Vera Menchik
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vera Frantsevna Menik; 16
February 1906 27 June 1944) was a British-Czech chess
player who gained renown as the world's first women's chess
champion. She also competed in chess tournaments with
some of the world's leading male chess masters, defeating
many of them, including future World Champion Max Euwe.
Vera Menchik
Contents
1 Early life
2 Women's World Championships
3 International tournament results
4 The "Vera Menchik Club"
5 Late life and death
6 Notable chess games
7 Notes
8 External links
Early life
Her father, Frantiek Menk, was born in Bystra nad
Jizerou, Bohemia, while her mother, Olga Illingworth (c.
18851944[1]), was English. He was the manager of several
estates owned by the nobility in Russia, and his wife was a
governess of the children of the estate owner.
Vera Menchik was born in Moscow in 1906. Her sister Olga
Menchik was born in 1907.
Full name
Vra Menkov
Country
Russian Empire
Soviet Union
Czechoslovakia
United Kingdom
Born
16 February 1906
Moscow, Russian Empire
Died
Women's World
Champion
192744
When she was nine years old her father gave her a chess set and taught her how to play. When she was 15 her
school club organised a chess tournament and she came second.
After the Revolution her father lost a mill he owned and eventually also the big house where the family lived. The
marriage broke down; her father returned to Bohemia, and in the autumn of 1921 Olga and her daughters went to
Hastings, England, to live with Olga's mother.
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As Vera spoke only Russian she hesitated to go to the local chess club, but at last on 18 March 1923 she joined
the Hastings Chess Club and began to take lessons from John Drewitt. Then she became a pupil of the grandmaster
Gza Marczy. During 1923 she played in several team matches.
In December 1923 she played in her first Hastings Congress and got a draw against Edith Price, the then British
ladies' champion.
In the next Hastings Christmas Chess Congress 1924/25 she played again in Group A, first class, and finished
second with five points out of seven. She met Miss Price in the last round of the Group of the Winners and again
drew.
In 1925 she contested two matches against Edith Price, winning both of them, and she was considered the
strongest lady player in the country; as she was not British she could not enter the national competition.
In January 1926 she won the first Girls' Open Championship at the Imperial Club in London with her sister Olga
coming third. In 1927 she retained this title and Olga came second. Next year Vera was too old to play, and Olga
again came second.[2][3][4]
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London.[24]
The trophy for the winning team in the Women's Chess Olympiad is known as the Vera Menchik Cup.
Vera Menchik
Notes
1. CWGC (http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3141183/MENCHIK,%20OLGA) Casualty Record,
Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough.
2. Quarterly for Chess History Spring 14/2007 (http://hastingschess.proboards.com/index.cgi?
board=General&action=display&thread=861)
3. Biography (http://www.hastingschessclub.co.uk/bio_menchik.htm) by Brian Denman
4. Autobiography (http://web.archive.org/web/20130805083457/http://www.chesscafe.com/ice/ice143.htm)
Shakhmaty August 1928, pages 160162
5. Alekhine, Alexander (1992), Wilson, Fred, ed., 107 great chess battles: 19391945, Dover Publications, ISBN 0486-27104-8
6. Hastings 1929 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Hastings_2930_1929/28026)
7. Hastings 1931 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Hastings_3132_1931/28131)
8. Hastings 1932 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Hastings_3233_1932/28189)
9. Hastings 1933 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Hastings_3334_1933/28268)
10. Hastings 1934 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Hastings_3435_1934/28309)
11. Hastings 1936 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Hastings_3637_1936/28434)
12. Moscow 1935 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Moscow_1935/28359)
13. Karlsbad 1929 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Karlsbad_1929/28022)
14. Lodz 1938 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Lodz_1938/28495)
15. [1] (http://www.chesskb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/chess/3903/Schevevingen-match-system-description-online)
16. Ramsgate 1929 chess tournament results (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Ramsgate_schev_1929/28014)
17. Maribor 1934 chess tournament (http://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Maribor_1934/28282)
18. Anne Sunnucks, The Encyclopaedia of Chess, St. Martin's Press, 1970, p. 306.
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19. Chess Notes (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter01.html) Winter, Edward, Chess Note 3433 (excerpt
from Sunnucks, Anne, Encyclopaedia of Chess (1976)).
20. MenchikBecker, Karslbad 1929 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1066877). ChessGames.com.
Retrieved on 19 February 2009.
21. B.M. Kazi, International Championship Chess: A Complete Record of FIDE Events, Pitman, 1974, p. 260. ISBN
0-273-07078-9.
22. Irving Chernev, Wonders and Curiosities of Chess, Dover Publications, 1974, p. 6. ISBN 0-486-23007-4.
23. Wins by Vera Menchik (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?
yearcomp=exactly&year=&playercomp=either&pid=&player=Menchik&pid2=&player2=&movescomp=exactly&
moves=&opening=&eco=&result=1st). ChessGames.com. Retrieved on 19 February 2009.
24. CWGC (http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3141454/STEVENSON,%20VERA) Casualty Record,
Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough.
External links
Vera Menchik (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=13277) player profile and games at
Chessgames.com
Vera Menchik by Bill Wall
(https://web.archive.org/web/20091028034414/http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lab/7378/menchik.ht
m) at the Wayback Machine (archived 28 October 2009)
Preceded by
none, first champion
Succeeded by
vacant, then Lyudmila
Rudenko
(no champion from 1944
1950)
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