Her father was a Brazilian businessman who went to Germany to study engineering where he met and married Ruth's mother. After the couplereturned to Brazil, Ruth was born in afterwards bringing her to Brazil where Ruth was born in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia.
Shortly after she was born, her parents' marriage ended, and Ruth and her mother returned to Germany. During World War II they were living in what later became East Germany after the war. According to all the sources I found, when the war ended and the Soviet Army took over East Germany, she had dinner with General Eisenhower, who intervened and saw to it that she could return to Brazil. I was unable to determine how her dinner with General Eisenhower came about.
For many years Cardoso was the strongest woman player in South America. She won the South American Women's Championship every time she competed (1966, 1969 and 1972). She won the Brazilian Chess Championship seven times. She played in the Women's Interzonal Championship four times and in five World Chess Olympiads, playing first board for the Brazilian team each time: in Skopje 1972, Medellin 1974, Buenos Aires 1976, La Valletta 1980, and Luzern 1982. Chessmetrics assigns her a high rating of 2329 in 1973 and her last FIDE rating in 1980 was 2040.
During he career she frequently played in US open Swiss tournaments, but she was best known for playing in strong GM tournaments in Spain and Italy in the 1970s where she occasionally scored against GMs.
There was often much confusion because of her name. She was sometimes confused with Ruth Valenca Correia Leite Cardoso, the wife of the President of Brazil from 1995 to 2002, Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Her name was also often confused with that of IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso of the Philippines. As a result, many of her games published in the 1970s were confused with those of Rodolfo Cardoso who was known for a match he played against Bobby Fischer in 1957 and for playing in the Interzonal in Portoroz 1958.
She was married early in life, but the marriage ended in divorce. Her trainer, Pal Benko, was a long-time companion. Dutch IM Hans Ree tells of the time at the Interzonal in Portoroz in 1958, 15-year old Bobby Fischer was quoted as having said that he wanted to be an international playboy like Benko.
In Benko’s My Life, Games and Compositions he has a lot of stories about flings with women and during the 1960s the political climate changed in in Hungary and he was able to visit regularly. In 1968 he married Gizella, a professor of mathematics whom he knew before he left Hungary in 1957. Benko spent his last years in Budapest as a family man with a son and daughter. There is nary a mention of Cardoso in Benko’s book. She died of heart disease in Salvador.
Apparently Benko had a nasty temper. In the preface to the book, Jeremy Silman described a time shortly after Benko (July 15, 1928 – August 26, 2019) arrived in the US. In an open tournament Benko was playing on his opponent’s expensive new set. After Benko blundered a Rook, he picked up the board and pieces and hurled them across the room, breaking the set.
In the book Benko himself mentions an incident in which he almost drowned an Hungarian boxing champion in an argument over a girl at a swimming pool. In a blitz game against Larry Evans in 1960, there was an argument, but an actual fight was avoided. Evans told Benko, “You’ll be famous for beating all the best players in the world...physically”
Then there was the slapping incident during the candidates tournament in Curacao in 1962. Arthur Bisguier was there as the only second for both Benko and Fischer and when Benko wanted help with an adjourned game against Petrosian, he and Fischer got into a shouting match and Benko slapped Fischer. It’s surprising to me that Fischer didn’t retaliate by taking a chunk out of Benko’s arm. On the ride home from the 1957 US Junior Championship, Fischer bit Gilbert Ramirez during an argument and left a permanent scar on his arm. And, when Fischer was arrested in Japan he...bit one of the arresting officers.
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| Josiane Legendre |
Ruth Cardoso - Josiane Legendre
Result: 1-0
Site: Valletta MLT
Date: 1980
Sicilian Najdorf
[...] 1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘f6 5.♘c3 a6 6.f4 The Amsterdam Variation is an interesting option to the main lines of the Sicilian Najdorf in which white avoids the more thoroughly analyzed variations like 6.Bc4, 6.Bg5 and 6.Be2. The drawback is that black can usually easily equalize. White's main problem with 6.f4 is that his primary attacking plan is not that dangerous. If black chooses to fianchetto his f8B then normally white completes development and after black has played ...O-O white proceeds with Qe1, f5, Qh4, Bh6, and Ng5. This plan is very slow and so black is able to get counterplay in the center with the thematic breaks of ...b5 and ...d5. Bobby Fischer's strategy against most sidelines in the Najdorf involved a double-fianchetto often beginning with the fianchetto of the c8B after playing ...b5 to threaten complications with ...b4. This set-up allows black to pressure white's center from both flanks and it is very difficult for white to find a target to attack due to his inability to break the center open with his Ps. 6...♕c7 7.♘f3 ♘c6
7...e6 8.a4 ♗e7 9.♗d3 ♘bd7 10.O-O b6 11.♕e1 ♗b7 Polgar,J (2595) -Ljubojevic,L (2605)/Monte Carlo 1993 is equal.
