101 Facts About Vera Menchik

Vera Menchik was the first Women's World Chess Champion from 1927 to 1944 and the longest-reigning women's champion in history.

Vera Menchik played her first chess tournament in school at age 14 after having to switch to an integrated school during the Russian Revolution.

Vera Menchik joined the Hastings Chess Club in 1923 and began training with James Drewitt, the club champion, and Geza Maroczy, a past contender for the World Championship.

Vera Menchik established herself as the best female player in the country by defeating the British women's champion Edith Charlotte Price in two matches in 1925 two years before winning the inaugural Women's World Chess Championship in 1927.

Late in her career, Vera Menchik played and won a lone Women's World Championship match against Sonja Graf, the next-leading female player of her era.

Vera Menchik was active up until her death in 1944, when she was killed in a German air raid that destroyed her home with a flying bomb during the Second World War.

Vera Menchik was the dominant female chess player before the war.

Vera Menchik was the only woman competing at the master level and she won at least 59 games in a row at the Women's World Championship tournaments.

Vera Menchik Mencikova was born on 16 February 1906 in Moscow to Olga and Frantisek Mencik, who were English and Czech respectively.

Vera Menchik had a younger sister Olga who was born a year or two later and became a chess player.

Vera Menchik's mother was a governess who acted as a private tutor for the owners' children while her father was the manager of their estates.

Vera Menchik's father came to Russia in 1904 after an invite from his uncle to work as a mechanic at his textile factory.

Vera Menchik was taught how to play chess by her father at age nine.

Vera Menchik's family was forced to share the extra space in their flat with the impoverished residents from the lower floors of their building.

Vera Menchik switched her education from a private girls' school to a Soviet public school, and her father's mill was seized.

Vera Menchik joined the club and played her first tournament there at age 14 with other students and teachers, none of whom were women or girls.

Vera Menchik stated that the tournament "gave birth to [her] sporting spirit".

Not long after, Vera Menchik left Russia in 1921 amidst her parents splitting up and their family having already been forced to move into a different home.

When Vera Menchik arrived in England, she could only speak Russian.

Vera Menchik began to focus more on chess in part because she did not need to know English well to play.

Vera Menchik joined the Hastings Chess Club in March 1923 at age 17.

Vera Menchik had considered joining the club for over a year before finally doing so.

Vera Menchik was only able to work with Maroczy until early 1924 when he left England to go to the United States.

Vera Menchik began competing regularly in chess tournaments in her first few months at the Hastings Chess Club in 1923, starting with an intra-club match between the ladies team and a team of third class players.

Vera Menchik ended 1925 by playing the Major section of the Christmas Congress, the first time there was a female player in that section.

Vera Menchik finished in joint last with three others, despite drawing against four of the five players who came in second place through joint fifth place.

Vera Menchik began to receive media attention prior to the London Girls' Championship, where she won the first two editions with perfect scores in 1926 and 1927.

Vera Menchik had the opportunity to speak on BBC Radio.

Vera Menchik's sister finished in joint second and runner-up at these two championships.

In-between these tournaments, Vera Menchik won the Major-level reserve section at the Christmas Congress, her first notable tournament victory at a high-level open tournament.

Vera Menchik started playing master-level events in 1928, beginning with Scarborough in May where she was included in the Premier section after two invited American players became unavailable.

Vera Menchik is so highly talented for chess that with further work and experience at tournaments she will surely succeed in developing from her present stage of an average player into a high classed international champion.

Vera Menchik indisputably has attained her three points against the strong masters, but it is little known to the public that she has attained superior positions against Euwe, Treybal, Colle and Dr Vidmar.

Vera Menchik played on the foreign team, which included former World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca and her former coach Maroczy.

Vera Menchik's performance drew widespread attention and resulted in her regularly receiving invitations to play international tournaments in the years to come, the first two of which were in Paris and Carlsbad in Czechoslovakia later that year.

At her next tournament in Barcelona, Vera Menchik finished in eighth place out of fifteen participants, narrowly earning one of the prizes allocated to the top eight.

Vera Menchik defended the Women's World Championship title for the first two times in 1930 and 1931 at the Olympiads in Hamburg and Prague respectively.

Vera Menchik won both editions, each of which was played as a double round-robin featuring the same five players.

Vera Menchik next faced Euwe at the following edition and won again.

Vera Menchik defeated Mir Sultan Khan, who finished in fourth place, at the same tournament.

Vera Menchik became the Hastings Club champion for the first and only time in 1930.

The year after Vera Menchik defended the Women's World Championship title a third time in 1933 in Folkestone, England, she was challenged to an informal four-game match by Sonja Graf, a German player she had never played against who regularly competed in open tournaments.

Graf won the first game with the black pieces before Vera Menchik recovered to win the last three games and the match.

On New Year's Day the next year, Vera Menchik made a draw against Euwe at the Christmas Congress, their last encounter.

Vera Menchik's best game result was a draw against Salo Flohr, who finished in joint first place with Mikhail Botvinnik.

Vera Menchik attributed her general poor results at the tournament to spending her free time exploring the city.

One of the reasons Vera Menchik was invited to the tournament was that organizers hoped she would be a positive influence on Soviet women's chess.

Vera Menchik won her game against the tournament winner Reshevsky, who lost on time and had a perfect score in the rest of the tournament.

Vera Menchik participated in a 1938 match between Britain and Holland, drawing both her games on the eighth board out of ten against Willem Muhring.

