmaster whose career and accomplishments span the last 35 years! In a mild upset, the American Open champ of 1999, the last of the millennium, was Eduard Gufeld! I use the word "upset" because Eduard was only the ninth highest USCF-rated player in the event, and many thought that at 63 years of age he was simply too old and too outclassed to win such an event. After all, there were three GMs (Pavel Blatny, Sergey Kudrin, and Alex Yermolinsky) among those seeded ahead of him.

Since he recently settled in the Los Angeles area, Gufeld has been known as a fine teacher and lecturer, but not a great tournament player. Well, he certainly struck a blow for us old folks! Not only did he become the champion, but he won with a clear half-point advantage at 6 1/2 of 8.

I'll skip both the Gufeld interview and his essay and return to the phantom 1975 Fischer - Karpov match. Burt Hochberg described the status in his monthly column for February 1975, 'The Editor's Page - News & Views'.

The FIDE Bureau meeting in Panang, Malaysia, December 15-18 [1974], resulted in some very discouraging news. The most pressing matter was the World Championship Match for 1975: by a narrow 5-4 vote the Bureau reluctantly declined to consider changing the Regulations adopted last June by the General Assembly at Nice.

President Euwe expressed the hope that the Chess Federation of the USSR would now, in a grand gesture designed to demonstrate the sportsmanship it has so long professed, announce that Karpov would agree to the match conditions proposed by Fischer. If the Soviets do not make this gesture -- and several Bureau members consider it unlikely -- only an Extraordinary General Assembly could make any changes in the Regulations.

After more bad news involving the 1975 World Student Team Championship and the 1976 Olympiad, Hochberg returned to the title match.

Some hope remains, however, that the World Championship may yet be saved. The Chess Federations of Japan, Iran and the Philippines have called for an Extraordinary General Assembly, as provided for in FIDE statutes. For this meeting to be held -- it must be done before April 1 -- 29 of the 87 member federations must support the call.

On January 1, the bids for the Match were opened at FIDE headquarters in Amsterdam. There were only three: Mexico City $387,500; Milan $426,250; and the Philippines $5,000,000. According to FIDE regulations, the match winner gets five-eighths of the purse and the loser three-eighths. Details of the bids have been sent to Karpov and Fischer, each of whom must list the bids in order of preference and notify FIDE of their choices not later than February 17. If the two players do not agree, FIDE President Euwe will choose the site.

For the previous major development involving the 1975 match, see August 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (August 2024; 'The [1974] FIDE Congress was shaken by several controversial decisions.').

That title is an obscure reference to last month's Yahoos post, World Championship Yahoos 2024 ('2/2'; December 2024), which was largely about the 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York City. I'll come back to that event in a moment.

First let's have some stats. This month's Yahoos post (see the footnote for an explanation of Yahoos) had 104 stories, of which one was an older post from mid-December. Those 104 stories were supplemented by two additional pages: 'Magnus Carlsen on Freestyle chess controversy' with 25 stories, and 'Gukesh beats Mendonca to lead Tata Steel Masters' with 57 stories.

I'll call those additional pages Freestyle stories and Tata stories, making a total of 104+25+57=186 stories. Of the 104 stories, 44 were also about freestyle and Tata, leaving 60 stories about other topics.

I'm covering the freestyle saga on my chess960 blog, because 'freestyle' is one of numerous aliases for chess960. The most recent post on that blog was A Freestyle Fight (January 2025), where the last link to a story was:-

2025-01-22: FIDE Slams Freestyle Chess For Creating 'Unavoidable Divisions,' Threatens Legal Action (chess.com; TarjeiJS)

The dispute is about FIDE's claim to have the exclusive right to any 'World Chess Championship'. I'll refer to January's Google News when I bring that blog up-to-date next month. As for the many Tata stories, one of the most recent was:-

• 2025-01-29: Gukesh wins again in round 10 of the Tata Steel Masters but so do Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa (theweekinchess.com)

After rd.10 there remained three rounds to be played. I'd like to say that next month's Yahoos post should have the final result, but I know better. Google News is top-heavy on recent news, usually from the last few days. Case in point: this month there was not a single story on the '2024 World Rapid and Blitz' tournament. I had to refer to my Google News alerts (I receive one combined alert per day) to be able to mention,

• 2025-01-01: Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi Agree To Share World Blitz Title, Ju Wins Women's (chess.com; JackRodgers)

That agreement to share was controversial, as it was not in accordance to the rules of the event. Of the 60 stories about other topics, three were grouped into a headline 'Nodirbek Yakubboev refuses handshake with Indian GM Vaishali', with three more on the same incident scattered around the results. For example,

• 2025-01-27: Explained: Why Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Yakubboev refused to shake hands with R Vaishali at Tata Steel Chess tournament (firstpost.com)

The only 'other' story I found compelling enough to mention appeared twice in the news. As with many of the top stories this month, it doesn't shine a favorable light on chess:-

• 2025-01-29: FIDE extends ban and revokes title of Andrejs Strebkovs over harassment of female players (chessbase.com)

In last month's post '2024 WCC (2/2)', I observed,

After all the positive press that chess has received over the past five years, it's curious that world class chess players are using their new-found status to struggle with dress codes and to call each other names.

This month we have an emerging fight between the world's best player and FIDE, two top players inventing their own rule to decide a major FIDE tournament, a male player refusing to shake hands with a female player, and a serious case of sexual harassment. What will next month bring?

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

At the end of last month's Yahoo post, World Championship Yahoos 2024 ('1/2'; November 2024; see the footnote for an explanation of Yahoos), I explained the title:-

I'm titling this post 'WCC Yahoos 2024 (1/2)', because I'm expecting another deluge of WCC Yahoos at the end next month.

I was not to be disappointed. This month I counted 93 chess stories, of which 57 were WCC stories (World Chess Championship stories, of course). What I didn't expect was to find 57 stories about the World Rapid and Blitz championships currently being played in New York City and only six stories about the Singapore event which was the subject of 100% of the November stories.

