Mona May Karff

Mona May Karff

(a.k.a. N. May Karff)   

Mona May Karff was born Mona May Ratner in Bessarabia, a province of Russia, on October 20, 1914. Her family moved to Tel-Aviv, in what was then Palistine, as she entered her teen years. Her father, Aviv Ratner, a wealthy Jewish land-owner, had taught her to play chess when she was 9 years old. Because of her natural ability, she started playing in tournaments in Tel-Aviv and developed into strong competitor.

In the 1930's she moved to Boston. There she met and married her cousin, an attorney named Abe Karff. The marriage didn't last very long and, though she never remarried, her long-time romantic relationship with Edward Lasker (a five-time U.S. Chess Open Champion) was never a secret.

She played in three Women's World Chess Championships: 1937 Stokholm, playing for Palestine and placing sixth (won by Vera Menchik); 1939 Buenos Aires, playing for the U.S. and placing 5th (also won by Vera Menchik); 1949 Moscow, playing for the U.S.(won by Ludmila Rudenko). When FIDE established titles in 1950, Mona May Karff was one of four American women to receive the title of International Woman Master.

While her international success was mediocre, she, along with Gisela Kahn Gresser and Mary Bain, dominated the U.S. women's chess in the 1940's and early 1950's. Mona May Karff won her first U.S. Women's Chess Champion title against Adele Rivero in 1938. She competed and won the title seven times, besides 1938, she won in 1941, 1943, 1946, 1948 (sharing it with Gresser), 1953 and astonishingly in 1974 (at age 60). She also won four consecutive U.S. Open titles.

Mona May Karff, a private person, who, besides being a driving force in women's chess, was also a world traveler, a lover of the arts and a shrewed investor who was worth a small fortune. She died in Manhatten on January 10, 1998 at age 86.

see also U.S. Women's Chess Championship