. . . 1927 . . .

Not yet women's world champion, Vera Menchik, conducting a simul in 1926

Most chess players have heard of Vera Menchik. 
For those who haven't, here's a very brief summary. . .
Vera was born in Moscow in 1906. When she was 15 her family fled what had become the Soviet Union with she, her sister Olga and their mother ending up in England.  Vera, who had already been playing chess for more than a half dozen years, joined the Hastings Chess Club and trained under the tutelage of classics scholar, problemist and 1923 Hastings Club champion, John Arthur James Drewitt, and then under the well known master,  Geza Marocy, who had also emigrated to England after WWI. 

an anecdote from "Chess Review,"  Jan. 1953

In 1923 she entered the Christmas tournament at Hastings, had a poor showing but managed a draw against Edith Price who was England's woman champion at the time. The following year she played in the same tournament but with much better results, again drawing her game with Price.  Menchik and Price played two matches in 1925 with Vera handily winning both. That summer she also played in the Stratford-on-Avon tournament, coming in 2nd in the first class tournament but beating the winner, Henry James MacThomas Thoms of Scotland, in their individual game.  She won the London Girls' Championship in 1926 and 1927, took 1st place in the in the Major Reserves Section at the Hastings (men's) Congress and was roundly considered the best female chess player in the world.

Now we arrive at the focal point. 
Newly formed FIDE had created the International Team Tournament, now called the Chess Olympiad, in 1924 holding the first event that year in Paris (along with the Summer Olympics, also in Paris) and the second in Budapest in 1926.  The third took place in London in 1927. In conjunction with this event, it also created a women's tournament.   This tournament, while not touted as a world championship, was given FIDE's blessing to count the winner as the FIDE Women's Champion or Women's World Champion.   21 year old Vera Menchik won the tournament becoming the first officially recognized Women's World Chess Champion.

"BCM" Sept. 1927

There is no question that Menchik was by far the premier woman chess player of her day.  The fact that she won every championship contest - 9 of them - before her untimely death attests to that. 

But with that said, it's interesting to look closer at the crosstable from 1927. 

Vera won all her games except for a draw with Edith Mary Ann Michell.  Mrs. Reginald Pryce Michell was 55 years old at this time but, as unlikely as it may seem, she won three British Women's Championships -when she was 59, 60 and 63.

Second place was won by Anna Katerina Beskow of Stockholm, Sweden. Curiously enough, her first game was against Menchik who, of course, won and then Beskow lost to the 47 year old Austrian chess veteran Paula Wolf-Kalmar . Wolf-Kalmar was actually leading the tournament going into round 6 where she also lost to Menchik.  Born Paula Klein, her first marriage gave her the name Kalmar and, with her second marriage, to chess master Heinrich Wolf in 1925, she adopted the hyphenated name. A self-employed Viennese seamstress, Paula didn't take up chess until in her 30s. She joined the Viennese Chess Club and took lessons from both Wolf and Richard Reti.  She quickly became the Austrian women's champion, introduced women tournaments to Austria and was considered the strongest woman player on continental Europe. She had every reason to believe she could win the 1927 tournament.

Let's take a step back and look at Katerina Beskow's score. After losing to Menchik and Wolf-Kalmar, Beskow never lost or drew another game.   At age 60, Beskow was the oldest player in the field with the exception of Florence Hutchison-Stirling, and the fact that she came in second against such a strong line-up of women in her later years indicates that she must have been a strong player indeed and this bears some investigation..  (see: One English Lady for insight into Price, Holloway, Stirling and Michell -this article has multiple misspelling but since I'm barred from publishing articles, I'm also barred from editing of any of the hundreds I'd written solely for this site's and its members' benefit.) 

Scandinavian countries  lagged a bit behind other dominant countries in women's chess. It's rather surprising that two of the 1927 entrants were from that area.  Before WWI Norwegian chess clubs mostly banned women but after the war allowances were made for a "ladies' night' and even for some women's tournaments.  Sofie Synnevåg belonged to the Bergen Chess Club and was clearly the best woman player in Norway. 

