Louisa Matilda Fagan
Encyclopedia
Louisa Matilda Fagan (9 January 1850, Naples
– 11 August 1931, London
) was an Italian–British female chess
master.
Miss Ballard learned to play chess as a child from her father William who married Angela De Deo in Naples in 1847. She eventually married an Irishman, J.G. Fagan who was an officer with the Bombay Lancers, and as a result, the Fagans lived for a period of time in India. Mrs. Fagan was part of the chess scene in India, and has some of her problems published in The City of London Chess Magazine. She was a winner of a chess tournament in Bombay, India, in which 12 men took part. She won all her games, but was disqualified because she was a woman playing in a club whose membership was confined to men. She appealed this decision in court and won.
Mrs. Fagan became an emancipation activist, and was one of the founding members of the Ladies' Chess Club of London, which boasted 100 members at its peak and lasted until after World War I
. She took 2nd place, behind Mary Rudge
, in the first Ladies’ International Chess Congress held at the club in London from June 22 to July 3, 1897.
She was the younger sister of Dr. William Robert Ballard, born in Naples in 1848, a strong London chess player in the late 19th, early 20th century.
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
– 11 August 1931, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) was an Italian–British female chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
master.
Miss Ballard learned to play chess as a child from her father William who married Angela De Deo in Naples in 1847. She eventually married an Irishman, J.G. Fagan who was an officer with the Bombay Lancers, and as a result, the Fagans lived for a period of time in India. Mrs. Fagan was part of the chess scene in India, and has some of her problems published in The City of London Chess Magazine. She was a winner of a chess tournament in Bombay, India, in which 12 men took part. She won all her games, but was disqualified because she was a woman playing in a club whose membership was confined to men. She appealed this decision in court and won.
Mrs. Fagan became an emancipation activist, and was one of the founding members of the Ladies' Chess Club of London, which boasted 100 members at its peak and lasted until after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. She took 2nd place, behind Mary Rudge
Mary Rudge
Mary Rudge was an English female chess master.-Early life:Born in Leominster, a small town in Herefordshire, England, she began playing chess in a correspondence tournament in 1872...
, in the first Ladies’ International Chess Congress held at the club in London from June 22 to July 3, 1897.
She was the younger sister of Dr. William Robert Ballard, born in Naples in 1848, a strong London chess player in the late 19th, early 20th century.