Even more surprising, of the 57 R&B stories, 44 were about Magnus Carlsen wearing jeans, then not wearing jeans. Even more surprising than that, the six stories about Gukesh and company amounted to only half of the dozen stories about NBA star Victor Wembanyama playing chess in New York City's Washington Square Park.

Where to start? How about with the old, nearly forgotten news.

• 2024-12-27: The Drama and Suffering of the World Chess Championship (thenation.com; J.C. Hallman) • 'A dispatch from the pivotal Game 11 in Singapore that helped make Gukesh Dommaraju an 18-year-old chess champion.' • 'J.C. Hallman is the author of [...] The Chess Artist: Genius, Obsession, and the World’s Oldest Game.'

Now let's have some jeans stories ... from both sides. The problem with 43 of anything is choosing the right one(s).

• 2024-12-28: FIDE statement regarding Magnus Carlsen’s dress code breach (fide.com) • 'FIDE regulations for the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, including the dress code, are designed to ensure professionalism and fairness for all participants. Today, Mr. Magnus Carlsen breached the dress code by wearing jeans, which are explicitly prohibited under long-standing regulations for this event.'
  
  
• 2024-12-30: Magnus Carlsen Makes U-Turn, Confirms World Blitz Participation With Jeans Approval (chess.com; TarjeiJS, bona fide 'FOM', a 'Friend of Magnus') • 'GM Magnus Carlsen has made a sensational U-turn and confirmed that he will participate in the 2024 FIDE World Blitz Championship in New York. The seven-time World Blitz Champion has now received the green light to play with jeans.'

Meanwhile there was a tournament taking place. How was that going?

• 2024-12-27: FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2024: Carlsen struggles on first day... (espn.com.au) • 'The 2024 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship began with quite an upset as Magnus Carlsen, the World No 1 and defending World Rapid champion, was stunned by 18-year-old GM Denis Lazavik and managed just 2.5 points out of 5.'

Carlsen is known to be a sore loser and he quit the next day. Remember the events leading up to Steamin' Niemann (November 2022)? I'm sure this will all settle down by next month's Yahoos post.

Meanwhile let's move on to the chess playing 'NBA star'. The dozen stories about him started near the top of Google News with a special section and its own headline, 'Spurs center Victor Wembanyama plays chess with fans in NYC'. For manifest reasons, I'm not going to link to a sample story. Let's look instead at a story that doesn't fall into any of the categories already discussed.

• 2024-12-31: Vladimir Kramnik is worse than dirt: Daniel Naroditsky • 'Cheating, in my mind, is probably the worst crime a chess player can commit, says Naroditsky.'

That story appeared twice on the Google list, both from Indian sources. After all the positive press that chess has received over the past five years, it's curious that world class chess players are using their new-found status to struggle with dress codes and to call each other names.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

***

One detail that I hadn't noticed while preparing previous Yahoo posts is shown below. Mark Crowther's The Week in Chess (TWIC) was granted a prominent seat at the table (see upper right).

e.g. World Rapid & Blitz Championship 2024
(theweekinchess.com)

While preparing a previous post, Gukesh in 2018 - Age 12 (November 2024), in this short series on Gukesh Dommaraju, I spotted a problem with the raw data:-

[Earlier] I listed a half-dozen tournaments played through the end of 2017. Here's the continuation of that list [with 17 events]. There's at least one important tournament missing from that list. I'll cover it in my next post in the series.

One of the most striking aspects of the 2018 list is that only six of the 17 events were played in India. Most of the others were played in Europe. Anyone who travels farther than the local supermarket knows that travel can be expensive. How did young Gukesh manage to travel so much?

With that question in the back of my mind, I found the following article by Johannes Fischer published shortly after the two 2024 Candidates Tournaments: Dommaraju Gukesh and Tan Zhongyi celebrate their birthdays (chessbase.com; May 2024). It said,

Gukesh's father was a surgeon and his mother a microbiologist. Gukesh took up chess at the age of 5 and quickly achieved success, whereupon his parents did all they could to support their son's career. His father even gave up his job as a surgeon to accompany Gukesh to tournaments. The parents also take their son out of school to give him more time to concentrate on chess.

The hard work and dedication paid off. In 2018, Gukesh became U12 World Champion and just one year later, in 2019, at the age of 12 years, seven months and 17 days, he secured the title of Grandmaster. At the time, he was the second youngest grandmaster of all time behind Sergey Karjakin and is regarded as one of the world's greatest talents.

Gukesh as 'U12 World Champion' is confirmed by World Cadet Chess Championships 2018 finished in Spain (old.fide.com). There we learn,

The World Cadet Chess Championships 2018 were held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, from 3rd of November to 15th of November 2018. The Championships were held for the age groups U08, U10 and U12, Girls and Open. A record number of 851 participants from 86 federations took part in the Championships. [...] 'U12 Open: 1. Gukesh D IND 10.0'

TWIC reported on the 'World Youth Championship' (TWIC1252: U18, U16, U14)...

The World Youth Championship took place in Porto Carras 20th to 30th October 2018.

...but not on the later 'World Cadet Championship' (U12, U10, U08). [NB: While I was preparing this post, the Wikipedia page World Youth Chess Championship (wikipedia.org), was vandalized to replace Gukesh's name by another name for both 2018 and 2020.]

Fast forward to the current year. After the Candidates tournament, where Gukesh earned the right to play for the World Championship as challenger, another Chessbase article, The dream becomes a reality: Gukesh’s victory in a historic event (chessbase.com; April 2024), posited,

The importance of a strong support system • To be successful in anything, one needs to have a great support system. D Gukesh was surrounded by his father Dr. Rajini Kanth, his second Grzegorz Gajewski, and Westbridge Capital sponsor Sandeep Singhal. [plus photo of all four]

Note the spelling 'Rajini Kanth', in two words. I've seen the same in one word, 'Rajinikanth' [-jini-], as well as 'Rajnikanth' [-jni-]. The single word 'Rajinikanth' appears to be the preferred spelling.

