World Chess hall of fame
Paula Kalmar-Wolf
Inducted 2017 1880 - 1931
Croatia
Biography
Paula Kalmar-Wolf only learned to play chess in her early thirties, but that did not prevent her from becoming one of the strongest female chess players in the 1920s and early 1930s—first in Vienna, then Austria, and finally the world. She numbered Richard Réti and her second husband Heinrich Wolf among her teachers. Kalmar-Wolf scored well in Women’s World Chess Championships, finishing third in 1927 and second in 1930 and 1931. The British Chess Magazine, reporting on the 1930 event stated she was leading for much of the tournament before the illness (diabetes) which was to take her life the following year, brought her down.
Notable Games
Explore More Legends of Chess
Robert (Bobby) James Fischer
inducted 1986 (U.S.) | 2001 (World)
Eugene Torre
inducted 2021
Paul Charles Morphy
inducted 1986 (U.S.) | 2001 (World)
Mikhail Tal
inducted 2003
Garry Kasparov
inducted 2005
Judit Polgar
inducted 2021
Rex Sinquefield
inducted 2020
José Raúl Capablanca
inducted 2001
Alexander Alekhine
inducted 2004
Wilhelm (William) Steinitz
inducted 1987 (U.S.) | 2001 (World)
Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield
inducted 2020
Oscar Panno
inducted 2024
