Gertrud Nüsken (née Fröhlich; 21 December 1917 – 14 August 1972) was a German
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 ...
player who four times won
East Germany Women's Chess Championships (1948, 1950, 1953, 1955). She died in the Interflug plane crash near Königs Wusterhausen.
Life
Gertrud Nüsken was a mathematician. She worked in wagon construction as a structural engineer. Until his death, she was married to Friedrich “Fritz” Nüsken (1914–1970), the chief structural engineer at ''
Waggonbau Görlitz Corporation'', who in 1958 received the
National Prize of the German Democratic Republic in second class for science and technology for the development of the articulated double-decker wagon.
[Schachkolumne: Gertrud Nüsken, Berliner Zeitung vom 8./9. Januar 2022, S. 55]
Chess successes
Gertrud Nüsken learned to play chess from her husband in 1946. Just two years later, in 1948 in
Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan () is a town in the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Bad Doberan. In 2012, its population was 11,427.
Geography
Bad Doberan is situated just west of Rostock's city c ...
she won the ''1. German women's championship 1948 in the
Soviet occupation zone of Germany
The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
''. She also was
GDR Women's Chess Champion three times.
Other her top places in East Germany Women's Chess Championship were:
* in 1949 at 3rd place in
Bad Klosterlausnitz, which
Mira Kremer won,
* in 1950 shared 1st place with
Edith Keller before Mira Kremer in
Sömmerda
Sömmerda () is a town near Erfurt in Thuringia, Germany, on the Unstrut river. It is the capital of the Sömmerda (district), district of Sömmerda.
History
Archeological digs in the area that is now Sömmerda, formerly Leubingen, have uncove ...
,
* in 1951 at 2nd place behind Mira Kremer in
Schwerin
Schwerin (; Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialect, Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch Low German: ''Swerin''; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Zwierzyn''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Germ ...
,
* in 1952 at 3rd place behind Edith Keller-Herrmann and Mira Kremer in Schwerin,
* in 1953 at 1st place in front of Mira Kremer in
Weißenfels
Weißenfels (; often written in English as Weissenfels) is the largest town of the Burgenlandkreis district, in southern Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approximately south of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle.
His ...
,
* in 1954 at 3rd place in
Bad Saarow
Bad Saarow (, ; 1950–2002: Bad Saarow-Pieskow) is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the Oder-Spree district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
The place is known for its hot springs and for its mineral-rich mud. Their healing properties have ...
, which
Ursula Höroldt won,
* in 1955 at 1st place in front of Ruth Landmesser and Mira Kremer in
Zwickau
Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,.
The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...
.
6. Deutsche Damenmeisterschaft der DDR vom 17. Juli bis 2. August 1955 in Zwickau
/ref>
In 1954 Gertrud Nüsken took part in the Women's European Zonal Chess tournament. In 1955 she retired from tournament chess.
Miscellaneous
In 1959, Gertrud Nüsken won a film idea competition. The successful DEFA
DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PR ...
comedy movie ''Papas neue Freundin'' (Papa's new girlfriend) was made from her story.
References
External links
* Wolfgang Pähtz: ''Damenschach in Ostdeutschland'' (Women's chess in East Germany). Selbstverlag des Autors 2017 (Berichte, Tabellen, Partien und Bilder)
Deutsche Meisterschaften der Frauen
auf TeleSchach
1917 births
1972 deaths
People from Saxony-Anhalt
20th-century German mathematicians
German female chess players
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1972
Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Germany
20th-century German chess players
20th-century German sportswomen
German chess players
{{Germany-chess-bio-stub