Mary Rudge - Chess

Chess

Miss Rudge was the first woman member of the Bristol Chess Club, which did not allow women to be members of the club until she joined in 1872. The first mention of Mary in Bristol is in 1875 when she played against Joseph Henry Blackburne, who gave a blindfold simultaneous display against ten opponents. The following year she played in another blindfold simultaneous display given by Johannes Hermann Zukertort. In March 1887 she played and drew on board six for Bristol against Bath at the Imperial Hotel, Bristol. At the beginning of 1888, Rudge played and won on board six for Bristol & Clifton against City Chess & Draughts Club. The following year, she won the Challenge Cup of Bristol & Clifton Chess Club. In 1889, she became the first woman in the world to give simultaneous chess exhibitions. By the end of that year, she was being hailed as the leading lady chess player in the world. She won the Ladies’ Challenge Cup at Cambridge 1890, and won the second class at the Southern Counties' tournament at Clifton 1896.

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