Maria Albuleț (10 June 1932 – 17 January 2005), also Maria Pogorevici and Maria Albuleț-Pogorevici, was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n doctor and

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player who held the

FIDE title 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 ...

of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) since 1985. She was a three-time winner of the Romanian Women's Chess Championship (1951, 1955, 1956).

Biography

In the 1950s she became one of the leading Romanian women chess players. She won six medals in the Romanian Women's Chess Championship: three gold (1951, 1955, 1956), two silver (1953, 1972) and bronze (1958). In 1959, she participated in the Women's World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament in

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

, where she shared 12th-13th place. Albuleț played for Romania in the

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: * In 1957, at first board in the 1st Chess Olympiad (women) in Emmen (+6, =5, -3) and won the team a silver medal. In 1957, she was the first Romanian to be awarded the FIDE International Women Master (WIM) title, and in 1985 she received the honorary title of FIDE

Woman Grandmaster 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 ...

(WGM). In 1982, her daughter Marina Makropoulou became the first Romanian to win the Woman Grandmaster title, representing Romania in the 1982 Women's Chess Olympiad winning the team silver medal, similarly to Maria's success in 1957 and furthermore winning an individual bronze medal. Maria and Marina are one of the most successful mother-daughter duets in chess history. Both reaching top 20 in the World, both winning Chess Olympiad medals, both WGM and having won overall 13 Individual National Championships - Maria with three Romanian Championships (1951, 1955 and 1956) Marina with one Romanian and nine Greek Championships (1984, 1990, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2022). Taking into account her son-in-law Georgios Makropoulos who won seven Greek Championships, the Albuleț-Makropoulos family is one of the most successful chess families with 20 Individual National Championships overall. Albuleț was also known as a

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

player. She took part in the Women's Correspondence Chess Olympiad (1974-1979), where the Romanian team took 6th place. An annual chess tournament is held in her memory in Braila, Romania.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Albuleț, Maria 1932 births 2005 deaths Sportspeople from Brăila Romanian female chess players Chess Woman Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century Romanian chess players 20th-century Romanian sportswomen Romanian chess players