AJanuary 26 1973
Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, Friday, January 26, 1973
By Glenn E. Beidel, Pres., South Penn Chess Club
Mary Weiser Bain, the first Queen of chess, died on October 26, 1972 in her N.Y.C. home. As an International Chess Master she has been U.S. champion, U.S. Open champion and U.S. representative in many chess Olympiads. Mary has titles from Cuba, Sweden and Finland, and is renown as a world traveler with her simultaneous exhibitions and chess lectures. Her greatest pride came in pioneering chess promotion and activity for the American woman and thus breaking down the socialized female reluctance towards chess.
This Hungarian pioneer was self-reliant, capable, self-confident, proud, strong, courageous, generous, understanding and dependable. Even after she married Leslie Bain (author, war correspondent and Hollywood director) in 1925, she continued her career with dignity and dedication. In 1951 Mary Bain swept the U.S. Championship undefeated. As a pupil of Frank Marshall and Hungarian IGM Geza Maroczy she was urged to compete for the World Chess title, but Mary declined because of her husband and family. After her husband died, she opened a duplicate-bridge club in N.Y.C. Mary Bain formally retired from tournament competition in 1968, but always threatened to enter “one more tournament.”
May 13 1973
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, Sunday, May 13, 1973
The King's Men: Woman Champion Mary Bain is Dead, But Name Lives On
By Merrill Dowden, Courier-Journal Chess Writer
Once upon a time, when Jose Raul Capablanca was champion of the world and he was giving a simultaneous exhibition, one of his opponents was Mary Bain. Players and spectators were stunned when Capablanca resigned after only 11 moves. Apologists for the Cuban pointed out he was playing at many boards at rapid tempo, and probably did not take his female opponent seriously. However, a win is a win. Here's the game, and you be the judge as to whether the champion was being gallant or was simply out-foxed.
Q—We have heard that the celebrated woman player, Mary Bain, is dead? Is this true? What titles did she hold?
A—I'm sorry to confirm the report. Mary Bain died in her home in New York City last Oct. 26. One of the relatively few women who have achieved the rank of international master, Mrs. Bain won so many trophies and titles you'd think they grew on trees. To mention a few of her major accomplishments, she was U.S. women's champion, U.S women's Open champion, and represented the United States in a number of Olympiads. Cuba, Finland and Sweden heaped honors upon her.
She gave simultaneous exhibitions from coast to coast, including one in Louisville some years ago, and gave chess lectures in many countries around the world.
Mrs. Bain probably did as much as any one person in making American women chess conscious, and some of her protégés themselves became famous.
A native of Hungary, she married American-born Leslie Bain, who was reared in nearby Budapest. They did not meet, though, until both settled in New York.
She learned to play chess in high school in Hungary, and was soon on her way to stardom. And now she is dead after a long and exciting career, but her name will live on, and she will be remembered as one of the great chess personalities of this century.
