Fifty years of frustrating chess magazine publishing

Press, 24 March 1988, Page 38

Fifty years of frustrating chess magazine publishing

By

MICHAEL ROCKS

The j function of - any national chess magazine is to reflect the chess scene, first in its country of origin and secondly the overseas situation; . I . . | . Fifty years ago, Fen Grant, of Christchurch; launched his "Newl Zealand Chess Gazette” to! ,'do precisely that. The major; handicap to his enterprise iwasithe lack! of chess activity to'reflect. ! L; Ji International ! tournaments wei;e rare and the volume of chess'publishing !was minimal compared with j today's ! torrent. Unfortunately for Grant, his | timing . could not ! have been worse as* the world rushed headlong into war. The annual | subscription was 6s 6d (65c) for 12 issues. However! after j five issues, there appeared 'the plaintive "Owing to lack of [support we have to I cut the number lof pages.” ■ | , , With issue 12, the magazine folded. A sad “Thanks a lot" appeared at the i foot of page eight ! J j 1 J ■ Philanthropic chess players who own printing presses have always been in ; short supply, [but in 1947, Fred McSherry, of Auckland, began “The New [ Zealand Chessplayer.” The magazine progressed in stages from a quarterly to a monthly publication. | i Despite the popularity |of the “Chessplayer,” McSherry calculated the loss of each issue was equivalent to the wages of a journeyman for

one week. ' ! - | McSherry’s death in April,' 1953, marked the beginning of the end:for the magazine. His successors kept it going as a monthly j for a year,! reverted back to a quarterly . and then finally lost interest. I In 1955,! Harry Pobar, of Wellington,; staged a rescue operation on j the ailing; “Chessplayer.” j Pobar’s ; enthusiasm was sapped by the administrative workload involved in producing the' magazine. Previously, this work had been! carried out by McSherry’s office staff. Pobar soldiered on for 20 issues until the ! inevitable closure. Another Wellingtonian, Ted Frost, took up th? challenge of producing a national chess magazine with “New Zealand Chess News,” but with only 200 subscribers instead of the 350 needed to break even, the “News” quietly (faded away. Fifteen months later, Zyg- ■ munt Frankel, 'also, of Wellington, launched the “New Zealand Chess ; Magazine.” Frankel’s ability as a linguist, in particular of ' Russian, allowed a much i fuller presentation of European chess. However, financial problems forced the magazine to close in 1965. i I Realising ; the financial hurdle facing an individual in producing, a national magazine, the New Zealand Chess Association took over the financial responsibility and in 1975 a bi-monthly publication, “New Zealand ' Chess,” was

bom. ! ' ; ' i ;i Despite the financial back- ; ing of the N.Z.C.A., the prcn duction of the magazine has ( frequently been a one-man show. This has resulted in a high standard of production, ; particularly ! under ! Peter Stuart, but at the cost of a. high turnover in editors — 10 1 in the 13 years of publication. Afteri the move of the N.Z.C.A. headquarters from: Auckland to Wellington three years ago, publication of the magazine also moved; south. The new administration team faced] major problems with the magazine and there were fears | that it would fold. I i The problems settled down . with the appointment of Bill; Cox as editor in; mid-1987. Cox, an experienced journalist, is a sutj-editor for "The Dominion” newspaper- With! the N.Z.C.A. council looking after! distribution, Cox has been ; free | to concentrate.' solely on production. (My thanks to Alan I Fletcher of| Hamilton who provided the background into 1 ; the history of the national magazine.) 1 11 A subscription to “New Zealand Chess” is $l2 for six issues. Orders may be sent to The Secretary, N.Z.C.A., P.O. Box 2185, Wellington. Contributions of articles, letters or games for publica-l tion may be submitted to The Editor, 25 Jeep Road, Rati-j; mati South. i Entry forms for the Rank Xerox -Easter Open and the Rank Xerox New Zealand ■! I i ' ~-

junior; tournament to be held in Dunedin from April 1 to 4, may [be obtained from the Canterbury Chess Club, 227 Bealey Avenue. Sllt onii to previous endI ' L :'■■■ TH . KaJ (a) KdS Kb 3 Kd2 (b) i Kat Kc2 (c) j M Black resigned as e must Queen a; pawn. W jl Kbs? Kb 3 draw. 1 b 3? Kb 22 Ka4 Kc 3 3 Ka3 Kd3 draw J ' I ; ;!' : I]: j : ; (b)2 .. Kd4? 3 Kb 4 White wilK. 1 " ’ll'' I > I (4) 3 ... Kd3 4 Kbs White wins. ! J; i! I s ? I I 11 i ? Hi The j problem i this week comes from the 'game ParrWajtkrqft | played in ; the Netherlands in 1968. Can you find, [White’s winning ; combination? The solution [will appfear in the next column. 11l T