Women's chess (1938 and 1993)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A couple of chess history queries that I hope some here can help with:

1) Bob Kane posted a link to this elsewhere, it deserves to be reposted here:

http://whitenoise.city/articles/queen-t ... st-london/

'Queen to W4: Women, Chess and West London'

The video clip of Elaine Saunders as a child is really amazing - with her father as well (anyone know his name?).

The article also mentions a BBC broadcast (this would have been in the first few years of BBC broadcasting, was it TV or radio?) of a simultaneous display by Alexander Alekhine ("he played 30 simultaneous games on the BBC in 1938"). He lost three of them. Are there any more details anywhere of this, or even some clips or photos of it?

(This YouTube clip might refer to it, not sure.)

2) On the subject of women playing chess, I recently came across some old chess souvenirs of mine, some from when I first started playing chess. These included two parts of the 6-part newspaper supplement from Ray Keene and The Times. The booklets were titled "Men of War" (referring to Kasparov and Short). It struck me how male-centred that title is. I wonder if any girls reading that got the impression that chess is for men only?

Does anyone have a complete set of all 6 of the 'Men of War' booklets? I only have two, and wondered if anyone had the whole set (I am aware of the sets for sale on eBay)? The adverts included ones for a binder to keep the whole lot in, so some probably did survive in good condition.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Does anyone have a complete set of all 6 of the 'Men of War' booklets? "

I do - but not to hand at present.

The "Men at War" could have been referring to Short and Kasparov specifically.