WOMEN IN CHESS

Women were not part of the development of chess until the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, there are abundant examples in literature of women and men playing against each other before 1800. Generally, the woman was cast in a role of a good player who could have won but who for the sake of the story, intentionally loses the game. This typecast is obvious in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in The Tempest. Clearly, women played the game but were not meant to be strong players. The customary thought in those days must have been that women were not as capable as men. In the nineteenth century, chess clubs developed in coffee houses and taverns where women were often banned. Women players achieved distinction separately from men by the middle of the century. The first chess clubs organised specifically for women opened in the Netherlands in 1847. In 1860, the first chess book, ABC of the Chessby “A Lady” (H.I Cooke), written by a woman, was published in England with ten editions. The first women’s tournament was sponsored in 1884 by the Sussex Chess Association. During this period, women also gained recognition in postal and problem chess. Ellen Gilbert, an American woman, defeated a strong Englishman, George Gossip, twice in an international correspondence match in 1879.

The history of world class women’s chess began with the creation of FIDE in 1924. The first Women’s World Championship was organised by FIDE in 1927 and held in London. The contest was won by Vera Francevna Menchik (1906-44), born in Moscow and at the age of nine, she learned chess and as a teenager, moved to London where she took lessons from Geza Maroczy, who was at that time, one of the top 10 players in the world. Menchik won the next six Women’s Championship tournaments in 1930-39, making her the best woman chess player at that time and one of the first women chess professionals. She also played against men and beat many strong male masters, such as Max Euwe, Sultan Khan, Samuel Rashevsky and many more. She died a tragic death in June 1944 during one of the last German air attacks on London.

Women’s chess advanced immensely when the Soviet Union approved separate women’s tournaments as part of a general encouragement of the game. The 1924 Women’s Championship of Leningrad was the first ever to be sponsored by any government. Improvements in playing and strength led to the Soviet domination of women’s chess for more than 30 years. After Menchik’s death, FIDE held the first women’s event, a 16-player tournament with entrants from 12 countries in Moscow during the winter of 1949-50 to fill the position. Soviet women captured the first four places. Ludmila Rudenko won the event.

The First Candidates’ Tournament for women was held in Moscow in 1952. Elizaveta Bykova won the event earning her the right to face Rudenko in the first modern Women’s World Championship match. Bykova beat Rudenko to become the second Women’s World Champion. [singlepic id=3621 w=320 h=240 float=center] The second Candidates’ Tournament, held in Moscow in 1955, was won by Olga Rubtsova.

The Fourth Candidates’ Tournament in 1961 was won by Nona Gaprindashvili of Georgia, thus starting a new era of domination by Georgian players. Grapindashvili retained her title for 16 years and became the first woman to hold the title of International Grandmaster. Grapindashvili was succeeded by another Georgian, Maya Chibrudanidze, in 1978. Georgians also won the Championships in 1975, 1981 and 1988. Georgian domination of women’s international chess came to an end in 1991 when Chiburdanidze was beaten by Xie Jun of China. Xie Jun was defeated by Zsuzsa Polgar of Hungary in the Women’s Championship in 1996.

The Polgar sisters- Susan, Sofia and Judit- were the most remarkable women prodigies ever: each had achieved Grandmaster-level strength by the age of 15. They also distinguished themselves by often avoiding women-only championships. When it was established that Judit was the strongest of the three, the family decided that she would seek the unrestricted World Championship while Susan would seek the Women’s World Championship.

In the 1990s, a series of women vs men events were organised as the difference in playing strength decreased. In 1995,a team of five senior male Grandmasters including the former World Champions Boris Spassky and Vasily Smyslov was beaten by five leading women which included Judit Polgar. Later, Judit reached the seventh place on the world ranking list with a prestigious invitation to the 2005 World Championship. Thus, she had a place, a rank and a level that no woman had ever achieved until then.

Today among the women, the Chinese are leading the field. Zhu Chen and then, Xu Yuhua succeeded Xie Jun in the Women’s World Championship and the National Team has won all the Women’s Olympiads from 1998 until 2004. Since the Polgars are mostly retired from chess and Xie Jun as well, new talents from other locations have appeared. Among them are Kosteniuk, the World Champion in 2008, Humpy, the Indian prodigy, and Hou Yifan, the indisputable Women’s Wolrd Champion since 2010 who with has a great deal of GMs scalps and a bright future ahead of her. [singlepic id=3622 w=400 h=320 float=center]

The Women’s Team in Arunba in 1992 with Mrs.Polgar, Cramling, J. Polgar, Arakhamia, Mrs. Van Oosterom, Galiamova, Sz. Polgar, Sof. Polgar and Chiburdanidze