2024 FIDE World Championship - Singapore

'Gukesh and parents' (the day after the closing ceremony)
Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

Fans of Magnus Carlsen will remember the role his father Henrik played when the young future World Champion was climbing to the top. While there is no guarantee that parental support will ensure future success, lack of that support might well hinder it.

For the past few weeks I've been running a series on the early career of Gukesh Dommaraju, aka Gukesh D. The two most recent posts were:-

• Gukesh in 2018 - Age 12 (29 November 2024), and
• Gukesh in 2018 - Scores & Rating (06 December 2024)

That second post ended,

In the first event on the 2018 list, he was rated 2362; in the last event, he was rated 2466. He started the year with a CM title and ended as an IM. In a few more months, he would earn the GM title.

With a bit of luck, I discovered more info about the IM/GM titles. Along with my monthly in-depth look at Google News, last seen in World Championship Yahoos 2024 (November 2024), I receive a daily report of chess news under the title 'Google Alert - Daily Digest'. This week I ran a search for references to Gukesh in my Google Alert archive -- it goes back to 2012 -- and was pleased to find a few news articles covering the GM's early career. The earliest was:-

• 2018-03-13: Gukesh making all the right moves (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) • 'To say that 11-year-old newly-crowned International Master Gukesh breathes chess will be an understatement. Even as children of his age are busy cramming up school syllabus, Gukesh is charting his next move on the chess board. Having taken to the game in 2013, Gukesh is today one of the many prominent players to have emerged out of the city. Gukesh, who became India's latest IM at the conclusion of the 34th Open de Cappelle la Grande chess tournament in France, took to the sport in 2013.'

The first 'Gukesh in 2018' post listed the French tournament with relevant TWIC info:-

TWIC 1218 • 34th Cappelle Open 2018; Sat 3rd Mar 2018; Sat 10th Mar 2018; Cappelle la Grande; FRA; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 7.0-2.0; 2360

The next two 'Google Alert' mentions of Gukesh were:-

• 2019-01-16: Gukesh Becomes 2nd Youngest Chess Grandmaster In History (chess.com; IM Rakesh) • 'At the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju became the second youngest grandmaster in chess history. He scored his third grandmaster norm at the 17th Delhi International Chess Grandmaster Open today in New Delhi, India. Despite the recent torrid tournament schedule for Gukesh, the world record of Sergey Karjakin still narrowly stands, this time by just 17 days!', and
  
  
• 2020-04-07: Coronavirus lockdown: Teen chess wizards keep composure; stay busy with online events (deccanherald.com) • 'Young they might be but restless? Certainly not. R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and P Iniyan -- the teen brigade of Indian chess is unfazed about being confined to home due to the national lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus [...]'

Then follows a pause of more than two years, undoubtedly due to the various covid-19 lockdowns in effect all over the world.

• 2022-08-05: India's teen talent shines as Chennai Olympiad breaks records (theguardian.com; Leonard Barden) • 'The standout first half Olympiad team has been India 2, with its average age of 19 and its already iconic top board Gukesh D (as he is now invariably called rather than Dommaraju Gukesh). The 16-year-old son of a surgeon and a microbiologist has come a long way from when, at 11, he incurred Nigel Short's displeasure.' [NB: for letting Short's clock run when the GM failed to punch it]

The Barden article continued,

Gukesh has been in stellar form in 2022, winning five first prizes in succession in Spain. His rating has shot past the elite 2700 mark, a feat achieved at a younger age by only Wei Yi, Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja. He has won all his seven games so far in Chennai, including his impressive win over Alexey Shirov where he encouraged the former world title challenger to launch one of his Fire on Board attacks so as to refute it by superior strategic and endgame play.

Gukesh is making a vast impression in Chennai, one that can be compared with five of the great Olympiad debuts by future world class players: Paul Keres at Warsaw 1935, Bent Larsen at Moscow 1956, Mikhail Tal at Munich 1958, Judit Polgar at Thessaloniki 1988, and Vlad Kramnik at Manila 1992.'

At every milestone in his meteoric career, Gukesh compared favorably to the greatest of the chess greats. It's little wonder that he became the youngest World Champion of all time.

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).

In this series of monthly posts featuring a video, we've seen Youtube's ChessBase India channel (CBI) many times, most recently in The London Chess Centre on Video (October 2024). This month's video is a collaboration between CBI and Youtube's Paddy Upton channel, where it lives.

Who is Paddy Upton? Wikipedia's page Paddy Upton (wikipedia.org) informs,

Patrick Anthony Howard 'Paddy' Upton (born 5 November 1968) is a South African born cricket coach specialising as head coach in professional Twenty20 cricket, mental coach to professional athletes, sports scientist executive coach and professor of practice at Deakin University.

What do cricket and chess have in common? The following clip answers that question and many others.

How I'm Coaching Gukesh D for the World Chess Championship (32:13) • '[Published on] Nov 19, 2024'

The video's description said,

In this interview with @ChessBaseIndiachannel, I share my experience working with Indian chess sensation Gukesh D as he prepares for the World Chess Championship. Having worked with world-class athletes across 20+ sports, from legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Virat Kohli to the Indian Men's Hockey team at the 2024 Olympic Games. Stepping into the world of chess has been a fascinating journey.

The description continued,

In this video, I [Paddy Upton] discuss:
* Why Gukesh stands out as one of the smartest, most self-aware athletes I’ve worked with.
* How "big match temperament" enables athletes to thrive under pressure.
* The importance of focusing on the process rather than the result.
* How universal principles of mental conditioning apply across all sports.
* Lessons from life and spirituality that help athletes stay grounded and perform their best.

I've always been somewhat skeptical whenever I hear someone say, 'Chess is a sport'. After watching this video, I'm less skeptical.

In last week's post, Gukesh in 2018 - Age 12 (November 2024), about the early career of the new World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, I neglected to record the young prodigy's score and rating for the 17 events in the list. For this current post, I corrected the oversight.

It's worth explaining why six of the events are still missing the final score. These are events where a result was reported by TWIC on two consecutive weeks (a partial result, then the complete result), and where Gukesh was listed in the first report, but not in the second. This is because his final score was less than TWIC's cutoff to limit the number of players in the report (TWIC often lists only the top players when reporting on large tournaments, especially those using Swiss pairing systems).

