06 March 2014

March 1964 'On the Cover'

What was happening in the U.S. chess press 50 years ago?


Left: 'Action at the Marshall C.C.'
Right: 'Two Generations'

Chess Life

Walter Harris (left) engages Bill Slater in a skittles game at the Marshall. Harris, the first Negro to be rated a USCF Master, is now serving with the U.S. Air Force and is stationed at Mather AFB, California. Photo by EBONY Magazine. (p.65)

For more about Harris, see A Conversation with Walter Harris [thechessdrum.net]. NB: Issues of Chess Life from this period had no table of contents.

Chess Review

The picture happens to be of the Yugoslav Championship but is symbolic of all the chess world. Pirc, the old timer, stares at the board with fierce determination to succeed yet once again. Behind him, Parma of the coming generation, scans the position deliberately enough, but with an air of cool assurance. There is a moral which the old timers all know well but which no one can really succeed in imparting to the chess masters still on their way up. (p.68)

For more about Pirc, see Vasja Pirc [Wikipedia]; ditto Bruno Parma [Wikipedia]. As for 'a moral which the old timers all know well', I'm baffled.

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