Lisa Lane and Bobby Fischer
Lisa Lane Article 1960
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Nov 9, 2015
0
#8
Did she ever have a fide rating ? Might be a stupid question but i dont know when they started having ratings. Since it seams like she stopped playing many decades ago it struck me that it might be difficult to know what her real strength was.
Nov 9, 2015
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#9
Lisa Lane won the US Women's Championship for the first time in 1959. At that time, even the best women in the world were barely IM strength as measured today. I believe Lisa's USCF (not FIDE) rating in 1959 was around 1900 (Wiki gives her 2002 in 1962). Bill Wall could probably tell us for sure. But before men get too smug, remember that, even with all the above being true, in 1956 Irene Vines won the Louisianna State Championship and in 1954 Adelel (Rivero) Belcher was the Vermont State Championship.
Here's a nice photo of Lisa Lane:
Nov 10, 2015
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#15
In the late 1950's and early 1960s Lisa Lane brought women's chess to the general public's attention through almost unprecedented exposure of any chess player in the secular media. Besides the above newpaper articles, she was featured in Sports Illustrated, the New Yorker, Life, Look and the NY Times Magazine.
Nov 10, 2015
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#16
Lisa's look was her trademark, so to speak. She promoted that aspect as did the media. She certainly predated Konstenuik. But Lisa played both sides of the fence and would act disillusioned that the press saw her as a pretty face more than an incisive mind. So, with both her and the media, it was a mixed bag. It seems that this mixed attention was also one of the reasons she quit chess with some acrimony and bitterness in 1966.
It's hard.
(right-click/view-image for full size)
Neil Hickey became Lisa's second husband.