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Ashta’s chess tales

The first queen of chess

London, 1927 · 2 minute read

She won the first women’s world championship — and then went looking for harder games.

Vera Menchik was born in Moscow in 1906 and moved to England as a girl. She spoke little English at first, and she said later that chess suited her because it was a quiet game.

In 1927, in London, the first Women’s World Championship was held. Vera Menchik won it. She would defend that title six times and never lose it: she was champion for seventeen years, until the end of her life.

But winning against other women was not enough for her. She entered the strongest tournaments of her day, against the best men in the world. That simply was not done at the time.

In 1929 one master joked that any man who lost to her should be made a member of the “Vera Menchik Club”. The joke turned on him — he became its first member. Over the years the club grew. One of its members was Max Euwe, who became world champion.

Vera Menchik died in London in 1944, during the Second World War. Today the trophy for the winning women’s team at the Chess Olympiad is called the Vera Menchik Cup.

She did not ask to be treated differently. She asked for a seat at the same table.