Lisa Lane
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lisa Lane (born April 25, 1938 in Philadelphia) was an American chess player. Her combination of good looks and chess playing ability made her an international celebrity, even though she never achieved the title of chess master. Her photo appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. There were articles about her in Look, Newsweek, The New Yorker and many other magazines.
She won her first U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 1959 at the age of 21. She held this title until 1962, losing it to Gisela Kahn Gresser. In 1966, she shared the U.S. Women's Chess Champion title with Gisela Kahn Gresser.
1961 was a bad year for Lisa. She went to the Woman's Interzonal in Vrnjacka Banja, Yugoslavia thinking she would win. Instead, she tied for 13th. She then went to the Hastings Christmas tournament in England. She made international news by dropping out after only four games, declaring that she could not play chess because she was "in love". The man with whom she said she was in love was located by the news media in New York and he said that he could barely remember meeting her.
She married Neil Hickey. She gave up tournament chess but for several years in the mid-1960s she operated Lisa Lane's Chess Studio on Sheridan Square on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street in Greenwich Village in New York City.
Recently, she invited an old acquaintance from chess (whom?) to her home in Westchester County, under the strict condition that he could discuss any subject with her as long as it had nothing to do with chess.