7...g6 is not so good here. 8.e5 dxe5 9.fxe5 ♘fd7 10.♘d5 ♕d8 11.♗g5 ♘b6 12.♘f6 exf6 13.♕xd8 ♔xd8 14.♗xf6 and black resigned in Sherzer,A (2493)-Chiong,L (2368)/Washington DC 2002
8.a4 ♗g4
8...e6 9.♗d3 ♗e7 10.O-O ♘b4 11.♕e1 ♘xd3 12.cxd3 O-O is equal. Lanc,A (2380)-Waldmann,I/ Zamardi 1980.
9.♗e2 ♗xf3 10.♗xf3 e5 11.O-O
11.g4 is an interesting alternative. 11...♘b4 (11...exf4 12.g5 ♘d7 13.♘d5 ♕d8 14.♗xf4 with the advantage.) 12.g5 ♘d7 13.O-O White has somewhat better chances.
11...exf4 12.♗xf4 ♘e5 13.♔h1 ♘fd7 It's hard to believe that this seemingly logical move supporting the N on e5 results in a drastic change in the evaluation of the position. Stockfish now assigns white an advantage of over 4 Ps.
13...♗e7 is the only good move. 14.♗g5 ♕d8 15.♗xf6 ♗xf6 16.♘d5 O-O and white is only slightly better.
14.♘d5 Now it's apparent what was wrong with black's last move. Her K is caught in the center. 14...♕c6
14...♕d8 ...for example runs in to 15.♗g5 ♕xg5 16.♘c7 ♔d8 17.♘xa8 leaves black's K facing grave danger.
15.b4 ♖c8 16.♖a3 Threatening to win the Q with Rc3 16...♕xc2 17.♕xc2 This is a mistake that tosses away almost all of white's advantage. With 17.Qa1 black's Q would be in mortal danger and no matter how black twists and turns, sooner or later the Q will be lost.
17.♕a1 ♘d3 18.♖a2 ♕c6 19.b5 ♕c5 20.♗e3 ♕c4 21.bxa6 bxa6 22.♖a3 ♗e7 23.♖c3 ♕xc3 24.♘xc3 and black has only a R for the Q.
17...♖xc2 18.♗d1 ♖c8 19.♗e2 g6 20.b5 a5 21.b6 h6 Has black ever heard of castling? 22.♗b5 By a series of useless mvoes black has gotten herself into a tight situation and now makes matters even worse with her next move. 22...♖d8 This is just awful. 23.♗g3 Cardoso fails to take advantage of the opportunity presented to her by black's last move.
23.♗xe5 Trading down to a won ending. 23...dxe5 24.♖af3 f5 25.exf5 g5 26.♘f6 ♔e7 27.♘xd7 ♖xd7 28.f6 ♔d8 29.♗xd7 ♔xd7 30.♖d3 ♔e6 31.♖d8 wins.
23...♗e7 An awful counterblunder!
23...♗g7 24.♗h4 g5 25.♘c7 ♔e7 26.♘d5 ♔e6 and white has but a slight advantage and is left with the not so easy task of figuring out a way to win.
24.♖a2 More forceful was 24.Rc3 24...♖c8 25.♖d2 (25.♗xe5 dxe5 26.♘c7 ♔f8 27.♗xd7 ♖b8+−) 25...f6 Yet another nasty mistake that allows to opening of the f-file. It would have been better to just hang tight with 25...Kf8 and let white come up with something constructive. 26.h3 Pointless.
26.♗xe5 fxe5 (26...dxe5 27.♘xe7 wins a piece.) 27.♘c7 ♔d8 28.♖f7 would prove decisive.
26...♘c6 A tactical blunder from which there is no recovering.
26...♔f7 27.♘xe7 ♔xe7 28.♗xd7 ♔xd7 29.♖xf6 ♘c4 and at least she has some faint hope.
27.♘xe7 ♘xe7 28.♗xd6 The d-Pawn has fallen. 28...♖d8 29.♗c7 Facing the loss of heavy plastic, black resigned.
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