Edith Baird English chess player and chess composer. Date of Birth: 22.02.1859 Country: Great Britain

1. Biography of Edith Baird
2. Early Years and Chess
3. Chess Composition and Achievements
4. Later Life and Legacy

Biography of Edith Baird

Edith Baird was an English chess player and chess composer. She was born in Hareston Manor, near Plymouth, as the youngest of three surviving children in the family of writer and poet Thomas Winter-Wood. Her father, mother Eliza Ann, and both older brothers, Edward and Carslake, were pioneers of chess in Devonshire, England. Thomas Winter-Wood founded the Plymouth Chess Club in 1881 and served as its first president, while Carslake was the club's secretary and treasurer. Edward Winter-Wood was elected as the president of the Devonshire Chess Association in 1909.

Early Years and Chess

Edith spent her early years traveling with her family around the country, visiting the island of Guernsey and France. She learned to play chess from a very young age. In 1880, she married naval officer W.J. Baird and moved to Brighton with him. The following year, their only child, daughter Lillian, was born. Lillian also became a chess player and chess composer in her early years.

Chess Composition and Achievements

From 1888 onwards, Edith Baird published around 2,000 chess problems of various genres, including two- and three-movers, pictorial and conditional problems. In addition to regular problems, she also composed retractor problems, which involve taking back one or more moves. She authored books on chess composition and won 15 first prizes and several other honors in competitions. She also successfully participated in chess tournaments, winning the silver medal in the Sussex Chess Championships for three consecutive years. In 1897, she became the women's champion of Sussex. Apart from chess, she had a passion for archery and was a member of a club, regularly winning various competitions. She was also a talented artist, illustrator, and poet like her father.

Later Life and Legacy

In the later years of her life, Edith moved to Paignton with her brothers. Edward passed away in June 1920, while Edith and Carslake both died within three weeks in February 1924. In her obituary, Edith Baird was referred to as the "Queen of Chess," the most outstanding woman chess composer. Her most famous success came in the international competition of The Hackney Mercury (1893) for three-movers with no more than 6 pieces, where she won the first prize, surpassing many well-known composers including B. Lousa, H. Meyer, J. Reiner, and others.