Trophy from the Mary Bain Memorial United States Women’s Open Chess Championship

1951 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Mary Bain was devoted to the game. Following her win in that Championship, she embarked on a tour of the United States in which she conducted simultaneous exhibition matches in chess clubs around the country. Bain used the publicity that she gained from taking on opponents, both male and female, to promote the game in interviews. An April 28, 1952, article in the Milwaukee Journal reported her statement that, “‘In this country only’ men chess players never believe a woman can attain their level. In her case this attitude has been more or less a challenge. She is finding the exhibitions, in which she plays against a number of men, pleasantly stimulating.” During the 1950s, she also founded her own chess studio in New York. Bain died in 1972, and this U.S. Women’s Open Chess Championship trophy was created in her honor. The U.S. Women’s Open was held alongside the U.S. Open Chess Championship through 1973, though it was revived for one year in 2009.