Thanks for the pointer to that site, as I wasn't aware of it. It looks great for opening study and GM articles and games.
I was mostly looking for article content and authors that might have been popular during certain years. I guess that is rather ambiguous, as what one reader might like might be different than me. So I'll peruse over the years and see what jumps out of interest to me.
I joined the USCF in 1976 ( I was 14 years old) - the first magazine I received was the November issue of Chess Life and Review - it had Sal Matera and Kim Commons on the cover. The issue had coverage of the interzonals in Manilla and Biel. The issues from 1976 - 1978 are my favorite - growing up I followed all the candidates matches. The magazines presented all the games of each match and each was annotated by Benko, Kavalek, or Mednis. I was gifted Chess Life and Review magazines from 1971-73 which had coverage of Fischer's candidates and world championship matches - all annotated.
The Bobby Fischer era. Culminating in the Fischer-Spassky World Championship match of 1972.
There's actually a couple of books that collect the best articles from these magazines, selected by Pandolfini.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Chess-Review-Fireside-Library/dp/0671619861
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Chess-Review-Fireside-Library/dp/0671661752
There's actually a couple of books that collect the best articles from these magazines, selected by Pandolfini.
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Chess-Review-Fireside-Library/dp/0671619861
https://www.amazon.com/Best-Chess-Review-Fireside-Library/dp/0671661752
I have both books. They are excellent. Note volume 1 covers the period 1933-1960; volume 2 covers 1960-1988. From the Amazon webpage, here are screenshots of the back cover of both books...
Just pick interesting dates in chess history ( Fischer - Spassky match .. etc) and read about them. The 90s with Kasparov - Karpov matches were a lot of fun.
Late 1968 the Daytona Beach Library had a book of selected articles from several decades of Chess Review, before it merged with Chess Life. So entertaining and inspiring it was to this young novice. It featured a satire of My System, written by Hans Kmoch, kmocking Nimzovitch, many amazing miniatures, and a humorous poem to teach the pronunciations of famous players' names. Included was a wild game (Ponziani Opening?) that finished with a double rook sacrifice. That blew me away and triggered my love of the game. I read every chess book in that library.
I can't find this now, as every search brings a ton of hits on Best of Chess Life & Review, post merger. I read all of those articles in the (merged) magazine as the came out. I wish I could find that older compendium I loved so much.
With the archive of all previous Chess Life and Review available online, any recommendations on when the best years were? I'd like to go through them, but there are so many issues, that it would take me a lifetime. So interested if others found certain years better than others for learning, training, and stories.