Today’s Vintage Chess Humor!
When Size Used to Matter…
Times have certainly changed for chess players! I remember being 30-something, before lap-tops became popular, travelling to tournaments with a suitcase full of chess books and magazines. It was just the ‘normal’ thing to do…so ‘big’ books were frowned upon.
Today I have my entire library (and more!) on my pc and now my suitcase is just for clothes and such.
Another thing that has changed…
The above painting appeared in ChessReview of May, 1939. ChessReview claimed to the official ‘organ’ of the USCF in those times. The image is a reproduction taken from the very popular magazine Esquire-Coronet, February 1939 edition.
The point that I am making is this: could you ever imagine the USCF (American Chess Federation) TODAY allowing such an image to appear in its magazine? No, of course not!
While America has long had a very liberal attitude towards nudity and sex, the American chess community has become extremely conservative over the years. Probably because of the increasing influence of the ‘Bible Belt’ in the organizations leadership…
So much has changed in the past 80 years in American chess’ leadership that on the USCF’s forum my blog’s name is not even allowed to be mentioned and doing so might get you suspended (even though tens of thousands of USCF members regularly read my blog!). You go figure it out! (The USCF has probably banned the word ‘organ’ also!)
