Chess to Enjoy / Entertainment 1979
weekend Swisses. If I relaxed after the 50th move and took a mental rest, I soon found myself in time trouble all over again, trying to reach the next control at move 75. The same goes for columns. As soon as
I file, say, the July Chess to Enjoy, the clock is ticking for August. My clock is always ticking. After a few years, I had started work
on dozens of potential columns in my computer. Some were waiting for more material, like a recent game to illustrate a key point. Each would be based on one those questions I kept wondering about: Did any world champions compose prob-
Steinitz had been dead for eight years.
But he appeared in “a white shape” and told Marshall to create a passed pawn after 33. ... c5!. The next day he won after 34. Qa8 Bxe3
35. Bxe3 cxd4 36. cxd4 c5! and 37. dxc5 Qc4+ 38. Kf3 d4 39. Bf4 Qxc5. “I owe Steinitz much but this is perhaps my greatest debt,” Marshall wrote. The story was left out of My Fifty Years in Chess, probably because Marshall fans didn’t want to read about a U.S. champion that flaky. As my manila folders filled up I formu- lated a few basic rules for Chess to Enjoy:
(1) NEVER REPEAT YOURSELF. That’s almost impossible to adhere to.
But I decided to vary the subjects as much as possible from month to month. In the course of a year I usually write one or two columns a year about openings, one or two about some middlegame features, and maybe one about the endgame. That wasn’t a formula. It just worked out that way. I also found I was writing about new phenomena, like mouse-slips or how to second-guess your computer, as well as about things from the not-too-distant past such as sealed moves, the Lone Pine tour- naments, adjudication, New York’s Flea House, wallboard boys, Shelby Lyman’s 1972 TV show and the National (Tele- phone) League. Annotation was another favorite topic,
and I wrote about how some masters write “up” and others write “down” and how in one famous game different annotators would give the same move a “?,” a “!,” a “!?” or a “?!”. In one of my favorite columns I suggested using some of the under-uti- lized keys on a keyboard to annotate a game Informant-style—such as with “$” to indicate when one player offers his opponent a bribe.
(2) TRY TO HAVE SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IN EACH COLUMN.
Most chess columns are written for a ratings-specific audience. Some are aimed
at 800 to 1200 players. Others at 1200 to 1600. Or 1600 to 2000. There’s at least one magazine aimed at players rated over 2500—or who like to think they are. I recognized this could be a problem
when I began a newspaper column in 1972: If it consisted just of analysis of one game, I would be unintentionally excluding a large chunk of readers. So my newspaper columns told stories, relayed news, offered insights. The diagram would be a White-to-play-and-win, not a footnote to the week’s game. USCF members are a pretty sophisti-
cated lot so I decided to try the same with Chess to Enjoy. Some readers may like one of the games I include in a column. Others may be interested in an anecdote or some famous player’s quote. Or an observation might strike them. I knew from experience that no one was
going to like everything in a column. But if I provided enough things to like, Chess to Enjoy just might last. And my third rule was:
(3) AS SOON AS YOU MAKE THIS MONTH’S DEADLINE, THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR NEXT MONTH’S.
That’s something I learned from surviving 50-moves-in-two-hour time controls in
lems? What were the greatest matches that should have been played but didn’t? How good are the children of world class players? Is the Alapin’s Opening (1. e4 e5 2. Ne2) really bad? What about Marshall’s forgotten variation of the French and Sicilian Defenses (1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 c5!? and 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 d5)? Why are trophies awarded at so many tournaments? Did Arpad Elo play in tourna ments? Sometimes it took years before I felt a
file had enough in it to be ready for print. For example, in 1987 I began a file about how superstitious grandmasters are. The column finally appeared last August. Another file I’ve kept is titled “How much
chess” and contains notes of what various great players regarded as the right number of tournament games to play in a year. I’ve been adding to it for 30 years. It’s still not ready. Some columns were inspired by my wife
Marcy, like when she asked whether I see the colors of the pieces when I calculate variations mentally. Why hadn’t I thought about that before? Other columns were inspired by readers. Keith Halonen of Rohn- ert Park, California wrote me to ask: With all the attention paid to prodigies, are there late bloomers in chess? I respond ed in Jan- uary 1986 with some notable examples. But I also came to a curious conclusion: Several great—and many non-great-play-
1989
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