Edith Elina Helen (Winter-Wood) Baird (22 February 1859 – 1 February 1924) was a

chess composer A chess composer is a person who creates endgame studies or chess problems. Chess composers usually specialize in a particular genre, e.g. endgame studies, twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairy problems, or retrogr ...

who in her day was the most prolific composer of chess problems in the world. She published under her married name as Mrs. W. J. Baird and was sometimes referred to in the press as the "Queen of Chess".

Early years and family

Edith Elina Helen Winter-Wood was born in Boulogne in France, the daughter of Thomas Winter-Wood, a writer, and Eliza Ann (Sole) Winter-Wood. She learned to play chess early in life as her father, her mother, and her older brothers Edward and Carslake were all either amateur or tournament-level chess players. In 1880 she married William James Baird, Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. They settled in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, where their only child, Lilian Edith, was born. Lilian also went on to become a chess composer.

Chess composition

In the mid 1880s, Baird started composing chess problems and within a few years had gained a reputation in the field. In 1888, she took third prize in a

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

chess-composition tournament, the first of over two dozen subsequent prizes. Her most celebrated success came in 1893 when she won an international chess-composition tournament against a number of the most notable chess composers of the day. She became the most prolific composer of chess problems in the world, with over 2000 problems to her credit. These were published in newspapers such as the

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of London. Some of these are still considered sound, many are considered elegant, and some are novelties such as letter problems, in which chess pieces have to form the shapes of letters. Baird published two books of her problems: ''Seven Hundred Chess Problems'' (1902) and ''The Twentieth Century Retractor'' (1907). The first book took her 14 years to complete. As a chess player herself, Baird won the

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

Ladies Championship in 1897 and a silver medal in the tournament three times.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baird, Edith Elina Helen Winter-Wood Chess composers 1859 births 1924 deaths 19th-century British women writers 19th-century British writers British chess writers British chess players Sportspeople from Plymouth, Devon 20th-century British women writers Writers from Plymouth, Devon