It's entirely possible that Gukesh played in events where he was not listed in TWIC, because he finished lower than TWIC's cutoff. In those events, he would not appear on my initial search for events where he played.

Over the 17 tournaments, he played more than 150 games. In the first event on the 2018 list, he was rated 2362; in the last event, he was rated 2466. He started the year with a CM title and ended as an IM. In a few more months, he would earn the GM title.

In the previous post on the early career of Gukesh Dommaraju, Gukesh Debuts in a WCC Cycle and in TWIC (November 2024), I listed a half-dozen tournaments played through the end of 2017. Here's the continuation of that list:-

• TWIC 1208 • Bhopal International Open; Thu 21st Dec 2017; Thu 28th Dec 2017; Bhopal; IND; 10 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • 8.0-2.0; 2362
• TWIC 1208[/-09] • 3rd IIFL Wealth Mumbai Op; Sat 30th Dec 2017; Sun 7th Jan 2018; Mumbai; IND; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • ? [<6.0-3.0]; 2362
• TWIC 1210[/-11] • 16th Delhi Open 2018; Tue 9th Jan 2018; Tue 16th Jan 2018; New Delhi; IND; 10 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • ? [<6.5-3.5]; 2354
• TWIC 1212[/-13] • 14th Moscow Open A 2018; Thu 25th Jan 2018; Mon 5th Feb 2018; Moscow; RUS; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • ? [<6.0-3.0]; 2354
• TWIC 1218 • 34th Cappelle Open 2018; Sat 3rd Mar 2018; Sat 10th Mar 2018; Cappelle la Grande; FRA; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 7.0-2.0; 2360
• TWIC 1224 • 18th BCC Open 2018; Fri 13th Apr 2018; Sat 21st Apr 2018; Cha-Am; THA; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 7.0-2.0; 2401
• TWIC 1229 • 3rd Kolkata GM Open 2018; Mon 14th May 2018; Tue 22nd May 2018; Kolkata; IND; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • 6.0-3.0; 2426
• TWIC 1229[/-30] • 11th KIIT Elite Open 2018; Fri 25th May 2018; Fri 1st Jun 2018; Bhubaneswar; IND; 10 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • ? [<6.5-3.5]; 2426
• TWIC 1232[/-33] • 22nd Voronezh Master Open; Tue 12th Jun 2018; Thu 21st Jun 2018; Voronezh; RUS; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • ? [<5.5-3.5]; 2431
• TWIC 1236 • 11th Paracin Summer Open; Fri 6th Jul 2018; Fri 13th Jul 2018; Paracin; SRB; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • 5.5-3.5; 2433
• TWIC 1238 • 29th Czech Open A 2018; Thu 12th Jul 2018; Sun 29th Jul 2018; Pardubice; CZE; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 6.0-3.0; 2433; [see also rapid event]
• TWIC 1241[/-42] • 20th Sants Open 2018; Fri 17th Aug 2018; Sun 26th Aug 2018; Barcelona; ESP; 10 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • ? [<7.0-3.0]; 2440
• TWIC 1244 • 20th Trieste Open 2018; Sat 1st Sep 2018; Sat 8th Sep 2018; Trieste; ITA; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 6.0-3.0; 2453
• TWIC 1246 • Anogia GM/IM-norm 2018 [NB: 5th Fischer Mem GM 2018]; Tue 11th Sep 2018; Wed 19th Sep 2018; Anogia; GRE; 10 Players.; 9 Rounds; SRR; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 5.0-4.0 [+3-2=4]; 2453
• TWIC 1249 • 1st Gujarat Open 2018; Fri 5th Oct 2018; Fri 12th Oct 2018; Ahmedabad; IND; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • 7.0-2.0; 2456
• TWIC 1257 • Orbis 2 GM 2018; Mon 3rd Dec 2018; Sun 9th Dec 2018; Paracin; SRB; 10 Players; 9 Rounds; SRR Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • 7.5-1.5 [+6-0=3]; 2466
• TWIC 1259 • Sunway Sitges Open 2018; Fri 14th Dec 2018; Sun 23rd Dec 2018; Sitges; ESP; 10 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1) • 6.5-3.5; 2466

There's at least one important tournament missing from that list. I'll cover it in my next post in the series.

For last month's Yahoos post, A Press of Yahoos (October 2024; if you're wondering, 'What means "Yahoos"'?; see the footnote), I wrote,

This month's 97 stories -- 10 of them old stories from previous months -- lacked a clear favorite.

This month's post had more than 100 stories on the World Chess Championship (WCC) that started this week in Singapore and zero old stories. How can there be more than 100 WCC stories when the footnote says 'top-100 (or so)'?

That's an easy calculation: the first page of results had 91 stories, of which 37 were not about the WCC, leaving 54 WCC stories. That first page included a header titled 'D Gukesh vs Ding Liren World Chess Championship', leading to a second page with 57 stories.

Of the 54 WCC stories, which one received top placement on the first page of results? None of them. The top story was:-

• 2024-11-28: World Chess Championship 2024: How the immediate thrill of Bullet Chess transforms the game completely (independent.co.uk) • 'Bullet chess is a faster and more frenetic version of the classical version, reformed obsessive of the game Richard Hall writes.'

Although the title says, 'World Chess Championship 2024', there's nothing in the story about the Singapore event. After bullet chess, which WCC story was on top? Same answer: None of them.

Second in the results was a section titled 'Google releases GenChess, a chess game with AI-generated pieces', with three different stories. The most relevant of those was:-

• 2024-11-27: Google’s new chess game lets you customize pieces with AI (theverge.com) • 'Google has released a new chess website that puts one fun twist on the game: it uses custom pieces that are created each time by generative AI.' • The phrase 'new chess website' led to a site that didn't work: GenChess (labs.google/genchess; 'This tool is not available to users under the age of 18 or in certain countries or regions.')

