"I was born in Munich but when I was in Argentina in 1939, as the German women's champion, Goebbels would not allow me to play for Germany. So the Argentines made me a flag with the word "Libre" on it, and I played under that."

""When you play chess, your whole body works. Your feet tremble. My God, I can hear my heart pound two tables away! Against Menchik, when she was world champion, I had a won game, but I found the three stupidest moves you could think of and lost."

Sonja Graf wrote two books in Spanish, "Asi fuega una mujer" (Thus plays a woman) 1941 about her life in the chess world, and "Yo Soy Susann" (I am Susann)1946 a semi fictional account.

To see a picture of the covers of those books ( in the later book it is a woman in a man's suit standing atop the globe) and some other photos see the 5 pages at

Thanks!

That's an amazingly good source. I also saw a long article on Sanja Graf (in German, unfortunately for me since machine translations can be really strange)

I didn't even know she had written some books. I feel pathetic being so monolinguistic.

Jennifer Shahade, who is the true multi-lingual one, not me, had an article on Graf in the 2004 Anniversary Issue of New in Chess. Here is the Introductory Paragraph:

<She was a radiant woman who knew how to enjoy life. She travelled at a breakneck pace throughout the countries of Europe, partied til dawn, smoked, made friends easily and preferred to play against men. Though this description fits our current Woman's World Champion, Antoaneta Stefanova, the subject of this article is a German player from six decades ago. Sonja Graf (1914-1965). A woman ahead of her time, Sonja's chess career gave her confidence and freedom, allowing her to pursue a wild and original life.>

back to machine translation!
spanish - french:
"Naturellement vous pouvez"

merci!

SuperJen had sent me a note back in July, part of which (since it's applicable here) is as follows:

"Great job on your reports on Lisa Lane. I have written a section on her in my book on women in chess (coming out this winter) and chanced by your story when fact-checking some info on Sonja Graf. I also think that the history of American women's chess is rich and am glad you are exploring it on your web-page, which I will become a regular visitor to! Sincerely,
Jennifer Shahade"

This explains the Sanja Graf connection (I should have guessed it on my own!), and also gives everyone interested something to look forward to and something long overdue, a promised book on the history of Women's chess in the U.S.

Here is a superb researched biographie about the 'bustling' Sonja Graf-Stevenson, a lot of details, some interesting trivia etc...

She drew only this game:

[Event "Hollywood"]
[Date "1952.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Graf, S."]
[Black "Dake, A."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E12"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. Bg5 Bb7 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Rc1 h6 7. Bh4 g5 8. Bg3 Ne4 9. d5 c5 10. Qd3 Bxc3+ 11. bxc3 Nxg3 12. hxg3 Qf6 13. Rd1 e5 14. Nd2 d6 15. Ne4 Qg6 16. g4 Bc8 17. Qf3 Ke7 18. Ng3 Nd7 19. Nf5+ Kd8 20. e4 Nf6 21. Be2 Bxf5 22. gxf5 g4 23. Qe3 Qg7 24. g3 Ke7 25. Kd2 h5 26. Rb1 Qf8 27. Kd3 Qe8 28. Bd1 Rb8 29. Rb2 Qd7 30. Qc1 Rb7 31. Bc2 Rg8 32. Bd1 Qc8 33. Qe3 Qb8 34. Bc2 Qc7 35. Kd2 Qd7 36. Qe2 Rgb8 37. Rhb1 Qc8 38. Bd3 Qh8 39. Rh1 Qe8 40. Ra1 Qh8 41. Rh1 Qe8 42. Ra1 Qh8 1/2-1/2

Btw, I assume You are from The Netherlands. A very good friend of mine, <achieve> at this site, has a beautifully run Forum here. He is also Dutch, from Amsterdam. Perhaps You could visit his forum sometime.

I said Donner was just being Donner- which implies a big tongue-in-cheek factor.