Helen Milligan (born ''Helen Scott''; 25 August 1962) is a Scottish-New Zealand

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 ...

player holding the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

titles of

Candidate 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 ...

(CM) and

Woman FIDE Master A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

(WFM), and three-time Asian senior women's champion. In 2004 Milligan co-authored the book "Chess for Children" with Grandmaster

Murray Chandler Murray Graham Chandler (born 4 April 1960, Wellington, New Zealand) is a chess grandmaster who has played internationally for New Zealand and for England, after he gained British citizenship in the early 1980s. Chandler is also known as a ches ...

. She also holds the

FIDE titles 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 an ...

of International Arbiter (IA) and FIDE Trainer (FT).

Biography

Helen Milligan gained a doctorate in

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

from the

University of Saint Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

in 1989; her thesis was on the pulsation of Delta Scuti stars. Milligan has won or jointly won the Scottish women's championship three times: in 1982, 1986 and 1988. In 1983 she was joint British ladies' champion with

Rani Hamid Rani Hamid (born 14 July 1944) is a Bangladeshi chess player who became the country's first Woman International Master in 1985. She has become the national champion a total of 20 times. She is the current national champion crowned on the 38th Wo ...

. Milligan represented Scotland in eleven

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

s between 1982 and 2006. Since 2008 she has played for New Zealand in this competition, having transferred national federations in 2007. Milligan became Oceania women's champion at the Queenstown Chess Classic tournament in January 2012. She also competed in Women's Zonal Chess Championships in Bath 1987, Blackpool 1990, Delden 1993, Saint Vincent 1999, and Gold Coast 2009. She won the Asian senior women's champion title in 2015 in

Larestan Larestan County ( fa, شهرستان لارستان) is located in Fars province, Iran. The capital of the county is Lar. At the 2006 census, the county's population (including those portions of the county later split off to form Evaz County ...

, Iran, 2016 in

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and 2017 in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

Notable games

Diane Savereide vs Helen Milligan, Thessaloniki Olympiad (women) 1988, Russian Game: Classical, (C42), 0-1

Helen Milligan vs Dana Reizniece, European Team Ch (women) 2001, Sicilian Defence: Old Sicilian, (B32), 1-0

Subbaraman Meenakshi vs Helen Milligan, Gibraltar Masters 2004, Queen's Indian Defence, (E12), 0-1

Helen Milligan vs Anthony Ker, Queenstown Classic 2012, Pirc Defense: Classical Variation, (B08), 1-0

References

External links

*
Helen Milligan
chess games at 365Chess.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Milligan, Helen 1962 births Living people Scottish female chess players New Zealand female chess players Chess Woman FIDE Masters Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Glasgow