Who Was Grace Alekhine?

Grace Norton Eisler Peeke Bromley Freeman Alekhine was an American, British and French artist, chess player ("chess master" by one online source), Bon Vivant of many names (and husbands), and the 4th and last wife of the great chess champion Alexander Alekhine.

I Googled Wishaar using "Wishaar site:chess.com" and only One (1) page and only One (1) mention on the entire chess/com site was returned. 

That has made me write these lines as she, Alekhine's wife, deserves that we know more about her. I would expect that the nice array of chess historians we have on the site (@batgirl, @simagin, @kamalakanta, @introuble2, @spektrowski) get in and possibly go deeper into her life and games, so consider this as a teaser for a bigger piece on her.

Grace was born in New Jersey and in the early 1900s moved to Oakland, California. She established herself as an artist. Funny, her work became known on both a large and small scale: as a theatrical scenery painter, and as a miniature portraitist" (she painted the young daughters of Jack London). 

In 1914 she moves to Paris where she had her portraiture work exhibited at the Spring Salon des Beaux Arts.

She played a couple of French championships (below you can find a game played in 1931).

How/where did Grace and Alexander meet?

Grace won a minor chess tournament in Tokyo in 1933. During her stay she also played Alekhine, sixteen years her junior, in a simul. Her prize was one of Alekhine's books. Alekhine signed it and their relationship developed from there. Next year they married in France near Nice. She was rich and possessed a magnificent chateau in Normandy, and an art studio in Paris.

Here's Grace Wishaar with her husband at the closing ceremony of the 1935 Alekhine-Euwe World Championship match in Amsterdam (Alekhine looks a little boozy, doesn't he? very unusual about him)

They both played at Hastings in 1936/7. Alekhine was the winner at the Premier, while she was 3rd in the 3rd Class Morning A.

In this photo, is Grace Wishaar with the wives of Hans Kmoch and Salo Flohr. Of course, the famous Alekhine's felines are there. One of them must be Шахматы, Chess the Cat.

The period during the war is somehow best known to the public. I would only say that Grace was the champion of Paris in 1944.

Not many games of her survived. All of them are her losses. Here's a game she played in the 1931 French Women's championship against the winner Mrs Louise Pope (she was still Mrs Freeman then).

OUCH!

Thankx 4 the short but intresting post.

Ay, ay, ay

Thanks buddy for stopping by, appreciated

Good Post, Interesting and fun bit of chess history

Thanks Robert.

Last time I lost to you in only seven moves

That lady could PLAY!

Alekhine was married four times, I think I have seen it written somewhere that all the wives were considerably older than him, well off, and generally rather quickly divorced. Grace was 16 years older than Alekhine and they never divorced, even if they didn’t live together after the first years.

Interesting, fabelhaft. I'm interested in chess history, how do I access some of this material?

https://drypigment.net/2017/12/28/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-acquiring-the-fort-scott-scenery-collection-for-the-minnesota-masonic-heritage-center-part-289-grace-n-wishaar-and-marian-smith-oliver/

"Wishaar was lucky in many things, but certainly not in marriage. She soon married Archibald C. Freeman in Ceylon. This was her fourth marriage. Freeman was a dual British-American citizen who committed suicide in Bandarawella in the March 1931. It was her marriage to Freeman that granted her British citizenship, something she retained throughout the remainder of her life. After Freeman, Wishaar married and divorced Henry James Bromley. Not much is known of this relationship, other than it was disclosed on her sixth marriage certificate to Alexander Alekhine, the world chess champion."

Apparently, Grace was married 6 TIMES!

She started her travels, together with a (girl) friend after her house in California was destroyed in a fire.

That was Mme Louise Pope (the 1931 French champion, on the left), here playing Madmoiselle Paulette Scwartzmann of Russia (who won the tournament 11/11)

Another photo of Mrs Louise Pope (at the table on the left opposing the younger Melle Marie-Jeanne Frigard, four times the fem. champion of France and a distinguished musician, the first violin of the St Denis orchestra; born 1904, disappeared during the horror of WWII...)

more info here: https://drypigment.net/2017/12/29/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-acquiring-the-fort-scott-scenery-collection-for-the-minnesota-masonic-heritage-center-part-290-the-final-game-grace-wishaar-chess-and-alexander-alekhine/ 

"During World War II, the Nazis took over their chateau and looted its contents. Alekhine was allowed to freely travel under Nazi occupation, but no exit visa was allowed for Wishaar. After the war, Wishaar sold the chateau and spent the last five years of her life in her Paris studio. She passed away on February 21, 1956 and is buried next to Alexander in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris."

Grace was born in 1876, according to this source:

"Wishaar’s sixth husband was chess champion - Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946). Sixteen years her junior, Alekhine was born in Moscow." 

@bumiputra thanks for the links.

Another colorful personality on the pic I previously posted (in the middle with the black hat) is Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, the author of The angels and the perverts. "Une poète et romancière, sculpteur et dessinatrice, surnommée la "Princesse Amande"; she translated One thousand and one nights and Koran to French. Passionate about chess.

She wrote Sonnet des Echecs, Ballade des Echecs and Envoi

Nice post