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Shelby Lyman: On ChessChess remains one of the most formidable bastions of male dominance. Even the Soviet Union, where women have made remarkableprogress in other areas, has yet to produce a female grandmaster. The recent performance of two world class women players, however, promises us that chess must increasingly benefit from a significant infusion of the energy and talent of the neglected half of the world’s population.In this year’s Louis Statham chess tournament, held in Lone Pine, Calif., Soviet-born Alla Kushnir, now an emigre to Israel,held her six male grandmaster opponents even, with two wins, two draws, and two losses.Meanwhile in an international competition held in Vrnjacka Banja, Yugoslavia, the world women’s champion, Nona Gaprindashvili, drew three and lost one of her fourwith grandmaster opponents. What’s more, although she finished 10th of 16 players, only two other entries surpassed her overall score against the 11 top players. Inexplicably Nona lost three games to players14,15 and 16.Without questions, Nonagamesand Alla are showing other women that barriers in chess are a legacy of the ast and ought to soon be reached.An example of Graprin-dashvili’s high-class play is seen in her win over international master Raicevi, who finished sixth at Vrnjacka Banja.BLACKRAICEVIC dO NO 90 O X 8M NX HXrrnL.iQR QN OBK KB KN KRG APR IN DASH VI LI WHITEIn the first diagrammed position, she found the breakthrough move, 1. NxBP!OthersHowever black played — 1. . KxN, allowing 2. QxB-CH or 1 . . BxN, allowing 2. B-R3 — white would get the upper hand.Raicevic chose the second option, and after anotherfive moves, was in fact two pawns down.Gaprindashvili then wrapped up the game neatly with an expertly played king-side attack.Those readers doubting the sometimes even nasty barriers faced by women in chess, may be enlightened by learning that Bobby Fischer’s response to the news of one of Alla Kushnir’s victories at Lone Pines (over Larry Evans) was as follows (in Evans’ own words): “Bobby called Pal Benko (another grandmaster), to ask him how Icould lose to a woman.”Let’s hope that Bobby was only kidding. Though even that would indicate that chess has a long way to go.TV Scout ReportsVictor Borge says he is not wealthy. “The rumor probably started,’’ he quipped, “because I own Jordan.”Max Morath savs heknows a nhotopranhpr whochange — it used to be that you couldn’t say that, because people would say that a woman who doesn’t want to have children is unnatural.“But I just don’t have theurcfp AnH it’s nossihlp now
Newspaper Details
Glens Falls Post Star
Glens Falls, New York, US
Sat, Jul 05, 1975
Page 32
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 03 Jan 2023
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