Mary Rudge

Mary Rudge, the winner of the 1897 International Ladies’ Chess Congress, poses confidently in this image taken the year of her victory. Rudge had distinguished herself as one of the best female players in England by the time of the tournament, competing in local women’s tournaments as well as competing with men. An August 1897 British Chess Magazine that recapped the events of the 1897 tournament quoted the words of an unnamed observer at the competition who declared, “She doesn’t seem to care so much to win a game as to make her opponent lose it.” Rudge had learned the game from her older sisters, who had been taught by their father.

This reproduction was loaned to the World Chess Hall of Fame by the John G. White Chess Collection at the Cleveland Public Library.