Vera Menchik

Menchik in 1930

Vera Francevna Menchik (Mencikova) was born in Moscow, Russia on February 16, 1906. Her father was Czech and her mother was British. When Vera was 15, the family and she moved to England in 1921. She became affiliated with Géza Maróczy, who started coaching her in 1922.

In 1923 she began participating in men’s international tournaments. FIDE established the first world championship for women in July, 1927, which Vera won at the age of 21 in London. She won every Women’s World Championship after that (Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931, Folkestone 1933, Warsaw 1935, Stockholm 1937, and Buenos Aires 1939). Her record in championship play was 78 wins, 4 draws, and only 1 loss.

Her brilliant career and life came to a sudden and tragic end during World War II. On the night of June 26, 1944, a German V‑1 flying bomb struck her home in the Brixton district of London. The explosion killed Vera, her younger sister Olga (also a talented chess player and official), and their mother. The family had remained in London throughout the Blitz and ensuing attacks, continuing their work and daily lives despite the dangers. She died at the young age of 38.

Menchik was the first woman strong enough to compete with men and was the only woman to play in men’s international tournaments in the first half of the 20th century. In 1929 she participated in the prestigious international tournament in Carlsbad, where the Viennese master Albert Becker mockingly proposed that anyone who lost to her should be inducted into the “Vera Menchik Club.” In a poetic turn of events, Becker himself became the club’s inaugural member after losing to her in the third round (see game below). Although Menchik finished last with a score of +2 –17 =2, her presence at such a major event marked a pivotal moment in chess history.

The “Vera Menchik Club” went on to include future world champion Max Euwe (twice), Samuel Reshevsky, Conel Alexander, Edgar Colle, Sultan Khan, Jacques Mieses, Karel Opocensky, Sir George Thomas, William Winter, Friedrich Saemisch, and Frederick Yates. Another fact not often mentioned is that she also played an important part in one of the strongest tournaments in the history of chess at Moscow in 1935. While Mikhail Botvinnik and Salo Flohr shared 1^st place honors, it Menchik’s draw with Flohr that ultimately cost him the sole title.

Menchik’s first recorded simultaneous exhibition in January 1926 at the London Girls’ Championship.

When the Women’s Chess Olympiad was established in 1957, the trophy awarded to the victorious team was named the Vera Menchik Cup, further cementing her impact on women’s chess. In recognition of her pioneering achievements, she was posthumously inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2011.

GAME & ANNOTATIONS: Daily Telegraph (Aug. 8, 1929); British Chess Magazine (Oct. 1929)

PHOTOGRAPHS: Library of Congress; Bibliothèque nationale de France