Eileen B. Tranmer

1910 - 1983

• British Ladies' Champion in 1947, 1949, 1953 and 1961.
• Played for Britain v USSR in Radio Match 1946.
• Played in the first Women's World Championship held after WWII, at Moscow 1949/50, scoring 9½/15.
• After FIDE introduced a qualification system for the World Championship, she played in the First Women Candidates tournament in Moscow 1952. She came 7th out of 16, defeating Elizaveta Bykova, a Soviet Union representative, winner of the tournament, and eventual World Champion.

Miss Tranmer, a musician by profession, visited (and lived in) Scotland. The Glasgow Herald chess column of 7 September 1945 noted that she was a member of Edinburgh Ladies' CC and Polytechnic CC, Glasgow.

1953 While in Scotland with the Italian Opera orchestra she gave a simultaneous display against six opponents at Glasgow Ladies' CC on Wednesday, November 18. She won 5 games and lost to Miss Waterworth.

Eileen Tranmer ─ Glasgow Ladies Chess Club, 1953
From front to back: Mrs M. Hepburn; Mrs R.M. Jones; Miss M. Smillie, and Miss J. Rae. The other two are unnamed, but one of them is Miss Waterworth.

1954 At Glasgow Ladies' Chess Club she played 12 games, winning 9 and drawing 3 with Mrs Lyon, Mrs Steedman and Mrs Waterworth. At Edinburgh Ladies' CC she played 19 games, winning 18 and losing 1.

1955 At Glasgow Ladies' CC she won all 13 games in a simultaneous display.

Sources: BCM 1954, pp 3 and 381; Glasgow Herald chess columns.

Alan McGowan
Historian, Chess Scotland

updated 29/11/2023