Thanks for the history lesson and the game!
Amazons Have It Out
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Go get'em Me'girlies 
Mar 6, 2017
0
#4
2Q1C wrote:
First time ive heard an opening described as pretentious lol. Cool.
I guess he meant something similar to audacious or unnecessarily bold.
Mar 6, 2017
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#5
f5 before castling for black can attract many words almost equal in number to the attacks it invites white
Mar 6, 2017
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#6
I didn't know Vera Menchik was killed by German bombs.
Of course, innumerable German geniuses were also destroyed by Allied bombing in the carnage of WWII.
Of course, innumerable German geniuses were also destroyed by Allied bombing in the carnage of WWII.
2Q1C wrote:
"The new champion is forty-seven years old and learned to play chess comparatively late in life."
How late in life? Is this proof that you can reach the top even if you start late in life?
I bet when they did start playing they got good really quickly and didnt stay stagnant on a low rating for about a year or two years.
Mar 6, 2017
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#8
The author of this article is a bit disingenuous. Rudenko learned chess from her father when she was 10. She entered her first tournament when she was 22 but didn't fare too well. This inspired her to train and the following year she won first place. From that point on, she just amassed successes. But it was only after she won the Moscow Women's Championship and the Leningrad Women's Championship for the second time that she started studying chess theory. She was the first Russian Women's World Champion - for which she was awarded the IM title. (info supplied by Elizaveta Ivanovna Bykova via Spektrowski )
Mar 6, 2017
0
#9
If you look at the Standings, you might notice last place is Poland's "Germanowa." This is, of course, a typo or an error. It should read "Hermanowa." The Polish women's champion at that time was Dr. Róża Maria Hermanowa.
tnx
Mar 6, 2017
0
#11
Gisela Gresser, the lady featured here, was a remarkable person. She was a polymath who could read ancient Greek at the age of 5 and spoke several languages fluently. According the the L.A. Times, she "could paint like the old Flemish masters and play Bach and Handel on the flute." She was born and raised in Detroit. Her father was an architect/inventor who made a fortune on his development of reinforced concrete while her brother, also an architect, designed many auto factories in Motor Cicy. She studied Archeology at Radcliff and was awarded the Charles Elliott Norton fellowship to continue her postgraduate archeological studies at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Arthur Bisguier gave her weekly private lessons for 30 years. She won the U.S. Women's Championship 9 times, more time than any American (and possibly anyone anywhere) won any national chess championship.
urk wrote:
I didn't know Vera Menchik was killed by German bombs.
Of course, innumerable German geniuses were also destroyed by Allied bombing in the carnage of WWII.
Of course, innumerable German geniuses were also destroyed by Allied bombing in the carnage of WWII.
They bombed FIRST!
The women's World Chess Championship played from Dec. 1949 - Jan. 1950 was won by Lyudmilla Rudenko.
The American chess player, Peggy Gresser, didn't fare too well, but managed to beat Rudenko in their first round game.
Below is some of the coverage of that championship, as well as the game between the two ladies from USSR and USA respectively.
The tournament in Moscow for the women's world chess championship was won by Mrs. Ludmilla Rudenko, one of a quartet of Soviet representatives who captured all first four prizes. Mrs. Rudenko thus succeeds officially to the preeminent position in chess formerly held by Mrs. Vera Menchik Stevenson, a casualty of the war during the bombing of London. The new champion is forty-seven years old and learned to play chess comparatively late in life. In addition to her Moscow title, she has held the Leningrad championship several times. She has a fifteen-year-old son who is understood to be a fair player.
The American representatives, Mrs. Gisela K. Gresser of New York and Miss N. May Karff of Boston, co-champions of the United States, got off to a flying start but soon bogged down and finished near the bottom. Mrs. Gresser, in particular, began splendidly by downing Mrs. Rudenko in the opening round and taking the lead in the fifth. In the sixth round, however, she lost to Mme. Chaude de Silans of France and thereafter, like her compatriot, Miss Karff, she encountered nothing but disaster.
A strong bid for the title was made by Mme. de Silans up to the late rounds, when the Soviet players finally moved ahead in a decisive spurt. Miss Eileen Tranmer, British champion, and Miss Edith Keller, German ace, staged a 'putsch' of their own to pull up with Mme. de Silans in a tie for fifth, sixth and seventh places.
Runner-up to Mrs. Rudenko was Mrs. Olga Rubsova, forty-year-old holder of the Soviet national title, which she has won four times. She is the mother of four children, all of whom play chess. Mrs. Rubsova was taught chess at the age of fifteen by her father, a college professor.
Annotation by Hans Kmoch:
Mrs. Gresser did not do too well in the end, but she had a fine start and earned the satisfaction of having beaten the new Women's World Champion.