Melissa Greeff (born 15 April 1994) is a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

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 ...

Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She earned the WGM title in 2009.

Biography

In 2007, in

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

, Melissa ranked 5th in the African Women's Chess Championship. In 2009, she played for South Africa in the World Girls' Junior Chess Championship and ranked 35th place. Later on in the same year, she won the African Women's Chess Championship in

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to: Cities and other geographic units Greece *Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...

. In 2010, she participated in the

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 ...

knock-out A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

system and in the first round lost to

Humpy Koneru Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years ...

. In 2011, in

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the Capital city, capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a popul ...

, she ranked 4th in African Women's Chess Championship. Melissa Greeff played for South Africa: * in the Women's Chess Olympiad participated 3 times (2008-2012); * in the

All-Africa Games The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years, organized by the African Union (AU) with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (AN ...

chess tournament participated in 2007 and won team silver medal. In 2007, she was awarded the FIDE

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 ...

(WIM) title and then received the FIDE Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title two years later. In 2011, she became a FIDE Instructor. Since 2014, she has rarely played in chess tournaments. Melissa moved to Canada where she studied

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. She had worked with Angela Schoellig on vision-based path-following controllers for UAVs during GPS-denied flight. She has since worked on several other aspects of robotics, engineering, and mathematics. Since 2019, she teaches first-year linear algebra at the University of Toronto.https://ca.linkedin.com/in/melissagreeff

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Greeff, Melissa 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Cape Town South African female chess players Chess woman grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors African Games medalists in chess University of Toronto alumni Competitors at the 2007 All-Africa Games African Games silver medalists for South Africa