January Preview / This month in Chess Life and CLO Editor’s Letter: Celebrating Columns
While we mourn the loss of Pal Benko’s 45-year run of “Endgame Lab” columns because of Benko’s retirement gambit (see December 2013 issue), we at the same time celebrate our remaining columnists in this issue. We lead off with GM Andy Soltis’ column “Chess to Enjoy,” which debuted on these pages 35 years ago this month. We asked him to expand his column for this issue to feature-length, and the result is a fascinating look back at the consistently most entertaining item in Chess Life these many decades. He answers some questions that have been asked many times, such as, “Why did you wait so long to ditch descriptive notation?” Furthering our Soltis celebration, we have a review by GM Ben Finegold of his new edition of Pawn Structure Chess on page 12.
With pure instruction aimed at the class player, GM Lev Alburt’s “Back to Basics” has grown into one of our most popular columns ever. We acknowledge this with a version of his column, also in feature-length. A writer new to our pages, Chris Wainscott, writes about his trials and travails trying to turn himself into a master-level player. Alburt offers his insights and advice in a format designed to help any struggling class player trying to improve. Our other remaining columnist is Bruce Pandolfini and his “Solitaire Chess” column that includes “The ABCs of Chess,” which shares its genesis in the same time frame as “Chess to Enjoy.” But what will we be doing with the space formerly occupied by “Endgame Lab”? We don’t want to rush to replace a legend and so are carefully considering a number of options. If we do secure a new columnist, we would like it to be someone with a chance of having his own tribute feature in 35 or 45 years.
Soltis is not the only one celebrating an anniversary this year. September 2014 will mark the 75th anniversary of the USCF. We plan a special issue for September that will celebrate this. So here’s to the old, the new, and the current, but most of all, here’s to your chess life. -Daniel Lucas, Editor
CHESS LIFE ONLINE PREVIEW: JANUARY U.S. Chess Scoop videos on YouTube
Look for U.S. Chess Scoop videos on our YouTube channel,
www.youtube.com/user/USChessFederation, including a report from the Liberty Bell Open over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend (January 17-20), and a piece where some average Joes of South Philly teach the rules of the game.
WIJK ATTACK: Follow GM Hikaru Nakamura, seeded second in Tata Steel Chess 2014 (January 10-26, Wijk aan Zee) and enjoy exclusive CLO coverage including a piece by GM Ian Rogers.
CHESS AND SCHOOL IN ST. LOUIS: Last year’s Best of CLO winner Kostya Kavutskiy, writes about moving to St. Louis to attend Lindenwood and how he combines the burgeoning chess culture of St. Louis with academics.
BEST OF CLO: What was the best Chess Life Online article of 2013? See what our judges think in our yearly countdown, where we pause to examine some journalistic highlights you have missed.
FM MIKE KLEIN The PopChess cover story is by the director of content for
Chess.com and the 2012 Chess Journalist of the Year. He also teaches, freelances, bikes and snowboards, though never more than any two at the same time.
CHRIS WAINSCOTT “Beyond the Basics” is penned by a writer who grew up in Midland, Texas where he learned to play chess at the age of four at the end of the Fischer boom. In addition to chess his hobbies include reading, listening to music, playing the guitar, and fishing. He writes a daily blog at
http://www.chessiq.com/blog/.
FM ALEX DUNNE The “Correspondence Chess Roundup” is by the correspondence chess director of the USCF. His monthly column “The Check is in the Mail” is on
uschess.org.
STEVE CHELLLIS Our cover artist writes: “I’m a painter. A painter who happens to be an artist. Sometimes I am wary to call myself an artist. This is because I’m not exactly sure what an artist is anymore. There are the elements of art that I embrace such as transformation, timelessness, and particularity. Artists used to be workers like everyone else. Just like the mason, the farmer, or the blacksmith. Nowadays they are fools, pranksters, and con-men. I’ve played the part and have grown tired of playing cat and mouse.”
www.uschess.org 3
CONTRIBUTORS
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