Table of contents:
- With chess since childhood and foreign experience
- Conquest of the world and a series of championships
- World War II and the ragged life of a genius
- Memories of Menchik and chess curiosities
Video: How the first chess queen almost sent a famous grandmaster to the women's ballet: Vera Menchik
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Once one of the strongest chess players in the world, Paul Keres, ironically joked that a woman could not play chess on an equal footing with a man. He saw the reason in female talkativeness. "She cannot sit silently at the board for 5 hours," concluded the grandmaster. And she turned out to be wrong. The proof of the opposite was the bright career of Vera Menchik, who managed to become a worthy rival to the strongest players. Great players fought with the chess player: Jose Capablanca, Alexander Alekhin, Savely Tartakover, Samuel Rashevsky, Milan Vidmar considered Vera a worthy opponent.
With chess since childhood and foreign experience
Vera was born in Moscow on March 1, 1906 in an international family of a Czech and a British woman who worked as a governess in Russia. The world of chess was discovered by his father, who was seriously fond of this game. Having mastered the basic rules, 9-year-old Menchik sat confidently at the chess table. But the revolution broke out, and the girl's parents did not see themselves in a single link with the new Soviet society. The Menchik family did not pass the test at difficult times, their parents divorced, and Vera ended up with her mother in the city of Hastings.
In Foggy Albion, the girl did not abandon her adored hobby and immediately enrolled in a chess club. Learning conditions allowed to master the game practice deeper. At the same time, Vera attended classes with one of the best chess players of the 20th century, Geza Maroczi, who became the first at the Chess Olympiad as part of the Hungarian group. Menchik improved very quickly, and the first achievements soon followed. In 1925, Vera beat British champion Edith Price twice in a match series and won the title of the new national chess leader. The next two years were invariably accompanied by championships in all kinds of domestic championships. Bright victories ensured Menchik wide popularity and the right to fight for the title of world champion.
Conquest of the world and a series of championships
Vera set off to conquer the world borders at the age of 21. In 1927, the World Chess Olympiad was held, where women were not allowed. But there were so many people willing to play that the organizers decided to hold a parallel women's championship. Vera Menchik took the first place in the pilot competition without difficulty. In the future, a separate championship was held on a regular basis, and Vera was in the lead 6 times in a row. By the way, she did not concede her primacy to anyone until her death. But the chess player continued to dream of top-notch victories. In 1929, Menchik was finally admitted to the men's table in Karlovy Vary.
For the first time playing with the best chess players in the world, Vera Frantsevna looked surprisingly peaceful. Discreet, quiet, with smoothly pulled hair, she looked at the board with such a calm look, as if she was doing needlework on one of her home evenings. Menchik played simply, without making an impression on the audience and without making brilliant combinations. Playing with men had little to do with participating in women's tournaments. But Vera looked worthy even against the background of the great. In the same year, at the Ramsgate Championship, she shared 3rd place with Akiba Rubinstein, losing only to Capablanca. In 1942, she fought Jacques Mises, beating him 4-1 overall. Vera Frantsevna played 9 times with Capablanca, 8 times with Alekhine and twice against Botvinnik.
World War II and the ragged life of a genius
The life of the great champion was offensively cut short in the prime of her strength and career. Possessing all the makings for undisputed world leadership at the first chess tables in the world, Vera Frantsevna tragically dies. On June 27, 1944, the London house of the Swordsman (married to Stevenson) was bombed. The shell that hit Vera's room left her no chance. With the death of Vera Menchik, who did not have time to acquire heirs, only the cup of her name remained, which is still awarded to women chess players.
Memories of Menchik and chess curiosities
According to experts, Vera Frantsevna Menchik's style of play resembled the style of world champion Max Euwe. The woman was reputed to be a successful strategist, preferred to avoid unjustified risks, and possessed deep theoretical knowledge. At the chess table, Menchik invariably looked calm and pensive. Only by determining the position did she allow herself to gently rise and walk silently across the stage for a couple of minutes.
Chess players know the history of the Mechnik Club. Once at a regular friendly meeting of frequent participants in chess tournaments, Professor Becker announced the opening of a new club named after the chess player. Those who lost one game to Vera Frantsevna fell into its ranks, and it was proposed to consider chess players who played a draw with Menchik as candidates for club members. Interestingly, Becker's half-joking idea turned against him. After a short time, he managed to lose to a rival, after which he was proclaimed by his comrades the president of the newly-made club. The Mechnik Club grew non-stop and numbered approximately 150 members and candidates.
Mechnik's biographers also recorded another curious incident. In one prestigious championship, Vera twice defeated the respected grandmaster Max Euwe. The wife of an unheard-of defeated chess player, who was at that time abroad, found only one explanation for this. The woman suspected her husband of an affair with the Swordsman, because only the conscious surrender of the party and the desire to please his mistress justified such a failure. The jealous woman crossed the English Channel without hesitation, wanting to personally understand what was happening. But upon arriving at the scene, she had to come to terms with the superiority of the Swordsman.
An interesting episode also occurred at the 1929 tournament in Karlovy Vary, when Vera was the only woman out of 22 participants. When eminent and experienced chess players were announced about their participation in the Menchik competition, they almost laughed. And Grandmaster Kmoh allowed himself to remark that if a woman scores more than three points, then he will immediately enter the women's ballet. The tournament flared up, Menchik already had three points in his piggy bank, and Kmoh's face could be read with undisguised nervousness. He was one step away from the ballet tutu. But fate turned out to be favorable to the chess player, and Vera stopped at three victories that time.
The other chess genius Mikhail Tal was buried even before his death. There were strange reasons for that.
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