Elaine Pritchard (née Saunders)
Via Godalming Chess Club we learn of the death of International Woman Master, Elaine Pritchard (née Saunders ) (7 i 1926 – 7 i 2012 Gloucester). British Lady Champion in 1939, 1946, 1956 and 1965, she became an IWM in 1957. A child prodigy, she won the World Girls Under 21s at the age of ten and first captured the British Ladies title at the outbreak of WWII. Her husband, David Brine Pritchard, whom she married in 1955, predeceased her, passing away in 2005. Mrs Pritchard wrote two books, Chess for Pleasure and The Young Chess Player. She was an occasional BCM contributor. Her last published grade was in 2003.
A gentle lady of, dare we say it (?) ’the old school’, chess was never for her more than a pastime to this most modest of people. RIP.
BCM has sent a message of sympathy to her daughter, Wanda HZ Dakin.
Pingback: Monthly update, May | IRLchess