The link to the second page was here, followed by the rest of the stories, WCC or not. Of those not-WCC stories, six more were about Google's 'AI-generated pieces' and three were about a freestyle (chess960) match between GMs Carlsen and Caruana. Of the other not-WCC stories, my favorite was:-

• 2024-11-19: The Chess Revolution: Understanding The Power Of An Ancient Game In The Digital Age (chess.com; PeterDoggers) • 'My book The Chess Revolution tells the story of how chess impacted our Western culture, and how it was impacted itself by the computer and the Internet. It is for chess fans but definitely also for non-chess playing readers. I am super excited that almost two years after starting this project, the book hit book stores in October. Let me tell you more about it and the writing process.'

For the equivalent post after last year's World Championship match, see World Championship Yahoos 2023 (April 2023). I'm titling this post 'WCC Yahoos 2024 (1/2)', because I'm expecting another deluge of WCC Yahoos at the end next month.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

In a recent post, 2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, the Players (November 2024), I promised, '[In 2022-23] I featured Ding Liren [so] I'll start a similar series for Gukesh in a few days.' And here we are.

That Ding Liren series started with one post on his rise to the World Championship and one post on his early mentions in TWIC. Here I'll combine those two ideas into a single post. The following screen capture shows Gukesh's participation in World Championship qualifying events prior to the current cycle.

Index of players (A-G), with links to the different events (m-w.com)

Along with the two Grand Swiss events ('Gr.Sw.'), Gukesh played in the 2021 World Cup; Sochi (m-w.com), where he was eliminated in the second round. My page on the qualifications to the event, (C30) Zonal Qualifiers 2020-2021 (ditto), isn't completely clear, but he qualified to the 2021 World Cup with a FIDE President wild card.

Gukesh also played in the 2023 World Cup where, according to my page (C31) Zonal Qualifiers 2022-2023 (m-w.com), he qualified on rating. Acording to Wikipedia's Chess World Cup 2023 (wikipedia.org), he was eliminated in the sixth (quarterfinal) round by Magnus Carlsen, who went on to win the event.

The first mention of Gukesh in TWIC was in 2016 when he was nine years old:-

THE WEEK IN CHESS 1109 8th February 2016 by Mark Crowther • IIFL Wealth Mumbai Open; Thu 28th Jan 2016; Fri 5th Feb 2016; Mumbai; IND; 113 Players; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1)

He was rated 2041 and finished 5.5-3.5. The second and third mentions in TWIC were nearly a year later:-

TWIC 1157 9th January 2017 • 2nd IIFL Wealth Mumbai Op; Mon 26th Dec 2016; Tue 3rd Jan 2017; Mumbai; IND; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1)

TWIC 1160 30th January 2017 • 9th Chennai Open 2017; Wed 18th Jan 2017; Wed 25th Jan 2017; Chennai; IND; 10 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1)

He was rated 2236 in both, finished 6.0-3.0 and 6.5-3.5 respectively, and was listed as a CM [Candidate Master] in the Chennai event. The next mentions in TWIC were six months later in Europe.

TWIC1186 31st July 2017 • 29th Cannes Summer Open; Mon 24th Jul 2017; Sun 30th Jul 2017; Cannes; FRA; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1)

TWIC1188 14th August 2017 • 43rd Badalona Open 2017; Wed 2nd Aug 2017; Thu 10th Aug 2017; Badalona; ESP; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m+30spm(1)

He was rated 2365 in both and finished 5.0-4.0 and 5.5-3.5 respectively. The next mention in TWIC was later in 2017 at a tournament held in Asia outside India:-

TWIC 1197 16th October 2017 • 1st Puchong Friday IM Oct; Sat 7th Oct 2017; Wed 11th Oct 2017; Puchong; MAS [Malaysia]; 10 Players; 9 Rounds; SRR [Single Round Robin]; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1)

TWIC added, 'D Gukesh won with 7/9.' He was rated 2323 and still listed as a CM. Wikipedia, in Gukesh Dommaraju (wikipedia.org; 'born 29 May 2006, also known as Gukesh D, is an Indian chess grandmaster'), mentions an earlier tournament than recorded in TWIC:-

Gukesh won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015

Chessgames.com, in The chess games of Dommaraju Gukesh (chessgames.com), informs,

Candidate Master (2015); International Master (2018); Grandmaster (2019). Gukesh won his Candidate Master title at the Asian U9 Asian Schools Championship in 2015.

The site's earliest games are one from each of two 2016 events: the 2016 IIFL Mumbai Open and the '9th Mayors Cup Open (2016), Mumbai IND, rd 8, Jun-07'.

For the second month in a row, after October 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (October 2024), top U.S. tournaments dominated the covers of American chess magazines both 50 and 25 years ago. Artwork was also a recurring theme.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Knights, one and all...'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

Pal Benko (left) and Vlastimil Hort, co-winners of the U.S. Open. Story and games [inside]. Photos by Burt Hochberg.

'Story and games [inside]' came after three articles on the 1975 World Championship. The first article was about the Karpov - Korchnoi match, the final match of that cycle's Candidate matches; see 1973-75 Candidates Matches (m-w.com), for a record of all the matches that took place during that cycle. The final match became a de-facto title match when Fischer forfeited his title in 1975. The introduction to the article said,

The Finals match in the 1974 Candidates series began in Moscow September 10. Aften ten games, the score was Karpov 2, Korchnoi 0. To win the match a player must score five victories or be in the lead after 24 games; if the score is even after 24 games, a coin toss (or other chance drawing) will decide the contest. Here are the first ten games.

The second article was the monthly column 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg. It started,

World Champion Bobby Fischer, defending the match rules he favors, comments: "The whole idea is to make sure the players draw blood by winning games, and the spectators get their money's worth." The accuracy of his judgment is borne out by the current Karpov-Korchnoi match in Moscow, in which after 14 games the score remains 2-0 in Karpov's favor.

The third article was the monthly column 'Larry Evans on Chess', subtitled, 'The World Champion Speaks'. It started with a letter from Bobby Fischer and continued for two pages. The whole Fischer forfeit saga deserves to be documented from the USCF's point of view as recorded in the pages of Chess Life. Has this ever been done?

