There really aren’t a lot of choices for chess magazines published in the United States with a national – and international – focus, and Bob Long’s new project is worthy of attention and support. The inaugural issue contains an interesting content mix that runs the gamut from historic biography to contemporary analysis, with enough of everything in between to find something of interest for just about any chess fan. I enjoyed its eclectic mix even if its multiple fonts and graphics and boxes and pictures and ads left my eyes crying for relief by page 66.

For those who only know chess publishers Gambit, Everyman, or Batsford, you need to get out a little more and take a look at the books and other publications of Chessco/Thinker’s Press. They have published some outstanding volumes, including Soltis’ CONFESSIONS OF A CHESS GRANDMASTER and GRANDMASTER SECRETS ENDINGS (click to see Silman’s and Watson’s reviews of this book), Gerzadowics’ JOURNAL OF A CHESS ORIGINAL (click HERE to see Silman’s review of this book), and Gufeld and Lazarev’s LEONID STEIN, MASTER OF RISK STRATEGY. Long has also been a bookseller and chess promoter for decades. Players in the Midwest part of the United States have often run across him selling his wares at tournaments, and he has also organized Midwest chess festivals that have featured the likes of GMs Kavalek, Rowson and Gufeld and IMs Minev, Silman and Donaldson.

This is the first issue for what is slated to be a quarterly publication. It certainly looks like an interesting product. Long’s contacts as a publisher are evident in the roster of contributors: in this issue they include Rowson and Donaldson as well as a couple other Thinker’s Press Authors.

I enjoyed the mix of articles in this first issue – it was a potpourri or smorgasbord of interesting material. Rowson analyzed a game from the Olympaid; Imre Konig argued that Louis Paulsen, not Nimzovitsch, was the early father of hypermodern chess; Ken Whyld related his experiences writing a chess encyclopedia; Andrew Martin pens a theoretical article on the King’s Indian; Amatzia Avni discussed how chess ideas are born; Karsten Muller analyzes rook endgames from the Hamburg City International 2002; eight games from the Konig Memorial in San Francisco are analyzed, etc. Even beyond these articles, there is a lot of material that I haven’t mentioned, including discussion of a new book about Arthur Bisguier, chess antiques and wooden chess sets, at how the Thinker’s Press series of books by and about C.J.S. Purdy came about, and more coverage of chess history. There is plenty more that isn’t mentioned here – truly a wide range of topics and authors.

It seems likely, given the first issue, that the magazine intends to cover a wide range of chess topics. While NEW IN CHESS focuses mostly on high caliber international events and CHESS LIFE on U.S. events and instruction (with an occasional feature), SQUARES looks to be more of a general purpose magazine that focuses on a variety of chess subjects and topics.

While there are lots of things to like about this first issue, it will be interesting to see if the same depth and breadth of material will be available in future issues. The folks at Thinker’s Press are generally busy with their work publishing and selling chess books and equipment, and a magazine (even one published quarterly) takes a lot of work. It is notable that not all the material in this first issue is new – Konig’s article on Paulsen has appeared in a couple of other places, an article by Ken Colby is from his book SECRETS OF A GRANDPATZER, and another article is an excerpt from a soon-to-be-published book by Thinker’s Press. It will be worth watching the amount of original material that appears in SQUARES in subsequent issues.

One of my original concerns appears to be unfounded – that the magazine would be filled with advertisements and promos for Thinker’s Press. Many books published by Thinker’s Press contain multiple page advertising of other books that they’ve published, and this is a practice I find objectionable. Of the 64 numbered pages (which do not include the front and back cover pages), only about five are advertising.

I’ll bring up two other “issues” with an otherwise enjoyable magazine. First, the subtitle of SQUARES is “The Chess World’s Picture Magazine.” When I heard this, I expected this to be a focus. However, most of the pictures are the run-of-the-mill head shots of players; there are precious few that could be considered to be the magazine’s selling point. If this is, indeed, to be a marketing angle, they have some work to do. Second, some of the fonts encountered are more distracting than useful. The page numbers, for example, are barely readable, the thick (probably) Bookman style used to denote players and tournament are hard to decipher, and the variety of fonts used for headlines, text, and other uses makes this a sometimes very busy (and eye-tiring) magazine.

In conclusion, SQUARES has the potential to fill a void in chess publications – something that appeals to a wide variety of audiences, from the casual to the serious player with a variety of chess interests. The first issue was full of interesting, well-written pieces. If the publishers can maintain the high level of the material and clean up its presentation, SQUARES could become the must-read chess periodical for discerning players.