Vera Menchik

Vera Menchik, born in Moscow in 1906, was the first Women's World Chess Champion and held the title from the first championship in 1927 until her death in 1944, winning it a record eight times, mostly in round-robin tournaments held alongside the Chess Olympiad. Her father was Czech and her mother English, and the family left Russia for England in 1921. She joined the Hastings Chess Club in 1923, trained with James Drewitt and became the best woman in England by beating the British women's champion Edith Price in two matches. From 1928 she played in master-level tournaments against the strongest men, an unusual step for a woman of her time, and the masters she defeated were said to belong to the Vera Menchik Club. She also won the one championship match of her era, against Sonja Graf in 1937. A German air raid destroyed her home in London in 1944 and killed her. The winning team at the Women's Chess Olympiad receives the Vera Menchik Cup.