CHESS LIFE

(Volume 2, Number 3, October 5, 1947)

Who's Who In American Chess

H. J. Ralston

Chess has a peculiar attraction for those of the medical profession, and in yielding to its fascination H.J. Ralston of San Francisco joins the company of many distinguished colleagues.

Born in San Francisco, Ralston took his degrees at the University of California and Harvard University, and now is Assistant Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco.

Traveling extensively in the U. S. Ralston is well known in many of the top-notch chess clubs throughout the country and has visited the leading clubs in England where he has become acquainted with Sir George Thomas and other leading chess figures in Great Britain.

As a player, he has not been spectacular, although a familiar figure in local San Francisco and California tournaments where he has always turned in a respectable score. But although he hopes to enter the next U. S. Open Tournament, Ralston has yet to play in his first national tournament.

A man of definite opinions, Ralston is on record as believing Alekhine in a class by himself as a player, and considering that Botvinnik and Keres, etc. were very lucky in the fact that Alekhine no longer bars their path to fame. He considers chess as form of art, comparable to music and painting; and believing that no important music has been written since Beethoven, hopes that the death of Alekhine will not bring a similar fate to chess.

Ralph H. Kuhns

As a son of the President Emeritus of the USCF, Ralph H. Kuhns could hardly escape being a chess player. He learned chess early and has always been interested in the many phases of its organizational work.

Dividing his interest between chess and medicine, Ralph graduated from the University of Chicago and from Rush Medical College, and is now Attending Psychiatrist for the Veterans Administration Center in Los Angeles and Vice-President of the Veterans Administration Medical Association of Southern California.

He served as secretary of the Chicago Beach Chess Club in 1933 where he also acted as assistant to Maurice S. Kuhns as director of the chess activities of the Century of Progress Exposition where a chess museum, an intercollegiate tournament, a record blindfold exhibition by Dr. Alekhine and an out-door game of chess with living pieces in costume were some of the outstanding highlights.

Since then Ralph has served in many capacities; and is at present chess editor of the Los Angeles Athletic Club "Mercury" with a circulation of over 10,000; and is president of the Varo Chess Club. Two years ago he was prominent in the organizing of the Pan-American Chess Tournament at the Hollywood Athletic Club, sponsored by the California Chess Association and the Los Angeles Times.