Stevenson Cup 2014/15

Vera Menchik was born in Moscow in 1906 to a Czech father and English mother. Her father taught her chess at the age of nine and after the break-up of the marriage her mother brought her to England in 1921. She joined the Hastings Chess Club in 1923 and soon rose to prominence dominating women's chess until the Second World War. Such was her prowess that she was regularly invited to play in strong international tournaments, notably Moscow 1925 and the Hastings events of the 1930's. At these tournaments she defeated some of the strongest male players of her era including Max Euwe and Samuel Reshevsky

Representing Russia she won the first Women's World Chess Championship held in London in 1927. She successfully defended her title on six occasions, representing Czechoslovakia in 1930 (Hamburg), 1931 (Prague), 1933 (Folkestone), 1935 (Warsaw), 1937 (Stockholm) and finally representing England in 1939 (Buenos Aires).

In 1937 Vera married R.H.S. Stevenson (1878-1943), secretary of the Kent County Chess Association after whom the Stevenson Cup is named. Tragically Vera was killed, along with her mother and younger sister when a V1 Flying Bomb destroyed the family home in South London in June 1944.