Recently there was this announcement from the World Chess Hall of Fame …
Induction Ceremony Will Kick Off the 2017 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship
“SAINT LOUIS — An induction ceremony on March 28, 2017, will recognize four exceptional chess players as they take their places in history as members of the World and U.S. Chess Halls of Fame.
Representatives of the World Chess Federation (Fédération Internationale des Échecs or FIDE) nominated and selected Soviet and Swiss Grandmaster and writer Viktor Korchnoi, Austrian chess master Paula Kalmar-Wolf, and Russian–born Israeli Woman Grandmaster Alla Kushnir for induction into the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). They join 27 other players who have received the honor since the WCHOF’s creation in 2001. Members of the WCHOF are chosen for their total contribution to the sport…”
… and I just have to ask, “Who in the world is Paula Kalmar-Wolf?”
Has anyone ever heard of her before? The bio provided by their website worldchesshof.org/hall-of-fa … lmar-wolf/ says she was a top female player of the 1920s, from Austria, who “scored well in women’s chess championships”, finishing 3rd in 1927 and 2nd in 1930. Okay. That’s fine, but is it worthy of the world hall of fame? She died young and had a short career. Nothing about her official bio explains why someone who appears to not actually have had any fame has been inducted – yet the inductees were nominated by FIDE and voted on by FIDE. Maybe she did something “behind the scenes” in chess that was extremely important for the sport of chess, but the official biography decides to keep that secret?
Nimzovich, Reti, Rubinstein, Fine, Marshall, Reshevsky, Carlos Torre, so many great players who had a huge impact on chess are NOT in the hall of fame yet, but Paula Kalmar-Wolf is? Presumably there must be something about her that is worthy of inclusion along with Fischer, Morphy, Spassky, Lasker and Kasparov. But her bio is that of an ordinary master; not even an especially remarkable woman master in those days. Can anyone clear up this mystery?
If she was active in the 1920s, there is a strong possibility that she was a pioneer in chess as one of the first women to make it to the upper echelons.
Both Graf-Stephenson & Menchik are already in the Hall [WCHOF].
Although I do wonder if Breyer might be next. He had a short, but brilliant career & an opening as well. Breyer was good friends with Reti, who is also not yet in the WCHOF. Among the women players there are Rowena Bruce [Women’s Junior Champ 1935] and Elaine Pritchard [Women’s Junior Champ 1936 & 1937] that had great careers and a number of British Women’s Championship titles each.
Vera Menchik was the winner of these first women’s championships which were coming along at this time, and she was a pretty famous player who dominated those events and also participated in some important men’s events too. But she is already in the Hall of Fame, as are Bykhova and Rudenko, two other women players of that era. Why do they need yet another one? But Bykhova and Rudenko did at least actually win one of the women’s championships, whereas Kalmer-Wolf never won it.
I think Kalmer-Wolf must have done something else, as obviously her chess career by itself is completely unremarkable and would not merit inclusion in the world chess hall of fame that I can see.
Kushnir is a lot more accomplished, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alla_Kushnir, Are they to celebrate famous people, or to bring to our attention people who are long forgotten but perhaps shouldn’t be? Korchnoi falls in to the former category. The two women into the latter. It is like inducting Vic Willis into the baseball hall of fame.
Incidentally, who is the fourth inductee? There is a logical leap in Mr. Braunlich’s original post.
The induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame will be in a few days and I am hoping it will clear up the mystery of the choice of Palmar-Wolf. Since her career was unremarkable, one can only assume that there is something they haven’t told us yet that she did off-the-board for chess that was extremely important and validates her inclusion in the hall of fame ahead of such people as Nimzovich or Reti or Larsen.