Later that year, Vera Menchik became the first woman to compete in the British Championship, her only appearance at the event.

Vera Menchik drew all of the players who placed above her except for Golombek.

Vera Menchik defend her world championship title for the last time in 1939 in Buenos Aires.

The next round, Vera Menchik nearly lost to Graf but was able to recover and win the game even though Graf at one point had a winning endgame.

The 1939 Women's World Championship was the last time Vera Menchik was able to leave Britain due to the Second World War, which began during the tournament.

Vera Menchik was still able to play in some tournaments in England.

Two years later, Vera Menchik played a match against Jacques Mieses, who was still an active competitor at 77 years old.

Vera Menchik was still competing right up to her death in 1944.

Vera Menchik's team had qualified for the semifinals at the Southern Counties Chess Union Championship, her last tournament, but died the day before her next game was scheduled to take place.

Vera Menchik played chess with a calm demeanor at the board.

Vera Menchik gave a lecture on this opening at the Hastings Chess Club as early as 1928.

Hugh Storr-Best, a player who took lessons with Vera Menchik, stated that the French Defence was the focus of her instruction on playing with the black pieces.

Vera Menchik credited James Drewitt with improving her understanding of closed openings, while crediting Maroczy with improving the theory aspects of her game.

Golombek commented that Vera Menchik "knew her theory very well: openings as well as endgames".

Vera Menchik was undoubtably the best female chess player before the Second World War.

Vera Menchik was the inaugural Women's World Chess Champion from 1927 until her death in 1944.

Vera Menchik was the first and only woman accepted as a master in the period she was competing.

The only other women to have any recorded wins against Vera Menchik are Wally Henschel in the Women's World Championship and Elaine Saunders.

Vera Menchik never had a FIDE title because FIDE did not establish the Grandmaster or International Master titles until 1950 after her death and they have never awarded a title to anyone posthumously.

Vera Menchik played against me and she is very strong.

Vera Menchik suggested players who drew against Menchik be deemed "candidate members".

Max Euwe and George Thomas, both of whom had negative scores against Vera Menchik, were each declared to be "president" of the club by the press or other master-level players on different occasions.

Vera Menchik faced many master-level players who were never considered for any FIDE titles, typically because they had already died before FIDE began awarding titles.

Reginald Michell and Fred Yates were members of the club generally recognized to be IM-strength that Vera Menchik defeated multiple times.

When Vera Menchik first arrived in England, male chess players greatly outnumbered female chess players, particularly in competitions.

At the Hastings Christmas Congress in particular, Vera Menchik was the first player to go past the first-class level and play in the Major section in 1925, subsequently reaching the international-level Premier section in 1928.

Part of the reason Vera Menchik was invited to the Moscow tournament was the hope that her appearance in the event would help bolster Soviet women's chess.

Bykova stated that Vera Menchik's visit to Moscow was the inspiration for her taking a serious interest in the game.

Gaprindashvili and Chiburdanidze were regarded as the next dominant women's champions after Vera Menchik, owing to both of them holding the title for over a decade and their success in open tournaments.

Vera Menchik was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2011.

Vera Menchik was the 16th inductee and the first woman to be inducted.

Vera Menchik has been featured on postage stamps in a few different countries, including the Czech Republic in 1996.

Vera Menchik was an editor for the Social Chess journal with William Winter and later served as the opening columnist and games editor for Chess magazine during the Second World War.

Also during the war, Vera Menchik became the director of the British National Chess Centre in London in September 1939.

Vera Menchik held the position for about a year until the building was destroyed by a fire when the German Luftwaffe bombed London during The Blitz early in the Second World War.

When chess lessons became less popular during the war, another way Vera Menchik earned money was by giving lessons in the card game bridge.

Vera Menchik was generally well-liked for her personable character and her interest in other people.

Vera Menchik's popularity was one of the reasons she regularly received invitations to tournaments.

Vera Menchik married Rufus Henry Streatfield Stevenson in October 1937 when she was age 31 and he was age 59.

Vera Menchik changed her name to Vera Stevenson, but still used her birth name in competitions.

Vera Menchik served as the honorary secretary of the Southern Counties Chess Association for 26 years and later became the honorary secretary of the British Chess Federation beginning in 1938.

Vera Menchik was a news editor and subscriptions manager for British Chess Magazine.

Vera Menchik finished in equal first at the London Girls' Championship in 1928 the year after Vera became too old to participate, ending up as the runner-up after losing the playoff.

Vera Menchik defeated the three lowest-finishers, lost to her sister, and drew against her other five opponents.

Vera Menchik did not face Vera this time due to the Swiss format used in this edition.

Vera Menchik was killed on 26 June 1944 when her house in south London was destroyed in a direct hit by one of the earliest V-1 flying bomb attacks during the Second World War.

One of the few surviving awards was a damaged gold medal Vera Menchik had received to honour her then twelve-year reign as world champion in 1939.

Vera Menchik was an annual participant in the Hastings Christmas Congress, which comprised different-level round-robin sections, for most of her career.

Vera Menchik played seven Women's World Championship tournaments, winning all of them.

Vera Menchik won two matches against Sonja Graf, the second of which in 1937 was a FIDE-sanctioned match for the Women's World Championship.

Vera Menchik defeated Euwe at the Hastings tournament for the second year in a row.

Robert Tanner, the author of a biography on Vera Menchik, provides annotations for the game, some of which are included below.