Virginia Wigren

    Not much is known of Virginia (known as “Pic”) Wigren except that she has the distinction of being the first female editor of the Correspondence Chess League of Anerica’s Chess Correspondent, a post she held from 1953 to 1956. She also served the CCLA as a rating statistician and as a member of the board of directors. 

    She was from Chicago and had a journalism major from Northwestern University and had been a magazine editor, fashion copywriter and an advertising manager.

    Wigren had been a top female postal player at Al Horowitz’ Chess Review before joining the CCLA. It was Wigren who apparently began the CCLA’s Women’s Championship, winning the first two events in 1949 and 1950. She won the latter with a perfect 11-0. It was probably an exaggeration, but one of her assistants called her, “the most dangerous correspondence player in the United States.” 

    Unfortunately she never kept her game scores and seems to have just disappeared from the chess scene. A Google search of her name and chess turned up almost nothing. Below is the one game of hers I was able to locate. From the looks of it, it's too bad there aren't more. 

[Event "CCLA Womens Championship"] [Site "] [Date "1950.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Clayton"] [Black "Virginia Wigren"] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "46"] [EventDate "1950.??.??"] {E37: Nimzo-Indian} 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. Qxc3 Ne4 7. Qc2 O-O 8. e3 b6 9. b4 {Usual are either 9.Nf3 or 9.Bd3, but the text which is equally good demonstrates the flexibility of white's posirion.} Nd7 { [%mdl 32] It's too soon to tell, but this is the beginning of an amazing journey for this N.} 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Bb5 Ndf6 12. Bc6 Bf5 {Of course white cannot take the R.} 13. Qb3 (13. Bxa8 Ng3 14. Qc6 Nxh1 {Given the opportunity black will play ...Nxf2} 15. f3 (15. Bd2 Nxf2 16. Kxf2 Ne4+ 17. Ke1 Qh4+ 18. Kd1 Qf2 19. Ne2 Bg4 {and white is winning.}) 15... Bd7 16. Qc2 Qxa8 {Even though the N cannot be extracted black is winning.}) 13... Nxf2 {This is temptingm but it is a tactical error. Correct was 13...Ng4 or even 13...Qxa8 with equal chances.} (13... Ng4 14. Nh3 Qh4 15. O-O Rad8 16. Bxd5 {White has survived the attack on f2 and the chances are equal.}) 14. Kxf2 Ne4+ {If white replies correctly black does not have nearly enough compensation.} 15. Ke2 { [%mdl 8192]} (15. Ke1 {was the only winning move.} Qh4+ 16. g3 Nxg3 17. Nf3 { followed by 18.Rg1 and white has beaten off the attack.}) 15... Qh4 {While black has a slight edge after this, 15...Qg5 was far stronger.} (15... Qg5 16. g3 Qf6 {attacking botj the B and the R while f2 remains vulnerable; white is helpless.}) 16. Nh3 {The only move as f2 must be defended.} Bg4+ {Tempting, but white's K can find a safe have on d3 after which black's advantage consists of the initiative and little else.} 17. Kf1 {[%mdl 8192] But here the K is exposed to a crushing attack and Wigren neatly wraps up the game.} (17. Kd3 {The discovered check is scary looking, but white can deal with it.} Bf5 18. Qxd5 (18. Qa2 {This move doesn;t leave black with anything substantial, but humanly speaking the complications are beyomd calculating.} Nf2+ 19. Kd2 Nxh1 20. Qxd5 Bxh3 21. gxh3 Qf2+ 22. Kc3 Qe1+ 23. Kb3 Qd1+ 24. Ka2 Qc2+ 25. Bb2 Rad8 26. Qxh1 {White has 2Bs vs a R and the chgances are equal. This is just a sample line...there are several equally complicated alternatives after 18.Qa2}) 18... Nf2+ 19. Ke2 Bd3+ {This looks really bad for white!} 20. Ke1 Ne4+ 21. g3 Qxh3 22. Qb3 {and white has wriggled ourt of her difficulties.}) 17... Bxh3 $19 18. Ra2 Bf5 19. Bxa8 Ng3+ 20. Kg1 (20. hxg3 Qxh1+ 21. Kf2 Be4 22. Bc6 Rd8 23. Bb5 Rd6 {The addition of the R to the attack ends the game. For example} 24. Ke2 Rf6 25. Kd2 Rf2+ 26. Be2 Qxg2 {followed by the advance of the h-Pawn.}) 20... Nxh1 21. g3 Nxg3 22. Bxd5 Ne4 23. Qd3 Bh3 {There might have been a few lapses along the way, but still a ferocious attack by Wigren.} 0-1