Vera Menchik - Women's World Championship

Women's World Championship

She won the first Women's World Championship in 1927 and successfully defended her title six times in every other championship in her lifetime, and only lost one game, while winning 78 and drawing four games.

• 1927, she represented Russia in 1st WWCh in London winning 1st place with (+10 −0 =1).
• 1930, she represented Czechoslovakia in 2nd WWCh in Hamburg winning 1st place with (+6 −1 =1).
• 1931, she represented Czechoslovakia at 3rd WWCh in Prague winning 1st place with (+8 −0 =0).
• 1933, she represented Czechoslovakia in 4th WWCh in Folkestone winning 1st place with (+14 −0 =0).
• 1935, she represented Czechoslovakia in 5th WWCh in Warsaw winning 1st place with (+9 −0 =0).
• 1937, she represented Czechoslovakia in 6th WWCh in Stockholm winning 1st place with (+14 −0 =0).
• 1939, she represented England in 7th WWCh in Buenos Aires winning 1st place with (+17 −0 =2).

She won two matches against Sonja Graf for the Women’s World Champion title; (+3 −1 =0) at Rotterdam 1934, and (+9 −2 =5) at Semmering 1937. Sonja Graf was the second strongest women's player in the world at the time and coached by the legendary Siegbert Tarrasch, but looking at both the games and the final result, their playing levels were completely different. Menchik was head and shoulders above any female chess player of her time.

This observation was supported by the fourth world champion Alekhine, who, writing about one of her victories against Sonja Graf in 1939, wrote that “it is totally unfair to persuade a player of an acknowledged superclass like Miss Menchik to defend her title year after year in tournaments composed of very inferior players”, the specific tournament in question being the seventh Women's World Chess Championship.