Louisa Matilda Fagan (née Ballard) (9 January 1850,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...

– 11 August 1931,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) was an Italian–British female

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...

. Ballard learned to play chess as a child from her father William who married Angela De Deo in Naples in 1847. She eventually married an Irishman, J.G. Fagan who was an officer with the Bombay Lancers, and as a result, the Fagans lived for a period of time in British India. Fagan was part of the chess scene in India, and has some of her problems published in ''The City of London Chess Magazine''. Fagan became an emancipation activist, and was one of the founding members of the Ladies' Chess Club of London, which boasted 100 members at its peak and lasted until after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. She took 2nd place, behind

Mary Rudge Mary Rudge (6 February 1842 – 22 November 1919) was an English chess master. Early life Rudge was born in Leominster, a small town in Herefordshire, England. She began playing chess in a correspondence tournament in 1872. The first mention of ...

, in the first Ladies’ International Chess Congress held at the club in London from June 22 to July 3, 1897. She was the younger sister of William Robert Ballard, born in Naples in 1848, a strong London chess player in the late 19th, early 20th century.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fagan, Louisa Matilda 1850 births 1931 deaths Italian female chess players Italian chess players British female chess players British chess players British tax resisters Sportspeople from Naples Italian emigrants Kingdom of the Two Sicilies people British people in colonial India Immigrants to the United Kingdom