Mona Karff
Mona May Karff (born Ratner, born October 20, 1914 in Bessarabia , Russian Empire , † January 10, 1998 in Manhattan ) was an American chess player . Together with Gisela Gresser , she dominated women's chess in the USA for many years and won the state championship six times between 1938 and 1974 .
Karff grew up in Tel Aviv as the daughter of the wealthy landowner Aviv Ratner, from whom she also learned the rules of chess. In the 1930s she settled in Boston and was briefly married to the lawyer Abe Karff. Later she lived with the chess and go master Edward Lasker .
She took part in three World Chess Championships for women: 1937 in Stockholm (6th place), 1939 in Buenos Aires (5th place) and 1949/50 (14th place) in Moscow . In 1950, she became the World Chess Federation FIDE for International Champion appointed. With the women's team of the United States Karff took part in the 1974 Chess Olympiad in Medellín .
Mona Karff was a privateer , besides her passion for chess she was a shrewd investor and had no financial worries. She spoke six languages and traveled the world a lot. She was also an art lover and spent a large part of her fortune buying modern works of art.
In 2013 she was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame .
Web links
- Replayable chess games by Mona Karff on chessgames.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mona Karff's results at the women's chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
- ↑ US Chess Hall of Fame , accessed October 12, 2015.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Karff, Mona |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Karff, Mona May (full name); Ratner, Mona (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American chess player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 20, 1914 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bessarabia , Russian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 10, 1998 |
| Place of death | Manhattan |