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Vera Menchik

Vera Menchik was the first women's world chess champion. She won the title in London in 1927 and held it for nearly seventeen years, until her death in 1944. She was also the first woman to compete at a high level against the best players in the world.

Vera Menchik
Photo: unknown photographer (The Baltimore Sun), 1927. Public domain. Cropped and toned.
  • BornFebruary 16, 1906, Moscow
  • DiedJune 26, 1944, London
  • CountryRussia, Czechoslovakia, later Britain
  • Women's world champion1927–1944
  • In the line of women's championsNo. 1 of 17
  • Highest ratingNo FIDE rating
    FIDE's official lists began in July 1971

The road to the title

Menchik was born in Moscow in 1906. Her father was Czech and her mother English, and it was her father who taught her chess when she was nine. In 1921 she moved to England with her mother and sister. There she joined the chess club in Hastings and took lessons from the Hungarian master Géza Maróczy.

In 1927 the first women's world championship was held in London, alongside the first Chess Olympiad. Menchik won ten games and drew one. Second place went to Katarina Beskow of Sweden.

Title tournaments and matches

Menchik's points come first, then wins (+), losses (−) and draws (=) in the classical games. A tiebreak at faster time controls is given separately.
YearAgainstResultWhere
1927Tournament at the Chess Olympiad10½ of 11
Won the title · title tournament		London
1930Tournament at the Chess Olympiad6½ of 8
Kept the title · title tournament		Hamburg
1931Tournament at the Chess Olympiad8 of 8
Kept the title · title tournament		Prague
1933Tournament at the Chess Olympiad14 of 14
Kept the title · title tournament		Folkestone, England
1935Tournament at the Chess Olympiad9 of 9
Kept the title · title tournament		Warsaw
1937Sonja Graf11½–4½ (+9 −2 =5)
Kept the title		Semmering, Austria
1937Tournament at the Chess Olympiad14 of 14
Kept the title · title tournament		Stockholm
1939Tournament at the Chess Olympiad18 of 19
Kept the title · title tournament		Buenos Aires

Winner of every championship

Menchik defended her title at every championship until the Second World War: in Hamburg in 1930, Prague in 1931, Folkestone in 1933, Warsaw in 1935, Stockholm in 1937, and Buenos Aires in 1939. In the seven championship tournaments she played 83 games and lost only one.

In 1937 she also played a title match, against Sonja Graf of Germany, and won 11½–4½.

Against the men

Menchik also played in strong tournaments against men. Her greatest success is usually reckoned to be Ramsgate, England, in 1929, where she shared second place. Among the masters she defeated was the future world champion Max Euwe. Anyone who had lost to her was said to be a member of the "Vera Menchik Club".

Afterward

Menchik died in London in 1944, when her home was struck by a bomb during the Second World War. The title then had no holder until 1950, when Lyudmila Rudenko won the next championship. Today the best women's team at the Chess Olympiad receives a trophy named for her, the Vera Menchik Cup.

Sources

  • Wikipedia: Vera Menchik
  • Store norske leksikon: Vera Frančevna Menchik
  • Chess.com: Vera Menchik
  • Wikipedia: the women's championship tournaments 1927–1939 and the 1937 match
  • OlimpBase: the 1937 title match

The facts on this page come from the sources above, checked against each other. Where the sources disagree, only what they agree on is given. The match results are also checked game by game.

Updated November 8, 2026