I thought Jason's comment on the Chess Life item was worthy of its own post. At the very least, consider this an open thread to complain about or compliment the format of this year's US Championship.
I personally like the new redesign of the Chess Life, although the problems in Soltis's column should not be blue boards on a blue field!
I strongly disagree with comparing NIC to Chess Life -- I feel they have different target audiences. For example, I think Chess Life is not designed as a place for the stronger players to learn about the newest theory or the latest relevant game to their favorite openings. Chess Life, as I have always seen it, is there to showcase American chess and is more generally geared to players in the B-E classes. The changes to the design seem to strengthen that view.
The other redesign of Chess Life is the new focus on web content, where Chess Life has been way behind other places. It remains to be seen how good the web redesign is, but they clearly have the vision to relocate much Chess Life content to the web, which will hopefully enhance both the magazine and the website.
Now, Paul's complaint about our team getting snubbed in coverage in Chess Life is a big-big problem. As I said, Chess Life should FOCUS on American events. Growing up in the South, I always cherished my Chess Life to tell me about the local heroes from around the country. For example, they should do much more coverage of all (or many) the state championships (and Am. Team events!), as they once did fairly well. I do hope they begin to focus on that again.
Finally, the US Championship needs a complete rehaul of its format. This should be discussed in Chess Life, and on this blog, and we should protest for major changes.
I personally like the new redesign of the Chess Life, although the problems in Soltis's column should not be blue boards on a blue field!I strongly disagree with comparing NIC to Chess Life -- I feel they have different target audiences. For example, I think Chess Life is not designed as a place for the stronger players to learn about the newest theory or the latest relevant game to their favorite openings. Chess Life, as I have always seen it, is there to showcase American chess and is more generally geared to players in the B-E classes. The changes to the design seem to strengthen that view.
The other redesign of Chess Life is the new focus on web content, where Chess Life has been way behind other places. It remains to be seen how good the web redesign is, but they clearly have the vision to relocate much Chess Life content to the web, which will hopefully enhance both the magazine and the website.
Now, Paul's complaint about our team getting snubbed in coverage in Chess Life is a big-big problem. As I said, Chess Life should FOCUS on American events. Growing up in the South, I always cherished my Chess Life to tell me about the local heroes from around the country. For example, they should do much more coverage of all (or many) the state championships (and Am. Team events!), as they once did fairly well. I do hope they begin to focus on that again.
Finally, the US Championship needs a complete rehaul of its format. This should be discussed in Chess Life, and on this blog, and we should protest for major changes.
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