Gisela Kahn Gresser
9 Times
USA Women’s Chess Champion!
by
John Bain
Gisela Kahn Gresser won the title nine times between 1944 and 1969.
Gisela Kahn Gresser was born February 8, 1906 in Detroit, Michigan and died December 4, 2000.
Gresser studied the classics at Radcliffe, where she won a Charles Elliott Norton fellowship that she used to continue her studies at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece.
In 1927, she returned to New York, where she married William Gresser, a New York City attorney and musicologist. She was a housewife, and raised their two sons, Ion and Julian.
Gresser was also an accomplished painter and musician, as well as a classical scholar. She went on safari in Africa many times, even in her eighties.
Gesila Learned Chess at 32 Years Old!
She learned chess while on an ocean cruise in 1938 when she was 32 years old. Two years later, at 34 years old, she played in her first USA Women’s Chess Championship.
Four years after she played in her first U. S. Women’s Championship, she won it for the first time in 1944!
A Gifted & Accomplished Woman!
As a young girl Gisela had passion for Greek and in a 1945 interview stated, “When the other children were out playing, I used to study Greek. I loved it just the way I love chess now.”
She was also somewhat of a Renaissance woman who knew several languages, could paint like the old Flemish masters and could play Bach and Handel on the flute.
Gresser dominated women’s chess for more than 30 years. She won nine USA Women’s Chess Championships between 1944 and 1969 and was the first woman in the USA to earn a the chess Master title.
Next in Line?
8 Times
USA Women’s Chess Champion!
Irina Krush on Santa Monica Pier, California
Irina Krush
Covid-19 Survivor
2020 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion!
Irina Krush has won her 8th U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, edging 2nd Place 17-year-old Carissa Yip by a half point. Krush scored an undefeated 8.5/11 points in a 12-player single round-robin.
Irina has now won the title eight times! Irina Krush won the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship seven times between 1998 and 2015–once winning the title four times in a row between 2012 and 2015!
Irina now needs only one more title to tie Gisela Kahn Gresser’s record of nine titles.
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Beginners & Intermediate Book – Checkmate! Ideas For Students
“Knight Checkmates King!”
Checkmate! Ideas For Students is a workbook for beginning and intermediate students. Checkmate! covers the tactics used in checkmate attacks with clear explanations, diagrams and arrows to pinpoint the key features.
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“Profiles Face-Off in King’s Shadow”
Chess Tactics For Students contains 434 carefully selected problems in worksheet format.
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