October 6, 2008

Ralph Dubisch named as new Northwest Chess Editor

At a board meeting in Portland, Oregon on Sunday, September 28, the Northwest Chess (NWC) board of directors named FM Ralph Dubisch of San Jose, California as the new editor of Northwest Chess magazine, effective with the November 2008 issue. Ralph served as guest editor for the September 2008 edition of the magazine, which was well-received by the Washington Chess Federation (WCF) and Oregon Chess Federation (OCF) memberships. While thanking editor Fred Kleist for his several years of service to Northwest Chess and to the chess community in the Northwest, the board decided that it was time to make a change.

Although Ralph currently resides in California (also spending time in Arizona), he has a solid connection to Northwest Chess, having served as Editor (May 1989-November 1990) and WCF President (early to mid 1990's) before. As noted in Ralph's "From the Desk of the Guest Editor" column in September, Ralph also has other local connections, including a good working relationship with WCF President (and NWC Publisher) Duane Polich. Some of Ralph's accomplishments include achieving the FIDE Master title; former service as USCF Region XII Vice President; former service on the boards of the Chessmates Foundation and the Seattle Chess Club, and current President of the Free Internet Chess Organization (http://www.freechess.org). His chess-heavy resume includes working for International Chess Enterprises, running chess rating systems and marketing chess software. He has taught private lessons and chess classes in community centers and in after-school enrichment programs in both Washington and California.

The Northwest Chess board is confident that Ralph will do an excellent job with the magazine, as he did with the recent "guest" edition. In his capacity as "Publisher," Duane will work closely with Ralph to gather content for the magazine and plan what content will appear each month. It is a goal of the NWC board to improve coverage of major local chess events, including scholastic events, and to also provide a local perspective on some important national and international chess events, such as the upcoming world championship. Contributions of content from NWC readers, including especially annotated games, remains very important, and readers are encouraged to submit this material to Duane for publication. Content may also be submitted to Business Manager Eric Holcomb for possible use on the NWC website.

Although Northwest Chess will remain a paper publication for the foreseeable future, we are working on making an archive of back issues available on the NWC website in PDF format. This project has just begun, and we hope to have some progress to announce by early next year.

Suggestions for Northwest Chess magazine may be submitted to the Publisher, Editor, Business Manager, the full NWC board, and/or discussed on the newly-established forum at http://www.nwchess.com/nwchessforum/.