Sarah's Chess Journal

        
my journal, blog, web log, blog.....about

        
The History and The Culture of Chess


Chess in the Press
    May  2006



Stephen Leary edited a short-lived internet publication - from around April 1993 through February 1994 - called Chess in the Press.

He served, for a time, as "Chess Chronicler" for Mind Sports Worldwide (MSO), an online magazine now defunct. They profiled him in their February 19, 2000 issue with the following:

    Stephen Leary learned to play chess at age 8. Inspired by Bobby Fischer's conquest of the world championship, Steve began playing in chess tournaments during the Fischer Boom of the mid-1970s.
   In high school, he played first board on the chess team and lost only one game during his three years of inter-school competition. Over the years he won a number of local tournaments in Ohio. His rating peaked at USCF 2229.
   In the late 1980s, Steve hopped aboard the Internet. He began posting his "Chess In The Press" roundups of chess news in the general press to the rec.games.chess newsgroup in the early 1990s.
   In 1993, Steve was instrumental in the creation of the rec.games.chinese-chess newsgroup, and maintained the FAQ for several years. Later, he created the "XiangQi Teahouse" website.
   Steve graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in Journalism, and was editor of the student newspaper. He also has a master's degree in Library Science from Kent State University. He currently works as a research librarian.

There were only a few chess publications prior to the rapid growth of the world-wide-web in the mid 1990's. Chess in the Press was one of the earliest.

While there were a few others, here is a timeline of the some of the more popular early internet publications:

Chess Bits - Issue #1, May 15th, 1992
Chess in the Press - Issue #1, undated; Issue #2, May 24, 1993
TWIC - Issue #1, Sept. 19, 1994
IECC Chess Bits & Pieces - Issue #1, March 1995

Chess in the Press was an unusual publication that contained no games nor analyses, but simply chess-related news blurbs and news stories. Some are funny, some interesting, some bland, but the collection is a wonderful mix of things we may have otherwise forgotten.

The 11 issues of Chess in the Press can be read here:



 

links
Personal
Sarah's Serendipitous Chess Page
The Life and Chess of Paul Morphy

Chess - in  general

Chesslinks Worldwide
Rythmomachy Chess Links

Chess History

Mark Week's History on the Web
Chess Journalists of America
Chess History Newsgroup
Hebrew Chess
Chess Tourn. & Match History
Super Tournaments of the Past
La grande storia degli scacchi
Bobby Fischer
Bill Wall's Chess Pages
Edward Winter's Chess Notes
Schaaklinks - biographical links
Cambridge Springs

 

 


My Chess Biographies

Carlos Repetto Torre
Gioacchino Greco
Henry Thomas Buckle
La Bourdonnais
Francois Andre Philidor
Philidor's Opponents
Rashid  Nezhmetdinov
Rudolf Charousek
William E. Napier
G. H. Mackenzie
Lisa Lane
Karl Schlechter
Prince André Dadian
Henry Thomas Buckle
Joseph Blackburne
Isodore Gunsberg
James Mason
William Lewis
George Walker
Augustus Mongredien
Adolf Anderssen
Saint Amant
Daniel Harrwitz
Samuel Boden
Johann  Löwenthal
Howard Staunton
The Duke of Brunswick Charles Henry Stanley
Louis Paulsen
Deschapelles
Jacob Henry Sarratt
Alexander McDonnell
Joszef Szen
Vincent Grimm
John Cochrane
George Atwood
del Rio, Lolli, Ponziani
Arpad Elo
Sultan Khan


My Historical Explorations

Renaissance:
    Seeds to the Renaissance
    The Catalysts
    Chess Literature
    Chess Players

    Sofonisba Anguissola
    Schaccia, Ludus by Vida
    The Black Death
    Da Vinci
    Caissa 
by
William Jones
    Aristotle's Children

Chess Automatons
The Origins of Chess
Chess History is a Pain!
 
Girl Chess I
The Forgotten Philidor

 


Miscellaneous:

Franklin's Morales of Chess Pandolfini's Comandments
Six Chess Vignettes
Fischer's 10 Greatest
My Life as a Chess Criminal Celebrities Playing Chess
Mis/Dis Information
Morphy's Brilliant Moves
What is Chess
Schachdorf Ströbeck

 


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