She grew up in Rotterdam, the eldest of five girls, in a working-class family with eleven children. Her father worked as a towman, i,e,he transported freight by horse and cart.
She was unable to continue her education after primary school, but financially that was not possible, so she went to work as a housekeeper for a wealthy aunt in the town of Pijnacker near The Hague. She later said that she had worn out her knees scrubbing floors.
Her mother was a fervent supporter of socialism and so at around the age of 15 Catharina became a member of the socialist youth movement.
Inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917, she and her husband made plans to emigrate to Russia via England.
In 1919 they left for Barking, a suburb of London, where her husband found employment as a technician. In 1929 a son was born and in 1921 twin girls were born. But, then her husband was blacklisted for his political activities and lost his job and the family moved back to Rotterdam.
Roodzant taught herself to play chess by watching games played by her husband, a fanatic club player. When he discovered that she had talent, he immediately wanted to take her to the chess club. She demurred because she was afraid of making a fool of herself so her husband gave her lessons and she practiced in the mornings when the children were at school.
In 1929 she became the first woman in the Netherlands to become a member of a chess club: De Pion in Rotterdam. Her membership in the club was not appreciated by ,amy of men because chess was a man’s game. It was not until 1935 that a national women's championship was organized in the Netherlands. There were eight participants and Roodzant won it.
In 1936 she won her second national title. At the 1937 Dutch women's championship she was dethroned by a 17-year old named Fenny Heemskerk. Roodzant regained the title in 1938, but lost it to Heemskerk in 1939. Roodzant was resentful of Heemskerk and always referred to her as “that market vendor”, which apparently is a derogatory Dutch term.
Roodzant also took part in international tournaments and left her family for months at a time. She was also known for her extravagant clothing style.
In 1939 she was playin in Buenos Aires when WWII broke out and initially she feared she woulf have to stay in Argentina because the authorities considered a sailingtrip back too dangerous, but eventually a convoy was organized and she returned home safely. Chess life came to a standstill during the war and after the war Roodzant only achieved minor successes.
Due to the war, Roodzant lost her confidence in socialism and she no longer believed in it. Then in In the late 1970s, she visited a communist country for the first time and was shocked by the poverty.
After her husband died in 1957, Roodzant found her real job at the age of sixty as an auditor at an insurance office. Because there were hardly any pension provisions, she continued to work until she was seventy.
She also continued to play chess, but only for the money, never for fun.
In an interview in honor of her eightieth birthday, she said. “I am fascinated by the fighting, the struggle. When you sit opposite each other for five hours, people think what a meaningless game. Nothing is less true. You go through all the emotions, the same as in normal life. Hope, sadness, joy, sadness."
Roodzant lived independently until she was 100 years old. When she broke her hip in 1996, she had to go to a nursing home. She was not happy there, feeling that she had too little privacy.
In the following game played in a match against England, Roodszant’s opponent was Elaine Saunders Pritchard (1926-2001, 86 years old). She warded the WIM title in 1957. She was World Junior Women's Champion in 1936 and 1937. She also won the British Women's Championship in 1939 and 1946 and again in 1956 and 1965.
It’s hard to evaluate Prichard’s 13th move. Did she make a simple oversight that it lost a piece or did she envisage the gob of Pawns that started rolling on the K-side? Kudos to Roodzant for threading her way through what must have been a maze of calculations to keep the win in hand!
[Event "ENG-NED Match"]
[Site "Birmingham ENG"]
[Date "1963.11.24"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Elaine Saunders Pritchard"]
[Black "Catharina Roodzant"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D00"]
[Annotator "Stockfish 16"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "1963.11.23"]
{D02: London System} 1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 {White is setting up what is known as the
London Syatem. Normally after 2.Bf4 white plays c2-c3 and places the Ns at f3
and d2. Here the game deviates from that, but the advantage of white's setup
is that it can be used against virtually any black defense. The opening has a
reputation as being solid it usually leads to a closed, tedious position that
is not very dynamic. In some ways the opening resembles the Colle System
except that the dark squard B is not blocked in on c1.} c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bf5
{Equally popular is 4...Bg4. Nowm if white wants, 5.c4 would transpose into a
Q Gambit setup.} 5. Bd3 Bxd3 6. cxd3 e6 7. O-O Nbd7 (7... Bd6 {is harmless.} 8.
