Women's chess in Australia has been occurring since the 1930s and competitive

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 ...

tournaments in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

were taking place on a state level by 1934.

History

During the 1930s, women were encouraged to play chess because the sport was not seen as a bridge to gambling. In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The ninth most popular sport that these women participated in was chess, with 3 having played the sport. The sport was tied with

croquet Croquet ( or ) is a sport which involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops (often called Wicket, "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Variations In all forms of croquet, in ...

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

, chess,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

and

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

Competitive chess

There were chess championships for women being organised by the 1940s. A

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

's women's championship was held in 1936, 1939 and 1941.

Competitors

As at January 2015, the following players are the top FIDE rated Australian female players:FIDE Australia Active Women
Country Top chess players
www.fide.com
/ref> # Giang Nguyen, WFM # Irina Berezina, IM is an Australian Women's Chess Champion, and has represented the country in international competitions. # Heather Richards, WIM # Arianne Caoili, WIM # Biljana Dekic, WIM Other top Australian female chess players, who are no longer regular tournament competitors, include Arianne Caoili (died 2020), Katrin Aladjova, Laura Moylan, Daniela Nutu-Gajic, and Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky.

Australian Women's Champions

The Australian Women's Chess Championship has not been held since 1999 due to lack of interest by the Australian Chess Federation and the top women players of the time. The title of Australian Women's Champion is now awarded to the top finishing woman in the biennial Australian Open, subject to conditions being met. *2023 Leah Rice *2019 Julia Ryjanova *2017 Alexandra Jule *2015

Heather Richards Heather Richards (born 16 February 1994) is a Scottish football forward who plays for Hamilton Academical of the Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL). Club career Coming from Rangers, Richards transferred to Celtic in December 2011, where s ...

*2003 Slavica Sarai *2002 Narelle Szuveges *1999 Irina Feldman *1998 Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky *1996 Biljana Dekic & Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky *1995 Daniela Nutu-Gajic *1992 Katrin Aladjova-Wills *1990 Josie Wright *1988 Carin Craig *1986 Josie Wright *1984 Anne Slavotinek *1982 Anne Slavotinek *1980 Marion McGrath *1978

Lynda Pope Lynda Pope ( Maddern, born 19 April 1953) is an Australian chess player who holds the title of Woman International Master (WIM, 1972). She is a winner of the Australian Women's Chess Championship (1978). Biography Lynda started playing chess ...

*1976 Marion McGrath *1974 Narelle Kellner *1972 Narelle Kellner *1969 Marion McGrath *1966 Marion McGrath

References

Bibliography

* {{Geography of chess

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 ...