Background
After death of her father, Doctor Henry Rudge, she moved to Bristol where she started playing chess seriously.
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Mary Rudge
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Career
Born in Leominster, a small town in Herefordshire, England, she began playing chess in a correspondence tournament in 1872. The first mention of over the board competition is in August 1874 when Mary played in the second class at the Meeting of the Counties’ Association, at Birmingham. The following year she played in another blindfold simultaneous display given by Johannes Hermann Zukertort.
In March 1887 she played and drew on board six for Bristol against Bath at the Imperial Hotel, Bristol.
In 1889, she became the first woman in the world to give simultaneous chess exhibitions. By the end of that year, she was being hailed as the leading lady chess player in the world.
Successes
Lady Newnes was president of the Tournament Committee, and Sir George Newnes, Baron Albert Salomon von Rothschild, Mr. Harry Nelson Pillsbury and some others offered prizes.
The tournament was played at the Hotel Cecil, in the Masonic Hall, for six days, but the final rounds were decided at the Ideal Café, the headquarters of the Ladies" Club, from June 22 to July 3, 1897.
Mission Rudge was 55 years old and the oldest of the 20 players, and had substantial experience playing chess at the time. She was a well-known English player, ranking in chess strength with the first class of the leading men"s clubs. Over the next years, she took part in various competitions, playing in Bristol and Dublin.
Lasker was unable to finish all the games in the time available, and Mary's was one of those unfinished.
He conceded defeat because he would be lost with best play. Finally, she moved to the British Home for Incurables, Streatham.
She died in Guy"s Hospital, London, on 22 November 1919 at the age of 77.
Achievements
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At the beginning of 1888, Rudge played and won on board six for Bristol & Clifton against City & Draughts Club. The following year, she won the Challenge Cup of Bristol & Clifton Club. She won the Ladies’ Challenge Cup at Cambridge 1890, and won the second class at the Southern Counties" tournament at Clifton 1896. She was a winner of the first Women's International Congress, under the management of the Ladies" Club of London in conjunction with the Women"s Club of New New York She won the event with 18 wins and 1 draw, followed by Signorina Louisa Matilda Fagan (Italy), Mission Eliza Mary Thorold (England), Mistress Harriet Worrall (United States of America), Madame Marie Bonnefin (Belgium), Mistress F.S. Barry (Ireland), Lady Edith Margaret Thomas (England), among others In 1898, she played against world champion Emanuel Lasker in a simultaneous display at the Imperial Hotel.
Membership
Mission Rudge was the first woman member of the Bristol Club, which did not allow women to be members of the club until she joined in 1872.
