Ladies and Chess

I was perusing some old newspapers and came across a couple clipping fron 1897 concerning the Ladies' Congress (the first women's international tournament). Although I'd written about this and most of the participants, I though these gave a little most insight and wanted to share them in case anyone else is interested in this sort of thing. Note: the photo in the first article is the same one as in the article but from a different source since the one in the article was hard to see.)

see also   Ladies' Entry into the Chess World.
             Senorina Fagan.
             Little Mother, Part I
             Little Mother, Part II
             Madame Ludovici of Wiesbaden

Wow, for 1897 that seems like a lot of prize money. 

interesting article, i wonder what their ratings would be these days on the internet, maybe 1800 in online games, or higher?

Great find!  Thanks for sharing.

             This was at a time when women couldn't vote.

Nice post, batgirl!

          To Long Island Mark;  snowboard dude has been here for ALL of 1 day, and has over 100 profile views.

As your Grandmother would say it time that you got yourself a girlfriend johnnymusacha.

            For 1897 standards, $8100. could buy you a house, a car (very primative), and have a few bucks in the bank.

Why would his grandmother care whether or not he has a girlfriend?

In 1897 women in chess were a rarity. Organized women were almost unheard of.  Two years prior to this event, one of the first all women chess clubs in England, The Ladies' Chess Club of London, was formed (it was the second one after the short-lived Ladies' College Club 16 years earlier).  So all this was a novelty and a facination for the press to exploit. That is got more than it's fair share of media coverage seems pretty natural.

see:   The Ladies' Chess Club of London
         The First Year
         The Early Years
         The Middle Years

         Sorry Batgirl;  To Long Island Mark;  I know what you mean. A lot of our parents bought nice houses after WW2 for $15,000-20,000. Today that won't get you a down payment.

Is that right ? Interesting. What about outdoor activties like croquets, tennis etc. ?

Are you from Florida ?

cool

They should have rated the tournament so someone could prove that was the highest female tounrment of all time, and someone else could prove that the winner was stronger than Judit Polgar, just like people do today with Morphy or the Vienna Tournament of 1888.

           Ladies at Chess in London - 1896

The Ladies' College Chess Club, the first all-women chess club in England and probably the world.

see also:
Miss Nellie Down and the Devil

For most men , there is nothing so frightning as an intelligent woman.

I think intelligent womem are women too.

I think you might be right.