Ruth Haring

 

Ruth Haring

     The last post was from 1977 which was also the year that two US women were among a total of twelve women who were awarded the Woman's International Master title; they were Diane Savereide and Ruth Orton. 

     I immediately recognized the name Diane Savereide (born November 25, 1954) who was five-time winner of the US Women's Championship (1975, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1984). But, Ruth Orton didn't ring a bell. However, a quick search revealed that she was better known as Ruth Haring, one of the top US women players in the 1970s and ’80s. 

     Haring played for the national women’s team in five consecutive Olympiads. She was elected to the USCF executive board in 2009 as Vice President and in 2011 was elected President. She served in that position until 2015 and then was on the Board of Directors in 2016. In 2018, she ran as general secretary on Nigel Short's FIDE president ticket. 

     Haring was born January 23, 1955, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, or was it on an Air Force base in Maine? It depends upon the source, but I am guessing that Maine is correct. That's because Cape Cod is home to Otis Air National Guard Base, but Loring Air Force was a US Air Force installation in northeastern Maine and she later lived in Fairbanks, Alaska which is home to Eielson Air Force Base located approximately 26 miles southeast of Fairbanks. 

     She began playing tournament chess in 1969 while in Fairbanks, and joined the USCF at the age of 14 and first played competitively in when attending college in Fayetteville, Arkansas. After earning her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Arkansas she studied computer science at San Jose State University in California. 

     Her first husband was Bill Orton, who was rated a high Expert or low Master. You can read his comments about Ruth at Chessgames.com HERE.

     After divorcing Orton, she married Peter Biyiasas in 1978, had three children, then divorced again in 2005. During the time she was married to Biyiasis she worked for IBM and later Lockheed, TRW and eBay. I assume that Haring was her maiden name which she used after divorcing Biyiasas. 

     Haring passed away at the age of 63 in Chico, California on Thursday, November 29, 2018, after having gone to the hospital a day earlier with symptoms of pneumonia.

     The 1974 US Women's Championship was held in St, Petersburg, Florida and had the country's eleven highest-rated players who accepted their invitations. The lineup included defending Co-champion Eva Aronson, nine-time Champion Gisela Gresser and five-time Champion Mona Karff, all veterans and holders of the WIM title.

     Also in the lineup were US Women's Open Champions Mabel Burlingame and Kathryn Slater and US Women's Amateur Champion Greta Olsson. The rest of the players were promising young women. 

     Grim determination to play in this event was shown by Judith Rippeth...she endured a 36 hour long non-stop bus ride from West Layfayette, Indiana in order to play! And, Greta Olsson, a school teacher from Los Angeles, California, had to plead her case all the way to her school's superintendent for permission to take time off from her teaching schedule. 

     The tournament was won by US Chess Hall of Fame member Mona Karff who had come out of a short retirement to play and her reentry into competition was a success as her 8-2 score with no losses attests. 

 

     The real surprise of the tournament though was the outstanding performance of the 19-year old Arkansas State College freshman Ruth Haring. She set the pace for most of the tournament without suffering a loss. Going into the final round Haring (7.0 points) and Karff (7.5) points were paired and by taking a draw against her redoubtable opponent, she assured herself of second place. 

     In the the following game Haring's opponent is Joan K. Schmidt. who passed away at the age of 81 in Amherst, Massachusetts on Tuesday, February 1st this year.

Joan K. Schmidt

     Schmidt was born on October 3, 1940 and grew up in the Bronx, New York where she was a gifted student who also had a passion for outdoor activities such as sailing. After graduating from Hunter College in New York City and after draduating from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California she worked for NASA in the early days of the space program before moving back to the East Coast where she met her husband Bernard Schmidt. They raised their family in Florida and South Carolina before settling in Raleigh, North Carolina. 

     Schmidt was an avid chess player and was one of the top 20 US Women players in the early 1970s. She won the Brilliancy Prize at the 1972 US Women’s Championship while finishing 6th in the tournament. She was also the first woman to win a North Carolina tournament. 

     She worked as a lab technician at North Carolina State University and enjoyed, besides chess, gardening, gymnastics and ballroom dancing. She also studied martial arts and earned a black belt in Kempo. After retirement she took a dog-sledding trip for her 70th birthday.

ChessBase

Ruth Inez Haring–Joan K. Schmidt1–0B06U.S Womens Champ, St. Petersburg, FL1974Stockfish 15

Pirc Defense 1.e4 g6 2.d4 g7 3.f3 d6 4.c3 f6 5.bd2 bd7 6.d3 e5 7.dxe5 xe5 8.xe5 dxe5 9.c4 e7 10.0-0 0-0 11.a4 c6 Black has a number of options here. 11...a5 Black had no difficulty equalizing after this. 12.b3 d8 13.a3 e8 14.e2 b6 15.fd1 b7 Taimanov,M (2425)-Davies,N (2505) Wrexham 1997 11...h5 was also good for equality in Fontaine,R (2546)-Nakamura,H (2701) Pori Le Marly FRA 2009 12.e1 f4 13.xf4 exf4 14.e5 e6 11...d8 12.f3 h5 13.g3 f6 14.e3 a5 15.e2 e6 equals. Ankudinova,Y (2096)-Utegaliyev,A (2517) Almaty KAZ 2018 11...b6 12.b3 d8 13.c2 b7 14.e1 xd3 15.xd3 xe4 White is better, but a draw was agreed to in Ribli,Z (2595)-Sax,G (2565) Budapest 1977 12.a5 h5 13.e1 e6 14.c2 xc4 14...f4 was a promising continuation. 15.f1 Keeping the two Bs g5 16.a4 fd8 15.xc4 b5 16.axb6 axb6 17.e3 White has the more active position, but black position is basically solid. b5 18.f1 f4 19.b4 Threatening Bc5. c7 20.a2 b7 Black is unaware of the hidden danger on the a-file or she would have exchanged Rs. 20...xa2 21.xa2 d7 22.a1 f6 23.a7 xa7 24.xa7 e6 White is slightly better, but owing to the reduced material black should be able yo defend herself. 21.ea1 xa2 22.xa2 e6 23.g3 b8 24.h3 Attacking the N on e6...black has no satisfactory defense. c7 25.d2 While there is no forced win, all of white's pieces are very active. e8 25...a6 Prevents white's next move, but it would not have saved the game. 26.d7 xd7 27.xd7 c7 28.xc6 with an easy win. 26.a7 The final straw. Black resigned because her Q is trapped. Weighted Error Value: White=0.11 (very precise) /Black=0.60 1–0

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