Thanks to the efforts of Katerina Beskow, Swedish ladies became organized somewhat sooner than those in Norway.  In  March 1912 Beskow started the Stockholms Kvinnliga Schackklubb, the country's first chess club for women, though it seems to have been a rather informal affair.

Stockholms Kvinnliga Schackklubb

To help ensure it's success, Ludvig Collijn, the champion of the Bergen Club and promoter of Swedish Chess, became it's financial patron.

Cropped from the tournament book's group photo (the key was taken from "Tidskrift för Schack"), the above image shows Katerina Beskow at the 1920 Göteborgs Schacksällskaps Jubileumsturnering, created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Göteborgs Chess Society. This proved to also be Richard Reti's coming out party since his win raised him to grandmaster status. Beskow played in Group "C" where she placed 12/14. 
In 1914, Beskow drew Alekhine in simul play and in 1920 she did the same against Rudolf Spielmann. 

Another strong woman player and member of Beskow's chess group was Dr. Hanna Bernhagen. According to the "American Chess Bulletin," July-August 1925":

Coming in second behind Dr. Bernhagen was Paula Kalmar-Wolf, who scored 5.5/7. 
Incidentally, Bogoljubov won the main event.

In 1928 Hanna Bernhagen was the first women to participate in the Swedish Championship for which she received a special silver spoon participation award. 
Also in 1928 Dr. Bernhagen managed a draw against Capablanca in a simul.

Before she was Dr, Hanna Bernhagen, she was simply Hanna Nilsson.  In January 1913  the Swedish women's advocacy newspaper called "Dagny : tidning för svenska kvinnorörelsen" published the following article by Hanna Nilsson (kindly translated for me by chess.com member NM Bramblyspam ).

Women and the game of chess.

It's been said, and is likely still being said, that women don't have the mentality for the most intellectually demanding of games, chess. This assertion may be generally true, as long as one adds the word "generally"; formerly it may have been said without reservation - the occasional shining exception merely confirms the rule. But women's tastes and opportunities have changed markedly in the last few decades. A notable number of women have now, as consequence of their daily pursuits - studies, writing, banking etc. - become accustomed to mental work, and thereby the most essential condition is met for the chess sense to develop. For one who is unaccustomed to mental work, a game as demanding as chess must necessarily be tiring at the outset, and this inhibits the development of interest and ability.

Whatever the reasons why woman has shown lesser strength in the fight over the 64-square battlefield, it nevertheless remains true that interest in chess is on the rise among women. And just as, at least in Sweden, it is demonstrably the man entrusted with mental work who seeks rest and recreation - not to mention the purely intellectual pastime - at the chessboard, it is likewise clear that chess has found its most eager female practitioners among women who are occupied with mental pursuits of one sort or another. Not a few of our female doctors, for example, are devotees of chess. And it's not uncommon that while on travels, one encounters the occasional female chess devotee at resorts, even amongst our society ladies, something especially gratifying in Swedish circumstances. Abroad, as we know, chess has become decidedly more popular among women than here at home. For the female traveler it's possible to get a good game of chess at nearly every reputable women's society on the continent, and in many places there are chess clubs for women.

Up to now, female chess players in our country have mainly had to seek opponents in their social circles. Self-evidently, this hasn't always been rewarding and conducive to skill development. Many a female chess devotee has frequently directed her thoughts to the male chess clubs, but in general the thought hasn't been put into action, perhaps mostly out of fear that the male dominance in playing strength would make it so that "nobody wants to play against her". The misconception that one must be a superior player to gain entrance to a chess club, and unfamiliarity with the circumstance that the playing strength within such clubs varies wildly, has thus prevented many a woman with lively interest in chess from seeking that opportunity to develop her game which can only be attained in a club, where every player through his individual playing style provides the less driven opponent with new perspectives on the game.

If you are a woman with some interest in chess, you now understand the impact it had, when in the beginning of this year, one of our country's most prominent female chess devotees, Miss Katarina Beskow, took the initiative to found a female chess club in Stockholm. Through advertisements and announcements in the daily newspapers she succeeded, on March 14 of last year, in gathering together a number of chess-interested women to discuss the matter of founding a chess club for women. This was unanimously agreed to, and twelve of those present immediately signed up as members. A board was elected, naturally with Miss Beskow as chair. Proposed rules for the club were set forth, and a search was started for a suitable playing space. Less than fourteen days later, play had started at Stockholm's Chess Club for Women, the name chosen for the new association. As far as we know, this is the first and thus far only womens' chess club in Sweden, but one may hope that many others will arise around the land.