Only after the three articles on the World Championship do we find 'The U.S. Open: An Interesting Disappointment' by Burt Hochberg. It immediately took a dark tone, starting,

In this scientific age of ours, we are obsessed with numbers. Record-breaking is becoming a common concern of our daily lives. In chess, the establishment of records, to the point of pointlessness, already occupies the thoughts of a great many intelligent people.

After a few more paragraphs, Hochberg revealed the reason for the 'Disappointment'.

If we are convinced that record-making and record-breaking are legitimate concerns because of their incentive value, then we must also take it upon ourselves to explain why a standing record was not broken -- or even met -- despite every expectation that it would be far exceeded. To descend from the metaphysical to the specific: why did the 1973 U.S. Open in Chicago (a city of about 3.5 million) attract almost 50% more entries than the 1974 U.S. Open in New York (a city of about 8 million)?

A second article, 'New York's U.S. Open' by Bill Goichberg, explained the circumstances for the disappointment. It started,

After 35 years. the U.S. Open was finally held in New York. It was not an event I will fondly remember. Not only were entries far below what most people expected, but the out-of-town turnout was particularly poor. The host hotel had been guaranteed 100 sleeping rooms, and when the actual count proved to be far lower, we were socked with a whopping rental charge of $5,000.

Heavy financial losses were suffered by both USCF and the co-sponsoring Continental Chess Association. jeopardizing the latter's nationwide tournament promotion program. CCA has been losing money for the past year, and will have to cut back in many areas unless attendance suddenly recovers or enough voluntary donors can be found.

Chess historians accept that the 1970s Fischer boom started in 1972, but when did it end? It appears that 1973-74 was the start of a long slide to pre-1972 levels.

What happened to our two cover GMs? They each won $1.675 (which would be more than $10.000 today). Benko was last seen in October 1969 'On the Cover' (October 2019), although his compositions made the cover in both the January 1970 & 1995 (January 2020) and January 1972 & 1997 (January 2022) 'On the Cover'. Hort was last seen in June 1969 'On the Cover' (June 2019).

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Dragons or dragon-slayers, depending on your outlook. But they all wind up being Knights of the 64 squares. Huzzah! Huzzah! for our new Interplay champions Boris Gulko, Marcel Martinez, and Anjelina Belakovskaia, and for Gregory Serper (World Open), Alex Yermolinsky (U.S. Open), and Andrei Zaremba and Steven Winer (Denker champions).

And it is that time of year. The call for nominations for the Hall of Fame appears on page 23.

The cover design is by Patrick Kelly of Grand Rapids Michigan.

The first five players were also named in last month's 'On the Cover' introduction for 1999. They were the winners of four tournaments reported inside the November 1999 issue (Gulko and Belakovskaia won their respective sections of the U.S. Championship). Did the Chess Life editors have some trouble deciding what story to feature?

Since the U.S. Open was the featured tournament in the 1974 CL and was also the first of the four tournaments covered in the 1999 CL, let's continue with it here. The article '1999 U.S. Open: The Big Bang' by GM Edmar Mednis started,

The 100th Annual U.S. Open Championship at the luxurious Sands Regency Hotel Casino in Reno was held August 10-19, 1999. It started with a bang and never let up. At the welcoming ceremony in the evening of August 9, the participants were treated to an exhibition by Buckeroo Beau, the reigning world bullwhip champion and award-winning gun slinger and trick roper. For those having quieter interests there was Christa Lynn Jones, the reigning Miss Reno Rodeo. Some 80 people enjoyed the action and sumptuous Western-style barbecue.

How about the bang from the $63,300 prize fund unconditionally guaranteed by the Sands Regency? Truly a record -- just compare with the $22,000 of the 1998 Open! And the bang from the $10,000 first prize and the many bangs from the total of 61 cash prizes.

Bang, bang, bang, bang... The four bangs in that excerpt were followed by six more bangs in the rest of the paragraph. Anyone feel like banging their head against the wall?

The Hochberg report on the 1974 U.S. Open mentioned that there were 549 players. The Mednis report on the 1999 U.S. Open mentioned,

The 338 players at the start did a lot of banging and it became even louder when the busy-persons joined the action at the start of Round 5, bringing the total up to 485.

If 549 players were a disappointment, what can be said about 338/485 players exactly 25 years later? And what happened 25 years after that ... in 2024?

Not even close.

Artisanal chess board... © Flickr user wistreize under Creative Commons.

The title of the photo, which was also the description, continued,

...with a fantastic hand, Arcana Festival, Morges, Switzerland 2024.

The 'business cards' to the right of the board say, 'Seb's Customs, Artiste Sculpteur'. I found a site at Seb's Customs (sebscustoms.jimdofree.com).

For more about the event, see The Swiss Festival of Fantasy and Wonder (arcanafestival.ch; 'Thank you for this crazy 4th edition!'). For the official set mentioned in the title of this post, see Official World Chess Pieces (worldchess.com).

'Take Take Take'? Where have I heard that in reference to chess before? It turns out that it was just a few weeks ago in A Press of Yahoos (October 2024). There I quoted a press report,

2024-10-25: After 20 years at the top of chess, Magnus Carlsen is making his next move (apnews.com; Mark Lewis) • 'Offering a new way to interact with the game, Carlsen on Friday launched his application, Take Take Take, which will follow live games and players, explaining matches in an accessible way that, Carlsen says, is sometimes missing from streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch. "It will be a chiller vibe," he says.'

A clip from the app's Youtube channel made it to the short list for this month's featured video.

The World Chess Champion Opens Up About His Struggles (35:39) • '[Published on] Nov 4, 2024'

The channel's home page informs,

'Your front row seat to the world of chess. Download the app!' • 'Joined [Youtube] Sep 30, 2024'

The hosts of the clip are Kaja Snare and David Howell. In a post on an earlier title match, 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi, we saw them mentioned together in A Trio of World Championship Video Makers (December 2021). One of the many teams for the three video makers was:-

Chess24.com: Live commentary by GM David Howell, IM Jovanka Houska, and Norwegian journalist Kaja Snare.

