Miss Fatima

Ghulam Fatima (called Miss Fatima , born June or July 1912 in the Punjab Province , † after September 1990) was a British-Indian chess player . She won the British Women's Chess Championship in 1933 .

Life

Miss Fatima came to England around 1930 as the servant of the Indian diplomat Sir Malik Umar Hayat Khan. Mir Sultan Khan , who became known as a chess master , was one of his entourage. Until then, Miss Fatima did not know the game of chess, but began to be interested in it, as it was often played in her employer's house. Her first teacher was his personal physician Singh Basalvi. Later she also received lessons from the then world chess champion Vera Menchik . She improved quickly and took part in the British Women's Championship in London in August 1932. There she caused a stir because of her skill level, her young age and "exotic" appearance. In her first chess tournament ever, she scored 6.5 points from 11 games against much more experienced players and came in sixth.

The following year she won the British Women's Championship at Hastings . She scored 10.5 points from 11 games, three points more than the runner-up. The first prize was £ 10 . It was noted in the press that the temperature during the tournament was very high, which would have benefited the Indian contestants Mir Sultan Khan (who won the men's tournament) and Miss Fatima. Still, her performance, especially in the final , was recognized as remarkably good and the progress she had made in just two years of learning the rules as amazing.

Miss Fatima accompanied Mir Sultan Khan to the 1933 Chess Olympiad in Folkestone , which led some chess players to speculate that the two were lovers. Daniel King, the biographer of Sultan Khan, thinks this is unlikely.

In the autumn of 1933, Malik Umar Hayat Khan, whose presence in England was no longer required, decided to return to India with his servants. This was a relief for Mir Sultan Khan, as he had never felt particularly comfortable in England and was homesick. Miss Fatima would have liked to stay, as she had got used to the European lifestyle and enjoyed the attention given to her chess talent. As she said in an interview for the documentary The Sultans of Chess in September 1990, she had been introduced to and played chess with both Winston Churchill and Queen Mary . Miss Fatima, however, had no say in the decision of her employer and had to accept the trip home. After she had given a simultaneous performance at the Imperial Chess Club (6 wins, 4 losses) in London in November , she returned to Bombay on December 29, 1933 by ship . Her chess career came to an end, not much is known about her future life.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ John Saunders: Miss Fatima, 1933 British Women's Chess Champion , February 21, 2016
2. ↑ Britbase , June 12, 2019

literature

• Daniel King : Sultan Khan . New in Chess, Alkmaar 2020. ISBN 978-90-5691874-3 .

Web links

• Edward Winter : Miss Fatima , Chess Notes 6291