Chess Goddesses

Alina Markowski

By Jan Newton
May 27, 2007

I came across this article purely by "accident;" no such thing, of course, it's just that Old Chess Goddess doing her mojo again, and I thought "This is a Chess Patroness" and I just have to publish this information about her at Goddesschess. I present Ms. Alina Markowski.

Player was a trailblazer in women's chess

By Michelle DeCrescenzo
UNION-TRIBUNE COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER
August 19, 2005

SOLANA BEACH – Alina Markowski delved into chess in the 1950s, at a time when women in the sport were uncommon.

She heard remarks such as "You're a good player, for a girl."

On occasion, she said, "You could see, if a player lost to me, how disgusted he was that he had lost to a woman."

This stoked a fire within her to promote women in chess through writing articles, organizing women's teams and tournaments and volunteering time to help a number of chess organizations as secretary, treasurer and more.

The 95-year-old Solana Beach resident's chess stories include the shortest win on record, a tale she volunteers with a chuckle. She said her competitor refused to play against a woman during a tournament in Milwaukee in 1973. He was faced with disqualification if he failed to make at least one move. After he sat down to make his move and then left, Markowski earned the win and boosted her ratings.

All that changed, she said, when she moved to Escondido in 1975 and joined the North County Chess Club, where she was warmly received by members.

"Usually when people get to be 65, they stop studying chess," said Michael Nagaran, the club's president. "She never stopped. She tried to learn as much as she could."

Nagaran estimates he has played up to 100 games with Markowski.

"She would always say something positive whether she won the game or lost the game," he said. "And she was always ready for another game."

Markowski said that when she's playing, the game takes precedence over friendships.

"You play for blood," she said. "But when the game is over with, you can congratulate your opponent."

Markowski has played an integral role in bringing players – especially female players – together for tournaments.

"As a chess player, I'm average, but my strong point was organizing," Markowski said. "I was most happy when I was organizing the women's teams."

She recruited local female players to organize the first regional chess tournament for women. She was an active board member and lifetime member of the Southern California Chess Federation, and wrote articles on women and chess for the organization's publication, Rank & File.

As well as belonging to the North County Chess Club, Markowski has been a member of the San Diego Chess Club.

She has reached chess players through the mail as well. She has been active in correspondence chess, in which moves are sent by mail between two players.

Markowski served as captain of a women's team for an international correspondence chess tournament. She chose the best five players from the United States to compete in a game that lasted several years.

Markowski was introduced to postal chess by her husband, who died from cancer in 1971. During the end of his life, he was an active postal chess player, since he was no longer able to attend tournaments.

After 30 years of involvement in the local chess community, Markowski played her last tournament game in June, and the North County Chess Club held a retirement party for her. Nagaran called her the "driving force" behind organizing the tournaments and said she will be greatly missed.

When she reflects upon her years of dedication to chess, she said, "I look back with pleasure on them."

I've been trying to track down the information about that 1973 tournament in Milwaukee - I want to know what male player objected to playing chess with a woman. No luck so far.

Here is a photograph of (I believe) Ms. Markowski from Round 3 of the 2005 Markowski Open Qualifier (January, 2005), reported by Chuck Ensey. She's the player sitting lower right.

Some of Ms. Markowski's games can be found online here.

In 1998, her rating was 1500 (scroll down to the account of 1998, Round 5). In the Southern California Open (San Diego, California, August 31-September 1, 2003) in the "Booster" Section, Ms. Markowski (92 at the time) was rated 1500 and finished in 7th place with 3.5/6 out of 22 players. She played in the 1999 U.S. Open in Reno, Nevada and scored 4.0/9, and was in 287th place out of 487 players. She won $43.75 for her efforts. According to the ratings list for the period January 1-March 31, 2007 of the Correspondence Chess League of America, Ms. Markowski's rating is 1831. According to the USCF ratings data base, Ms. Markowski's rating is 1507 and her last rated game was in April, 2006.

The United States Chess Federation awarded Ms. Markowski an Outstanding Career Achievement Award in 1989. The cup "awarded" to the winner of the U.S. Senior Open is called the Alina Markowski Cup; the winner's name is inscribed on the Cup, which is kept in the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

This brief recap of Ms. Markowski's chess career filled in some details about her life and her chess career:

From the nctimes.com, June 16, 2005
She puts her chess in 'check' at age 95
By Jeff Rank, Staff Writer

Not many competitors finish their careers at age 95. When they do, it's certainly worth a party. - So feel the members of the North County Chess Club, which tonight will honor longtime club member and officer Alina Markowski. Age finally caught up to the one-time woman's chess champion of Ohio.

Moving to Escondido in 1975, Markowski joined the then-Escondido Chess Club. She served as secretary or treasurer of the club as it hopped around various sites in Escondido, San Marcos and Rancho Bernardo, to its current home at the Poway Senior Center.

She proposed changing the name to incorporate North County and helped stabilize the once-struggling club.

"She was one of our inspirations to keep the club going and really helped the club grow," said Michael Magaran, the club president. "For 10 years, she was the most active woman chess player in the United States, playing 190 to 200 rated games a year."

Markowski, born in Poland, was nationally known on the chess scene and heavily involved in the Correspondence Chess League of America, according to Magaran.

She kept her chess rating above average and still wins more games than she loses. However, she just isn't able to get around anymore, forcing her to retire from chess. A retirement party at 6 p.m. today will precede her last official game.

"The Markowski" - in this 2003 notice, the San Diego Chess Club named its annual qualifier for the Club Championship "the Markowski" in honor of Ms. Markowski, who at the time was 92 and had won her last game: "This year the Qualifier has been permanently named "The Markowski" to honor our most famous member, Alina Markowski, our retired former Secretary, who is still going strong at 92 years young. I know she won her game last Wednesday."

North County Chess Club - A Short History Details how Ms. Markowski became involved with the club in 1975 and her contributions to its success over nearly 30 years.