As luck would have it, the featured 'Take Take Take' video received critical analysis on GMHikaru's Youtube channel:-

• 2024-11-06: World Championship Chess Predictions!?!?

GMs Carlsen, Ding Liren, and Nakamura (among many others) all provide expert commentary on the background for the forthcoming 2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh title match. There is much to be gleaned from the two videos.

Over the last six months my blogging has dropped to minimum activity -- five posts a month on this blog, one post a month on my chess960 blog, and nothing at all on my World Championship blog (WCCB). I would like to improve that.

Starting in April, external factors having nothing to do with chess took over my free time, but they have now subsided considerably. It's time to increase the frequency of posts.

Recent posts on this current blog are a continuation of ongoing series that I've been doing for many years. Two shorter term series were interrupted and could be restarted:-

• 2024-04-22: Vikings as AI Stereotypes [Monday series; AI comics]
• 2024-04-19: CFAA's CMP : Blogs [Friday series; Google's CMP, i.e. 'Consent Management Platform']

The last post on my WCCB blog was:-

• 2024-06-12: Toronto Candidates - Wrapup

With a new World Championship match to start at the end of the month, it's high time to reactivate the blog. On top of that I have more than five months of bookmarks to wade through. Consider this post a checkpoint to measure future progress.

Last month's Yahoos post, Historic Olympiad Yahoos (September 2024; see the footnote below for an explanation of Yahoos), had a single subject as the most important chess topic of the month:-

The 100 stories total for September had the first nine under a heading that proclaimed, 'India win historic double gold at Chess Olympiad'. I counted another 18 stories about the Olympiad for a total of 27, plus a few more stories lacking the word 'Olympiad' in the title.

This month's 97 stories -- 10 of them old stories from previous months -- lacked a clear favorite. Eight of the 97 stories were about the 9LX Champions Showdown, which I'll cover in a future post on my chess960 blog; see the link on the right navigation bar.

Another six stories were about the forthcoming World Championship match, which starts next month. I could cover these on my blog dedicated to the subject, but I haven't done much with it in the last six months. I'll include one not-so-typical story here:-

• 2024-10-30: Experience the thrill of FIDE World Chess Championship live in Singapore! (fide.com) • 'Join us in Singapore for the World Chess Championship and witness chess history in the making! Take advantage of specially curated travel packages, each combining exclusive access to the title match with unique attractions, and save up to 30% off.'

A couple of paragraphs at the end of that page explain, 'About the FIDE World Championship Match', but nowhere are the dates given (25 Nov. to 13 Dec.). Another six stories were about a match between a many time competitor for the Women's World Championship and a popular streamer:-

• 2024-10-21: Chess Legend Pia Cramling To Face Off With Levy Rozman In Battle Of Generations (chess.com; TarjeiJS) • 'Get ready for an exciting event between two generations, as Swedish chess legend GM Pia Cramling goes head-to-head against the Internet's chess teacher IM Levy Rozman in a six-day over-the-board event in Stockholm.'

A third batch of articles, with five stories, was about an important national tournament, the American championship:-

• 2024-10-29: Class acts: Caruana, Yip defend chess titles at U.S. national championships (washingtontimes.com; David R. Sands) • 'U.S. national champion GM Fabiano Caruana and U.S. women’s national titleholder IM Carissa Yip successfully defended their crowns at the national championship tournaments that ended last week at the Chess Club of St. Louis. It was the fourth open American title belt for Caruana, the country’s highest-rated player, and the third for Yip.'

I also noted a total of seven stories about Magnus Carlsen. These could all have been on the same angle, but the titles weren't obviously related and I didn't take the time to read them all. Here's one that had caught my interest even before I started the Yahoo list for October:-

• 2024-10-25: After 20 years at the top of chess, Magnus Carlsen is making his next move (apnews.com; Mark Lewis) • 'Offering a new way to interact with the game, Carlsen on Friday launched his application, Take Take Take, which will follow live games and players, explaining matches in an accessible way that, Carlsen says, is sometimes missing from streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch. "It will be a chiller vibe," he says.'

Hardly a month rolls by without another example of chess players behaving badly. The following stories, both from the same Chess.com journalist, each appeared twice:-

• 2024-10-21: Shevchenko Given 75-Day Ban Amid Cheating Investigation, Misses European Club Cup (chess.com; TarjeiJS) • '[FIDE] has handed GM Kirill Shevchenko a temporary 75-day suspension following last weekend's expulsion from the Spanish Team Chess Championship, where two locked phones were found in a bathroom.'
  
  
• 2024-10-21: Christopher Yoo Issues Apology After Strike: 'Very Sad For What I Did' (chess.com; TarjeiJS) • '17-year-old GM Christopher Yoo expresses deep remorse following his expulsion from the 2024 U.S Chess Championship where he struck a videographer.'

With so many disparate chess topics, I needed a collective noun to group them together. I went looking for a word in one of my favorite reference books, a thesaurus, where -- after throng, multitude, horde, ..., crowd -- I found the perfect word. What was that word? See the title of this post.

[Yahoos (mainstream news stories about chess) are derived from Google News top-100 (or so) stories from the past month.]

For last month's post, September 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (September 2024), we saw four Americans who were newly minted IMs 50 years ago and the logo for a controversial type of FIDE World Championship played 25 years ago. This month we see the leading American GM of 50 years ago, but the FIDE event has disappeared.

Left: '?'
Right: 'Serper Grabs World Open Title'

Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)

U.S. Champion Walter Browne, who after winning his title went on to win the Pan-American Championship in Winnipeg, Canada. The U.S. Championship story is [inside]. Photo by Burt Hochberg.

There was more about GM Browne on 'The Editor's Page - News & Views' by Burt Hochberg. This was a regular column in those days.

