Patricia Anne Sunnucks (21 February 1927 – 22 November 2014) was an author and three-times British Women's Chess Champion (1957, 1958, 1964). During her chess career she was always known as Anne Sunnucks. She was educated at

Wycombe Abbey School , motto_translation = Go in faith , established = 1896 , type = Independent boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Headmistress , head = J. Duncan , chair_label = Chair ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. Although she learned how to play

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

at the age of 8, she did not play seriously until the age of 21, when she joined the same

chess club A chess club is a club formed for the purpose of playing the board game of chess. Chess clubs often provide for both informal and tournament games and sometimes offer league play. Traditionally clubs host over the board, face to face chess more t ...

Imre König Imre König (Koenig) aka Mirko Kenig (September 2, 1901, Gyula, Austria-Hungary – September 9, 1992, Santa Monica, California) was a chess master representing Yugoslavia and Great Britain. He was born in Gyula, Hungary, and also lived in Aust ...

, who became her tutor. By finishing tied for second place in the 1953 British Women's Championship she became one of three British representatives in the 1954 Western European Zonal. Sunnucks earned the

Woman International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title by placing second in the 1954 Western European Zonal. Although this result qualified her to play in the next event in the Women's World Championship sequence, she was a major in the

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...

and the authorities would not allow her to travel to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

where the 1955 Women's Candidates tournament was being held. Sunnucks represented England several times in

Olympiads An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...

and team matches, including Great Britain vs. USSR 1954, the Anglo-Dutch match in 1965, and top board for the

British Chess Federation The English Chess Federation (ECF) is the governing chess organisation in England. It is affiliated to FIDE. The ECF was formed in 2004 as one of the more localised successors to the British Chess Federation (BCF), an organisation founded in 1904. ...

(BCF) team at the 1966 Women's Chess Olympiad at

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

. She participated in the Women's World Championship cycle two more times, representing the BCF in the Western European Zonal tournaments of 1963 and 1966. Sunnucks won both the Army and the Combined Services Championships in 1968, and was the only woman to compete in either. Sunnucks compiled ''The Encyclopaedia of Chess'' (1970, second edition: 1976). Her married name was Anne Mothersill.

References

* * * (ISBN is for the second edition)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sunnucks, Anne 1927 births English female chess players Chess Woman International Masters 20th-century English non-fiction writers British chess writers People educated at Wycombe Abbey 2014 deaths 20th-century English women writers English women non-fiction writers