Mona Karff
Mona May Karff, queen of the chessboard, died on January 10th, aged 86
A MERCHANT travelling in the Middle East in AD802 is said to have bought a slave girl who could play chess. He found this so remarkable that he wrote to a friend about her: not so much that she was a slave, but that she was female.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Mona Karff”
Obituary January 24th 1998
From the January 24th 1998 edition
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