Ok i make myself buy it at the bookstore as i droped my membership several years ago.The other day i was going thru some old chess life some from as far back as 1971 an the decline is very stark.You had more games in one of the 1972 magizines as you have in a entire 12 month run nowdays.The heads of the u s chess federation cry out for the older members to stop leaving well go back to the 1972 78 formats an i will sign up.what they cannot understand a lot of older players like to look at games the old way with a board an a magazine loaded with games.
Why is Chess Live magazine so bad
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The Internet has changed the way chess magazines cover events. Inside Chess is a perfect example. Seirawan brought the magazine out in the late 80's to top notch games out much faster than existing publications and it worked quite well as he did 23 issues a year. However the Internet (especially TWIC) made his publication seem dated and eventually it folded.
Chess Life is shadow of its former self due to budget and financial issues. The 1970's (and even 80's and early 90's) had lots of good columns, interesting articles and other material that made it fun to read. Now with so few pages (and it seems more advertising) there is perhaps one or two feature worth reading.
Not sure if there are many chess magazines that are "thriving"--New in Chess is the only one I know of that is doing OK and some of the stronger regional ones (such as Chess Horizons) are also surviving.
There has been much discussion of doing away with Chess Life printed edition and making it online only. They fired a couple of good editors and also cut back resources. It is difficult to market a magazines to both beginners and experts. Also the USCF I think has been losing adult members for years and now is becoming more of a scholastic organization --though the eliminated the scholastic officer as well. Bottom line is they have deep and serious financial issues which seem to be worsening.
yes the internet has loads of games however back to my POINT older players like the old format.Inside Chess was a great magazine.IT had cheaper paper an would cost less to make as compared to the one put out now.If they put out something like the Seirawan mag i would buy a life membership.what they put out now is a joke an thats why the decine of adult membership.I was sad when inside stop"d being put out.IT was a bit over priced however if chess live used the same cheaper paper an the same inside chess format with lots of games they would see a reversal of the decine in membership an save money also on the cost of production of each magazine.Also some of the young kids would see what they missed out on.
Commercially a printed magazine has not made much sense which is why Inside Chess stopped publication.
Have you looked at Chess Horizons ? It is published by the MA State and is excellent--good articles, games etc. I think they have sample articles on line for you to check out. Basically your choices are BCM. Chess, NIC and Chess Life (in English) outside of the smaller regional magazines. All cost about $60-75 or so per year and have different features.
If Seirawan would put oui inside once a month he could have cut his cost in half i bought it anyway however if he would decide to re do now same format but instead of evey two wks i would pay up to $40 TO 50 a year for it now.I think it would be a surprise hit.
At the end (the last 3 years or so) Inside Chess was published once a month--with print and postage costs high and a dwindling subscriber base he folded--I am not sure any chess magazine at 12 issues sells for $50--all I know of are $10-30 higher than that. Also there is effectively no ad revenue from chess which is why these magazines are difficult to sustain economically.
All true however chess life is in tour all over America an they put out a magazine anyway then why not use cheaper paper an change the content format as what they do now is not working an they claim the aim of keeping older members such as myself is the key to long term survival of the orginaztion.Also they made a big mistake giving up on chess live online rated play.Inside never had more than about 20% of the subcription base of Chess Life so with the already existing overhead of puting out a monthly mag then why not change to cheaper paper like inside did an change the format that would be a wi win situation for Chess Life.
The USCF has not kept up with the times. With the advance of online chess sites (like this), the amount of games, information, & teaching sites for chess, make the chess life magazine obsolete. I use to like the magazine when I was growing up, because there was nothing else really for a chess enthuiast. But now the cost of the magazine & chess membership is too costly for a lot of chess palyers. The only reason people still pay for membership and need to be a USCF member is for being able to play in official rated tournaments. I stopped playing in rated tournaments after high school. If you're a chess player who just likes playing chess for the pure pleasure of playing the game, the USCF is not necessary anymore. Cmon! I mean really! They don't even have an online chess playing site like this one or others out there! Not to worry Erik, because this is a GREAT site, but isn't it Ironic that the USCF (supposedly the premier chess organization of the U.S.) doesn't have an online chess playing site)?
Oct 12, 2014
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#11
Rather interesting, as I'm speaking with someone related to Chess Life as to why the magazine has lost something. The one thing I noticed is that early issues of Chess Life have key articles, such as the Theoretically Speaking column (GMs Patrick Woff and Joel Benjamin answer questions about theory sent in by Chess Life readers), The Check is in the Mail by NM Alex Dunne (which put the spotlight on correspondance chess) and Opening Forum by Edmar Mednis, but also articles which got spread over 3 or 4 issues like Passed Pawns in the Middlegame by Rudy Blumenfeld and IM Danny Kopec. It never occured to me they don't display as many games as they used to (must do a count). But it would be really neat if they could get a GM like Carlsen to do a monthly column ala. Garry Kasparov's Fighting Chess column or Anatoly Karpov's Grandmaster Musings column.
Now I understand that some of these columns can't be done anymore (cause the authors are not with us) but there has to be a reason for me to pay a few dollars more for the magazine (wow they publish in colour, big deal, they used to partially publish in color, but the price wasn't more expensive). Outta curiosity, did anyone seen an issue dedicated to Jerry Hankin or GM Larry Evans (or maybe an issue dedicated to those chess people that have passed on)?