Bxd6 Qxd6 9. Qb3 Qa3 {and Juswanto,D (2505)-Megaranto,S (2458) Jakarta 2004
soon agreed to a draw}) 8. Nc3 Be7 9. Ne5 {Here white has played 9.e4 (the
most active alternative), 9.h3, 9.Rc1 and 9.Qd2, none of which lead to much.}
O-O 10. Qf3 Nxe5 11. dxe5 Nd7 12. Qg3 Kh8 $15 13. d4 {[%mdl 8192] Is this a
gross oversight or did white think she could get some kind of attack going?!
She had to play 13.Qf3} g5 14. Qh3 gxf4 15. exf4 {It should be pretty evident
that the lone Q is not going to do any damage n the K-side. But wait! Prichard
is going to get her Ps rolling.} Rg8 16. Kh1 Nf8 17. g4 f6 18. f5 {White is
quite lost, but OTB this move complicates the issue. Black could capture
either P and still retain a winning position.} Qd7 (18... exf5 19. gxf5 fxe5
20. dxe5 d4 21. Rad1 Qa5 22. f6 Bxf6 23. exf6 dxc3 24. Qxc3 Qxc3 {winning
easily.}) (18... fxe5 19. dxe5 d4 20. Rad1 Qa5 21. Rxd4 exf5 22. gxf5 Qxe5 23.
Re4 Qg7 {Black has a decisive advantage.}) 19. f4 {Pritchard has managed to
bring about a position that requires black (especially) to do a lot of
calculating!} Rc8 20. Rg1 Qc7 21. Qh6 fxe5 22. dxe5 Qb6 (22... exf5 {is much
less effective. Sitting at the board the white P mass is going to look scary
after} 23. gxf5 {and to keep the advantage black is going to have to return
the piece after} Nd7 24. f6 Nxf6 (24... Bf8 25. Rxg8+ Kxg8 26. Rg1+ Kh8 27. Rg7
Nxf6 28. Rxc7 {and it's white who is winning.}) 25. exf6 Bc5 26. Rg5 Rce8 {
White can't continue the attack, but black;s advantage is not so great.}) 23.
f6 Bb4 (23... Qxb2 {lets white off the hook.} 24. fxe7 Ng6 25. Qh3) 24. f5 Qd4
(24... exf5 {loses...} 25. gxf5 Rxg1+ 26. Rxg1 Rc7 27. Qg5 {and there is no
good way to meet the threat of Qg8#}) 25. f7 Rg7 26. fxe6 (26. Qf6 Rc7 27. Rad1
Qc5 28. fxe6 Qe7 {and white is stymied.}) 26... Be7 27. Rae1 Rg6 28. Qh5 Nxe6 {
Black has successfully beaten off the attack and the remaining moves are
inertia on white's part.} 29. Rg3 Bg5 30. Rf3 Rf8 {[%mdl 32]} (30... Nf4 {
is too complicated.} 31. Ne4 dxe4 32. Rxf4 Bxf4 33. Qf5 Rf8 34. Qxf4 Qd5 35.
Qxe4 Rxf7 36. Qxd5 cxd5) 31. Qh3 Rg7 32. a3 {A clear sign that white is out of
ideas.} Rgxf7 33. Rxf7 Rxf7 34. Qh5 Qf4 35. h4 {This allows a mate in 5, but
it doesm't matter because white is lost no matter what she plays.} Qf3+ {
Black mates.} 36. Kh2 Qf2+ 37. Kh1 Qxe1+ 38. Kh2 Rf2+ {White resigned} 0-1
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