Female chess used to be regarded as something of a curiosity. A good Trivial Pursuits quiz is, ‘We know the first World Junior Chess Championship was held in Birmingham in 1951. When was the first World Girls Championship held?’ The answer is in 1927 and, of course, in England . Vera Menchik won it the same year as she went on to win the First Women’s World Championship. Presumably there was considerable interest in female chess in this era because Vera came to live in England . In truth, nearly all the entrants were British. The event died with the advent of the Second World War and was only revived in the 1970s. We had to wait for Harriet Hunt to win the World Girls Under 20 Championship 50 year after Rowena Drew (later Bruce). Elaine Saunders (now Pritchard) is one of the girls who gained the title before the Second World War and she is still very much alive, though not now playing chess competitively.