USSR Women's Chess Championship
The Soviet Chess Championship for Women (Russian Чемпионат СССР по шахматам среди женщин ) was a chess event, which was held from 1927 to 1991 in the Soviet Union.
History
At the first Women's Championship of the USSR, which in 1927 carried out in the framework of the Fifth All-Union Chess Congress took eleven female chess players in part from Moscow, Leningrad and Vitebsk. As the venue was the Moscow House of Unions. They played three games in two days with the cooling-off two hours for 36 moves. Originally from Moscow Olga Rubzowa remained undefeated with 8.5 points and took the championship title. The three best female chess players ( Rubzowa, Agejewa and Tschudowa ) were rewarded for their achievements with the second category.
Before the Second World War, four more tournaments were held at irregular intervals. In 1938 the All-Union Ladies Tournaments temporarily disappeared from the game plan. This step was justified by the fact that the chess players need to play more men to improve their skill level. From 1945 to the Women Championships were held annually with a few exceptions. They were almost all as round robin tournaments played with 16-20 participants per final. A special case was the championship in 1967 in Sochi, where the Swiss system was applied. The championships in 1951, 1954, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1986 and 1988 were the same as the zone tournaments.
The title has been won five times by Olga Rubzowa, Valentina Borisenko ( 1945 Belowa ) and Nona Gaprindashvili. Nana Iosseliani and Irina Lewitina won four times, with three times Lewitina took the only chess player the gold one by one.