Chess Queens: Soviet Dominance

In this first part of our three-part series about the Women's World Chess Champions, delve into the era of Soviet dominance—from the trailblazing Vera Menchik at the century's onset to the legendary Gaprindashvili and Chiburdanidze of the 60s and 80s.

Vera Menchik, born in Moscow in 1906 to a Czech father and an English mother, began her chess career at age 14. After moving to Hastings, England, in 1921, she joined a local chess club and trained with James Drewitt and Géza Maróczy. By 1925, she had established herself as the best female player in the country by defeating the British women’s champion, Edith Charlotte Price. In 1927, she won the inaugural Women’s World Chess Championship.

Menchik dominated women’s chess before World War II, winning eight titles and at least 59 consecutive games in the Women’s World Championship tournaments. She was the longest-reigning Women’s World Chess Champion and the first woman to compete in master-level tournaments with the world’s best players. Tragically, she died in 1944 during a German air raid on Kent, while still holding the Women’s World Champion title.

Born in 1904 in Lubny, Poltava region of the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), Lyudmila Rudenko learned chess from her father at age 10. A talented swimmer—she was the vice-champion of Ukraine—Lyudmila only took chess seriously after moving to Moscow in 1925. Her real breakthrough came after relocating to Leningrad, where she began working with Peter Romanovsky.

Lyudmila won the Leningrad Women's Championship three times, establishing herself as a top Soviet player. After World War II, in the winter of 1949–1950, FIDE held a tournament in Moscow to determine the new women's champion. Sixteen women from twelve countries competed. Rudenko, then 45, emerged victorious, finishing a full point ahead of her competitors. In the next World Championship cycle, she faced Elisaveta Bykova and narrowly lost her title.

Born in the village of Bogoljubovo in 1913, Elisaveta Bykova moved to Moscow in 1925 and began playing chess with her brother. She progressed rapidly, winning her school's chess championship just two years later. Hard-working, determined, and tenacious, Bykova quickly rose to prominence in Soviet chess, reaching her peak shortly after World War II. She won the Soviet Women's Championship in 1946, 1947, and 1950.

In 1953, Bykova defeated Lyudmila Rudenko (+7 -5 = 2), becoming the third Women's World Champion. She lost the title to Olga Rubtsova in 1956 but regained it two years later, becoming the first woman to do so. In 1960, she successfully defended the title against Kira Zvorykina, but in 1962, she was dethroned by 21-year-old rising star Nona Gaprindashvili. 
Passionate about women's chess, Bykova wrote three books on Vera Menchik, Soviet women chess players, and the Women's World Championship.

Born in Moscow in 1909, Olga Rubtsova picked up the game from her father, a professor of welding metallurgy and a strong player who had faced future fourth World Champion Alexander Alekhine several times. In 1926, she won her first tournament and, just a year later, came out on top in the first USSR Women's Chess Championship.

Rubtsova entered the first post-war Women's World Chess Championship as a four-time USSR champion and one of the main favorites but finished only second after Bykova. Her second attempt was even worse, as she ended up in the middle of the standings. Olga's heyday came in 1955 when she first won the Candidates and then the 1956 World Championship, in which the top three female players participated. Two years later, she conceded her crown to Bykova in the title match (+4 -7 =3).

Rubtsova also played correspondence chess and became the first Women's World Correspondence Champion in 1972. She remains the only player to become a world champion in both over-the-board and correspondence chess.

Born in 1941 in Zugdidi (USSR, now Georgia), Nona Gaprindashvili, the first woman to be awarded the title of International Grandmaster (1978), was the only girl in a big family of six children. Her brothers taught her chess when she was five and became her first opponents. After turning 12, she studied chess in Tbilisi under the guidance of a talented coach, Vakhtang Karseladze, and this work quickly paid off.

At just fifteen, Nona won the Tbilisi and Georgian Championships. Four years later, she breezed past the competition in the 1961 Candidates to set up a title match with Elisaveta Bykova. Gaprindashvili wrestled the title from Bykova in a canter (+7−0=4) and successfully defended it three times against Alla Kushnir (1965: +7-3=3; 1969: +6-2=5; 1972: +5-4=7) and once against Nana Alexandria (1975: +8-3=1).

After fifteen years of reigning, Gaprindashvili lost the title match (Tbilisi, 1978) to another Georgian, 17-year-old star Maia Chiburdanidze (+2−4=9). After conceding the title, Gaprindashvili remained one of the strongest female players in the world for another twenty years and amassed an impressive tournament record. Nona is still very active in veteran tournaments, winning the World Senior Championship and European Senior Championship multiple times.

Born in Kutaisi (USSR, now Georgia) in 1961, Maia Chiburdanidze started playing chess around the age of eight. Still in her teens, Maia took the chess world by storm. She consecutively won her debut tournament at age 13, the USSR Girls Championship in 1976, and then finished second in the Women's Interzonal in Tbilisi, qualifying for the 1977 Candidates Matches. She made it to the Candidates Final, where she narrowly defeated Alla Kushnir to challenge the reigning champion Nona Gaprindashvili.

The title match took place in Pitsunda in 1978, where Chiburdanidze defeated Gaprindashvili (+4-2=9) to become the youngest Women's Chess Champion at the time. Chiburdanidze successfully defended her title four times.

Her third-longest reign ended in 1991 when Chiburdanidze lost the title match to Xie Jun of China (+2-4=9). After losing her title, Maia had several shots for the crown but didn't quite make it. In 1995, she lost the playoff match to Susan Polgar after tying for first place in the Candidates in Tilburg in 1994. During the knockout era, she stumbled in the semifinals twice, in 2001 and 2004.