Edith Keller-Herrmann (17 November 1921 – 12 May 2010
) was a German woman

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

master. She was born in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Career

In August 1939, Keller (17 years old), along with

Klaus Junge Klaus Junge (1 January 1924 – 17 April 1945) was a Chilean-German chess master who was among the world's leading players during World War II. An officer in the Wehrmacht, he died during the Battle of Hamburg (1945), Battle of Welle shortly bef ...

(15),

Wolfgang Unzicker Wolfgang Unzicker (26 June 1925 – 20 April 2006) was one of the strongest German chess Grandmasters from 1945 to about 1970. He decided against making chess his profession, choosing law instead. Unzicker was at times the world's strongest ama ...

(14), Rudolf Kunath (15) and Karl Krbavac (17), played in Jugendschachwoche Fürstenwalde near Berlin. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she won the second German Women's Championship at Bad Oeynhausen 1942. In the next German Women's Championship, she took third place, behind Gertrud Jürgens and Maja Schlemmer, at Vienna 1943, and tied for seventh-eighth at Bad Krynica 1943 (the fourth General Government chess tournament,

Josef Lokvenc Josef Lokvenc (1 May 1899, in Vienna – 2 April 1974, in Sankt Pölten) was an Austrian chess master. In 1925, he was awarded the Chess Master title in Braunau. In 1926, he took 3rd in Vienna. In 1936, he tied for 6-7th in Vienna (19th Trebits ...

won). After the war, Keller-Hermann was the German Women's Champion in 1947, 1948, 1951, 1952 and 1953, and the Eastern German Women's Champion in 1950, 1952, 1956, 1957 and 1960. In 1949/50, she competed in the

Women's World Championship The Women's World Championship was the first Women's professional wrestling world championship in the world. History Cora Livingston defeated Hazel Parker in 1906. Though the contest was for the Featherweight Championship, from that point she ...

tournament in Moscow, tying for fifth-seventh place (

Lyudmila Rudenko Lyudmila Vladimirovna Rudenko (, ; 27 July 1904 – 4 March 1986) was a Soviet chess player and the second women's world chess champion, from 1950 until 1953. Rudenko was awarded the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Interna ...

won). In 1951, she tied for 11–12th in Dortmund (

Albéric O'Kelly de Galway Albéric Joseph Rodolphe Marie Robert Ghislain O'Kelly de Galway (17 May 1911 – 3 October 1980) was a Belgium, Belgian chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (1956), an International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster (1962), and the third ICCF ...

won) but drew with

Efim Bogoljubow Efim Bogoljubow, also known as Efim Dimitrijewitsch Bogoljubow (April 14, 1889 – June 18, 1952), was a Russian-born German Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Early career Bogoljubow learned how to play chess at 15 years old, and dev ...

and won games against Rossolimo and Puc. In the early 1950s, she was arguably most successful out of all female chess players when playing against men. In 1952, she tied for fourth-sixth in Moscow (Women's Candidates Tournament;

Elisabeth Bykova Elisaveta Ivanovna Bykova (or ''Elisabeth Bykova'', Russian: Елизаве́та Ива́новна Бы́кова; 4 November 1913 – 8 March 1989) was a Soviet chess player and twice Women's World Chess Champion, from 1953 until 1956, and a ...

won). In 1955, she took third place in Moscow (Women's Candidates Tournament; Olga Rubtsova won). In 1959, she tied for fourth-fifth in Plovdiv (Women's Candidates Tournament;

Kira Zvorykina Kira Alekseyevna Zvorykina (, ; September 29, 1919 – September 6, 2014) was a Soviet chess player who spent many years living in Belarus. She was a three-time winner of the Women's Soviet Championship. In 2018, she was inducted into the World C ...

won). Keller-Hermann played for East Germany in several

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

s; at first board at Emmen 1957, Split 1963, Oberhausen 1966, and at second board at Lublin 1969. She won three team bronze medals and two individual medals (silver in 1957, and bronze in 1963).OlimpBase Women's Chess Olympiads Edith Keller-Herrmann
/ref> She was awarded the

Woman International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(WIM) title in 1950 and the

Woman Grandmaster FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(WGM) title in 1977. Keller-Hermann was the sister of Rudolf Keller. She died in May 2010 in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Keller-Hermann, Edith 1921 births 2010 deaths Chess players from Dresden German female chess players German chess players Chess Woman Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century German chess players 20th-century German sportswomen