NOTES & NOTICES
EDITOR’ S NOTE
I’ M PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE A NEW COL- umn beginning with this issue of �e Chess Journalist. Hank Anzis will take on a practicum for chess bloggers and would-be bloggers. �e blog( abbreviated from weblog) is the newest of journalistic genres and its growth and popularity since the advent of the internet has been phenomenal. �e challengers are, first, getting started, which requires the motivation all non-professional writers need but also a certain amount of technical savvy; second, there is the challenge of getting your blog to stand out and get noticed from the many. Hank offers practical advice on these and other topics. Hank’ s own blog, Broken Pawn, won the 2011 CJA Best Blog award. I am also looking for someone willing to take on a parallel column devoted to a practicum for state chess association and private chess websites. If you know of someone who might be a good person to author such a column, please let me know. Columns run about 1000 words four times a year— not too onerous, and it gives one another platform to promote one’ s good work. Similarly, I am placing my articles under the column-heading Redactions. My practicum is directed to the print editors of state chess associations. I would delighted if a state association print editor would like to author such a column, then my own articles can run as an at-large column. �us, ideally, I’ d like to see �e Chess Journalist publish three practicum colums each issue( print, web, blog), in addition to features of chess journalism, history, and scholarship.( Next issue will publish a feature by the redoubtable Dan Heisman.) I had a terrific response to my last call for volunteers. Yet, there is still room here for you. Write me.
— MNT
“ I always wished my reporting to be objective but to read like a fairytale. The more the time passes, the more nostalgic I grow and more convinced that literature and journalism are conjoined.”— Gabriel Garcia Marquez
AL LAWRENCE CJA INTERIM PRESIDENT
The CJA search committee, led by Daniel Lucas, has secured the services of Al Lawrence as the association’ s interim president. Al will serve in this capacity until the next formal meeting, this August 2012 at the Vancouver, Washington, U. S. Open. An author, a former USCF executive director, and Chess Life managing editor, Al brings considerable experience at a crucial time. Read his President’ s Message where he lays out his vision for the future of the CJA.
Above: Al Lawrence Below: Hank Anzis
WORLD CHESS FEDERATION OBJECTS TO WORLD CHESS FEDERATION
An excerpt of a letter received from Yan Alan, WCF Secretary:
We at World Chess Federation must take issue with your comments on page 3 of the Spring / Summer 2011 The Chess Journalist. Specifically the erroneous comment that the English designation World Chess Federation for FIDE is long established.
No, it is not. World Chess Federation prevailed over FIDE in a 17 year fight whereupon the courts after extensive review settled the issue once and for all time. As a party to the Madrid Agreement on worldwide trade names and trademarks, the issue is settled.
There follow directions on how to read the included seven pages of legal documents, articles, and notices. Interlaced are cryptic references to Alekhine’ s assassination and other surprisingly underreported thunderbolts of chess history. So. The fact that a Las Vegas organization was granted the rights to the name World Chess Federation( WCF) a few years ago does not nullify the fact that FIDE has been commonly translated as World Chess Federation for several decades.( E. g., Horton’ s 1959 Dictionary of Chess, p. 66; Brace’ s 1989 Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, p. 308; Golombeck’ s 1976 Chess: A History, p. 196— just to grab a few books off my shelf. I could produce the earliest use of this translation, but I am presently too busy channeling Morphy – Fischer games.) It is also true that other writers translate FIDE more closely as International Chess Federation or leave it untranslated in French, either option which I personally find preferable to WCF. And lest anyone think your editor is just another FIDE lackey, I remind readers that I was the first to publish— at great risk to my personal reputation— a photograph of a FIDE president’ s secret meeting with an extraterrestrial alien( see our last issue, p. 8). l
Fall 2011 The Chess Journalist 3