The First Lady of Chess

No, you don't know who the picture is of!!

Earlier in the week I was looking through my blogs for a game that someone elsewhere mentioned, and I came across a gem of a picture which had been sent to me by my Russian friend @Spektrowski  This one:-

Right of picture is the master strength player Abram Poliak, with his wife in 1942. The lady in question holds a unique position in the history of chess. Olga Rubtsova.

Amazingly the most significant part of her career was achieved as the mother of ( from memory!) 5 children when she was at an age when most players are on their way down, or retired from top level chess!

Unique position? She is the only player to be a World Champion in both o.b. chess and c.c. The only one with gold medals in both o.b. and c.c. Olympiads.

First lady? ( Again from memory!!) first Soviet ladies Champion, first World c.c. Champion,, top board in the winning team of both f the first o.b. and c.c. Olympiads.  Not a bad c.v. for a woman into her 40's, 50's and 60's. A true great.

You can find a small but informative biography here :- https://ruchess.ru/en/persons_of_day/olga_rubtsova/  

So, lets - very quickly, look at some chess. The book 'The Soviet School of Chess' gave this as a game characteristic of her enterprising style.

The decisive game from the strange event where Rubtsova became World Champion. A three way match tournament against two other World champions - Bykhova and Rudenko.

A great picture of Elisaveta Bykhova. Love this one!

A model game against a strong opponent.

Let's get to some correspondence chess - she was good! First World Champion, and close to doing the impossible by winning back to back titles, losing out on tie-break in the second.

Some film from the first ladies o.b. Olympiad, before I forget! It can be found here:- https://twitter.com/fide_chess/status/1296356494221488129 

A theoretical debate of the time.

A nice picture of the Soviet 'team' - two players!! - at the 1957 Olympiad. Zvorykina and Rubtsova.

Quickly onwards here. Time to throw in a couple more games that I really like. One from the first ladies c.c. Olympiad.

And to finish, one of Rubtsova's last games, It's just class.

With apologies for the brevity - ran out of time -  I hope you are inspired to take a look for yourselves at 'The First Lady of Chess'. Quite a woman, and a true chess great.