In 1975 the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act went into effect. It was the first statewide law in the nation that required separate smoking areas in public places.
In 1987, Aspen, Colorado was the first city in the United States to require smoke free restaurants and Congress passed a law prohibiting smoking on domestic flights of less than two hours that was to take effect in 1988. In an ad campaign RJ Reynolds tobacco company debuted the cartoon character Joe Camel in its advertisements and successfully hooked millions of kids on Camel tobacco products.
In 1988, a bill spearheaded by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Dick Durbin (D-IL) passed Congress banning smoking on all domestic airlines.
This brings us to 1990 and smoking's connection to chess. San Luis Obispo, California was the first city in the world to eliminate smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants. The same year FIDE banned smoking at all of its events.
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| The old days...everybody smoked |
In 1990, R.O. Mitchell (1971-2007) was the first African-American to win the US Junior Open. If you’ve never heard of Mitchell, the Chess Drum site has a nice tribute to him HERE.
The unthinkable happened when the Soviet chess magazine Shakhmatny Bulletin ceased publication. It was published monthly from 1955 to 1990 and published about 2,500 games per year. Bobby Fischer called it "the best chess magazine in the world."
China was emerging as a chess nation. Ye Rongguang (1963- ) won the China Championship and became China's first Grandmaster. China hosted the second half of the Women's Candidates Final Chess match. The players were Yugoslav GM Alisa Maric and Chinese GM Xie Jun.
FIDE flooded the market by awarding 33 players the Grandmaster title. Speaking of GMs, it was a bad year for some of them and other chess celebrities.
FIDE president Florencio Campomanes (1927-2010) barely escaped death in a car accident in Uganda. The president of the Uganda Chess Federation sitting next to him was killed.
On October 26th 3-time Cuban Champion GM Guillermo Garcia (1953-1990) died in a car accident in Havana on his way to the airport to catch a plane to play in the Olympiad in Novi Sad.
Maurice Ashley was mugged twice in New York City. Also in NYC Gregory Kaidanov and his wife had their luggage stolen from the trunk of a car while they were having dinner at a restaurant. That was bad enough, but the next day Kaidanov was attacked by a gang and robbed of money, airline tickets and 10 years of chess analysis.
In Moscow, when Russian GM Artur Yusupov returned to his apartment after tying for second at a tournament in Munich armed thieves came in, robbed him him of money and other valuables. Yusupov fought back and was critically wounded when he got shot in the stomach with a shotgun. He was never quite the same afterwards and his play fell off.
On January 7th Eero Book (1910-1990), former Finnish Champion, died. On August 26th GM (1990) Rudolf Maric (1927-1990) died in Yugoslavia at the age of 63. On September 21st Honorary Emeritus GM Alexander Konstantinopolsky (1910-1990) died in Moscow at the age of 80. Thankfully, on October 10th Emil Diemer, a thoroughly disgusting man, died in Germany, 82 years too late.
In a hint of what was to come World Champion Anatoly Karpov lost to the chess computer MEPHISTO in a simultaneous exhibition in Munich. MEPHISTO also beat Robert Huebner and David Bronstein. It also won the German blitz championship and earned an International Master norm by scoring 7-4 in the Dortmund Open.
By 1990 many tournaments were opens and round robins were scarce. Even the famous Mar del Plata tournament had deteriorated into an open. Mar del Plata had a rich history of international tournaments, the first being held in 1928, but only in the period from 1941 to 1970 was it a truly international tournament with considerable reputation.
After 1970, only seven international tournaments have been played. The 1951, 1954, 1969 and 2001 editions were zonal tournaments. There was also a zonal tournament for women in Mar del Plata, in 1969.
In 1967 the first edition of the open tournament was organized and in 1969 it became an annual event. After Soviet GM Lev Polugayevsky won in 1971, the round robin lost much of its prestige.
The list of winners in the early years included Stahlberg, Najdorf (many times), Eliskases, Rossetto, Keres, Larsen, Pachman, Fischer, Polugayevsky, Gligoric and Panno.
The 1990 event’s final standings were:
1) Marino Cid 7.5
2) Roberto Servat 6.0
3-4) Marcelo Tempone and Pablo Glavina 5.0
5-7) Alexandro Segal, Jorge Rosito and Christian Toth 4.0
8) Jose Clement 3.5
9) Ruben Cristobal 3.0
10) Rene Letelier 2.0
One game you’re going to like is this impressive gem: Jorge Rosito-Marino Cid 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d3 e5 5. Be2 Nc6 6. O-O Be7 7. Nbd2 O-O 8. Re1 Bg4 9. h3 Bxf3 10. Bxf3 1/2-1/2
Marino Cid (born in 1958) is an IM and has been inactive for decades. His opponent (born in 1949) has also been inactive for years.
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