Vera Menchik, The First Women's Chess Champion

Vera Menchik(16 February 1906—27 June 1944) was a British-Czech chess player who became known as the first women's chess champion. She competed in chess tournaments against some of the best male chess masters, beating many of them.

She won the first Women's World Championship in 1927 and defended her title six times, and only lost one game, winning 78 with 4 draws.

Vera's greatest success at international tournaments was at Ramsgate 1929, she finished tied for second with Rubinstein, a half a point behind Capablanca, and ahead of her trainer, Géza Maróczy. In 1934 she finished third at Maribor, ahead of Rudolph Spielmann and Milan Vidmar. She won a match against Jacques Mieses in 1942. Vera Menchik info can be found here

YouTube Video about V. Menchik

(We will never really know how good Vera was. She was killed in a bombing raid in 1944, at the age of 38. However, she was clearly the best woman player of her time, better than most men and the equal of some of the great male players. Vera played and beat Max Euwe, Samuel Reshevsky, C.H. Alexander, Frederick Yates, Edgar Colle, Karel Opocensky, Sir George Thomas and Sultan Kahn. In 1929, She was invited to the Carlsbad International Tournament which included such players as Jose Capablanca, Savielly Tartakover, Aron Nimzowitsch and Max Euwe.) Goddess Chess.com