Mary Weiser Bain (born August 8, 1904 – October 26, 1972) was an American
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 ...
master.
She was born in or near Ungvár, Kárpátalja, Hungary, which is now
Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod ( uk, У́жгород, , ; ) is a city and municipality on the river Uzh in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistant from the Baltic, the Adriatic and the B ...
,
Zakarpattia oblast
The Zakarpattia Oblast ( uk, Закарпатська область, Zakarpatska oblast) is an administrative oblast located in western Ukraine, mostly coterminous with the historical region of Carpathian Ruthenia. Its administrative centre is ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, into an assimilated Jewish family. Under the name Marie Weiserova, her 1921 New York immigration manifest lists her previous address as "Ushorod, Czecho-Sl." or
Uzhhorod
Uzhhorod ( uk, У́жгород, , ; ) is a city and municipality on the river Uzh in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistant from the Baltic, the Adriatic and the B ...
, which was then in Czechoslovakia, but it also lists her place of birth as "Iadobover"
ic and the modern name of this town is unclear.
She was a
Women's World Chess Championship
The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE.
Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...
Challenger in 1937 and 1952 and the first American woman to represent the U.S. in an organized chess competition.
She married Leslie Balogh Bain in 1926, an author, war correspondent and film director, and had two children with him. They divorced in 1948. In the 1950s, she ran a chess emporium and coffee house on 42nd Street in Manhattan. She died in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
Mary Bain won the
U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 1951. Bain was awarded 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 in 1952 and represented her country at the 1963
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and ...
, held in
Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, enterta ...
.
In international tournaments, she took fifth place at Stockholm 1937 (
Vera Menchik
Vera Francevna Mencikova (russian: Вера Францевна Менчик, ''Vera Frantsevna Menchik''; cz, Věra Menčíková; 16 February 1906 – 26 June 1944), was a Russian-born Czechoslovak chess player who primarily resided in En ...
won) and 14th place at Moscow 1952 (
Elisabeth Bykova
Elisaveta Ivanovna Bykova (or ''Elisabeth Bykova'', Russian: Елизаве́та Ива́новна Бы́кова; 4 November 1913 – 8 March 1989) was a Soviet chess player and twice Women's World Chess Champion, from 1953 until 1956, and ...
won).
World Chess Championship (women) : 1952 Candidates Tournament
/ref>
See also
* List of Jewish chess players
Jews, Jewish players and Chess theory, theoreticians have long been involved in the game of chess and have significantly contributed to the development of chess, which has been described as the "Jewish National game". Chess gained po ...
External links
*
References
*
*
Olimpbase record of Split 1963 performance
1904 births
1972 deaths
American female chess players
Jewish chess players
Chess Woman International Masters
20th-century chess players
20th-century American women
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States
{{US-chess-bio-stub