Interest in this matter has under the past year proven quite lively within the new club, to the general satisfaction of all. Miss Beskow has managed to keep up the enthusiasm through her lively, unfailing interest in the club. In the time since, club membership has not only failed to drop, it has even grown by 25% - a gladdening result, and when the games start anew in the new year, the club hopes for brisk sign-ups of new members.

In this context one may note that beginners with an interest in chess, who wish to join the club, may, if they so wish, obtain instruction within the club.

The club has, as of the beginning of this year, moved from its former space at 19 W. Garden Street to the Grand Hotel Royal [prior to that they had gathered at Beskow's apartment at Narvavägen 5 -batgirl] and now meets there every Thursday at 6PM.

—Hanna Nilsson

A mention of the remaining contestants....to round things off:

An Austrian like Wolf-Kalmar, Gisela Harum played in 4 women's world championships, her best result being 3rd in 1935 in Warsaw.  The "Wiener Schachzeitung" had this to say about her in 1923: "... a young, aspiring talent, Gisela Harum, who already plays with wonderful calm and discipline at the age of twenty and of whom I expect great future in chess."

Mlle. Marie Frigard was 4 time French champion before playing in the 1927 world championship. Curiously enough, she came is second in two of those French championships but since the winner, Paulette Schwartzmann, wasn't a French citizen, she couldn't claim the title. Schwartzmann, who was born in Riga, gained French citizenship in 1932 and became the official French champion 3 times but will have won the event 6 times (once she came in second and was awarded the title since the first place winner was an Italian). Schwartzmann played in two women's world championships, placing low in both.  The second was in Argentina 1939, held in conjunction with the ill-fated Olympiad.  After Hitler invaded Poland, Schwartzmann, a Jew, decided to remain in Argentina where she became the Argentinian champion 3 times.  On the other hand, Frigard, a concert violinist, pretty much dropped out of the competitive chess scene after 1927.

Martha Daunke of Breslau, Germany was the weakest player in the 1927 tournament.  Still, in 1948 she was able to share 1st place with Gertrude Nüsken in the German Women's Championship (Deutsche Meisterschaften der Frauen) with a score of 8.5/10.

Sign of the times.  They were all Miss, Mrs. Madam, Frau. 

And a thank you for the continued quality posts.  Its a welcome change.

And one Mlle. 

Nice article.  Two great draws as well.

Nice

That was a really good article. Thanks BG as always for creating these really good pieces of journalism.

Thanks Hank.

It is an insult to women to believe that they cannot play chess as well as men. The fact is, in my opinion women are smarter than men; they just choose to dedicate their life-energy to other pursuits, while men are more likely to dedicate themselves to chess.

Judit Polgar is living proof that a woman can play chess at the highest level; at one point she was no. 8 in the world, men AND women included!

The doubters could always join the Menchik Club.

Thank you very much for a thorough and very interesting post (a rare combination these days!).

I will join the Menchik fan club…

Terje

Thank you Terje.

I was wracking my brain which country B'mly (in the 1927 tournament standings) could be... Then I learned from your article "One English Lady" that it stands for "Bromley". BCM was very parochial!

Excellent stuff!!. Big thank you for putting people to the names - knew nothing about many of the names here  . There is quite a lot about Menchiks early career in the Hastings and St. Leonard's Observer from the time, including a few games of interest. Big thanks as always for the hard research work. Cheers, simaginfan.

Man where do get this infob

Çok teşekkür ederiz bilgiler için iyili gönderiyorsun

Nice😁😁😁😁

🙂👍

Didn't know Maroczi was Menchik teacher.  Kind of Polgar of the past

Mighty Fine Read

I suspect being the British Chess Magazine, the editors saw English readers as their main audience and figured they'd appreciate the local color. 
Either that or they considered Bromley, London, Kingston and Edinburgh to be sovereign nations.