Women's World Chess Championship 1937 (Semmering)

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Venue: Grand Hotel Panhans in Lower Austria (picture from a brochure 1920)

The duel for the women's chess world championship in 1937 was a duel for the title of world chess champion, privately organized by the opponents, but recognized by the World Chess Federation, between the Czechoslovak defending champion Vera Menchik , who lives in London, and the German challenger Sonja Graf . It was held from June 26th to July 16th at the Grand Hotel Panhans on Semmering , just a few weeks before the tournament for the women's world chess championship in Stockholm .

Menchik had already played a duel against Graf in 1934, which was later incorrectly referred to as the World Cup. At that time, Menchik won with three wins and one loss without a draw.

Under the direction of Rudolf Spielmann , Sonja Graf has been preparing for the duel in Vienna since at least February 1937 and also took part in the Siegfried Reginald Wolf anniversary tournament from February 22nd as a “special attraction” .

course

Vera Menchik clearly won the duel with 11.5: 4.5 points. While Sonja Graf played 4: 4 in the white games, including two wins against Menchik, the result in the black games was 0.5: 7.5, which is why the Viennese chess newspaper Menchik certified a better knowledge of the opening theory . Graf has shown talent and originality, but she lacks perseverance. Menchik was attested to be dangerous for the male chess masters due to her skill level as the only woman.

Women's World Chess Championship, Semmering 1937
1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 Victories Points
Menchik ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 0 1 ½ 1 0 1 1 1 ½ ½ 9 11½
Count ½ 0 ½ 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 0 ½ ½ 2

Individual references and sources

  1. News . In: Wiener Schachzeitung, Edition 3/4, February 1937. P. 58.
  2. Table taken from: Rainer Osenberg: WM 1937 in Semmering ( Memento from June 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on schachchronik.de, April 10, 2012. Accessed on December 15, 2012
  3. Wiener Schachzeitung: Miss Menschik remains world champion. Issue 11/12, June 1937. p. 169.