Walter Browne continues onward and upward. Following his crisp U.S. Championship victory, the American grandmaster went after the Pan-American Individual Championship in Winnipeg, Canada. Though he expected to win it, his dominance of the field was reminiscent of Fischer's performances in tournaments of equivalent strength: Walter gave up only three draws in fifteen games, winning the other twelve. Starting with the World Open in July and including the U.S. Championship and the Winnipeg tournament, Browne has played 37 games without a loss, and this record no doubt stretches further back.

His sudden prominence has not gone unnoticed by the media. The September 2 issue of Newsweek, for instance, devoted two thirds of a page to Browne, reacting to the public's increased awareness of chess since the onset of the Fischer era. The public needs heroes, and so do the media. Walter's youth, his confidence, his lifestyle, his looks -- all fit the public's idea of the dynamic modern sports figure. And since media interest is good for chess, we say more power to him.

This was the first of Browne's six American championship titles. In the same issue he authored a report titled 'The U.S. Championship, by Walter Browne, U.S. Champion'. The five page article, half of which were raw game scores, started,

After the poorly-organized Olympics at Nice (construction noises at the hotel began at 6:00 A.M.), I was looking forward to the excellent conditions normally surrounding a U.S. Championship. Unfortunately, however, on first sight of the playing room I noticed that the players would be quite cramped, while the lighting was very dim.

It was also clear that there was no analysis room, so after the games the players had to sit on the floor outside the playing room. Near the end of the tournament, Bisguier and Evans came up with a table and chairs. Obviously, they had a lot of influence!

The opening ceremony went smoothly. Evans chose No. 1 and I had to play Black against John Grefe in the first round. After the ceremony we all adjourned to a fine Yugoslav restaurant which provided lively entertainment.

The tournament report was a game-by-game description of Browne's progress through the event. For example, 'In the ninth round against Bisguier, I played one of the best games of my life.' That game is available online: Walter Browne vs Arthur Bisguier; United States Championship (1974), Chicago, IL USA, rd 9, Jul-25 (chessgames.com; '"Browne Bagging It", game of the day Oct-07-2006'). For Browne's previous cover appearance, see July 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (July 2024; 'On the right is GM Walter Browne, winner of the 4th Statham Tournament in Lone Pine, Cal.').

Chess Life (25 Years Ago)

Congratulations to Alexander Khalifman for winning FIDE's Knockout World Championship, which ended August 29th. And kudos go out to Alex Yermolinsky for his tiebreak victory in the 100th U.S. Open, held at the Sands Regency in Reno, Nevada. Marcel Martinez won the Junior Invitational, hosted by the Mechanic's Institute of San Francisco. And while Boris Gulko, Yasser Seirawan, Gregory Serper and Alex Yermolinsky battle it out in the finals of the Interplay U.S. Championship, we congratulate Anjelina Belakovskaia for winning the Interplay U.S. Woman's Championship in Salt Lake City. Stories will follow next month.

Our main feature this month is on the World Open, won by Gregory Serper, after a tiebreak session of quick play games. Steven Seward of Cleveland, Ohio, again provided the artwork for this month's cover. He enjoys doing portraits, and, judging by your letters, you enjoy his work.

This marks the third time we've seen artwork by Seward of Ohio. The previous cover was January 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (January 2024; 'We again called on portraitist Steven Seward of Cleveland, Ohio, to work his magic for our cover.')

The 'main feature' of the issue was a three page report, 'Serper Breaks Log Jam at World Open' by Jerry Hanken. The author was a regular contributor of reports on top-level U.S. chess events of that period. It started,

The 27th Annual World Open, held over the Independence Day weekend, was one of the most exciting and interesting of this great series of tournaments. This was the 15th in a row held at the elegant Adams Mark Hotel in the upscale City Line area of Philadelphia. With adjustments for re-entries in the lower sections (they're not allowed in the Open), the total was 1,470 players, a significant increase of 36 over last year's. The prize fund was increased by $10,000, making the prizes even deeper than last year's.

As it is every year, the World Open was by far the largest U.S. non-scholastic open in attendance and prizes. With the New York Open taking a sabbatical this year, the 30 grandmasters who graced the Open section was again by far the largest number in any U.S. tournament. (Of course, I am not counting the FIDE Las Vegas extravaganza.)

"So who won the shooting match, Hanken? Don't keep us in suspense!" Ah, as Bill Shakespeare said, "Thereby hangs a tale!" In a word, it was Gregory Serper, a very likeable and genial ex-Soviet player who now lives in Cleveland, Ohio (GM City USA, with Yermolinsky, Goldin, and Lein also making the lakeside big town home), who hopes soon to be a U.S. citizen.

GM Serper is today a regular contributor to Chess.com. For an index of his writings, see Gserper's Articles (chess.com).

So what about the news on the FIDE Championship? It was confined to 'Alexander Khalifman Is FIDE World Chess Champion' by Peter Kurzdorfer and started,

Who would've thunk it? The FIDE Knockout World Chess Championship in Las Vegas produced the biggest upset in all world championship history!

Russian Grandmaster Alexander Khalifman, while certainly a very good player. has never been ranked at the very top among world-class grandmasters. He was seeded 36th in the knockout championship, even though top-10 GMs Kasparov, Anand, Morozevich, and Karpov were not competing. Nevertheless, he fought his way through the tournament, winning all seven matches by knocking out grandmasters Dibyendu Barua, Gata Kamsky, Karen Asrian, Boris Gelfand, Judit Polgar, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, and Vladimir Akopian.

The two-column report by CL Assistant Editor Kurzdorfer was the eighth feature in that month's magazine, sandwiched between 'Six Tie for First at North Bay [Ontario, Canada] International' and '1999 U.S. Blind Champion'. The Jerry Hanken report on the World Open was the fifth feature after 'U.S. Amateur Playoffs', 'Pan-Am Promo', 'CJA Awards', and '1999 U.S. Amateur Championships'.

We can only speculate on the reason for the low profile of the FIDE event in CL. Was it because of the bad showing by the U.S. players, all of whom were eliminated no later than the second of the seven rounds? Or was it because of bad blood between USCF, as the American federation was known at that time, and FIDE? I'm guessing it was both.