Vera Menchik

Vera Menchik, 1906 -1944 first Women’s World Chess Champion, 1927

This is Vera aged 16 in 1922, one year before she joined the Hastings Chess Club. Vera had come from Russia the year before, to live in St Leonard’s on Sea with her mother and sister. Vera could not speak English at the time, and so threw herself into playing chess.