Age, Biography and Wiki

Sonja Graf (Susanna Graf) was born on 16 December, 1908 in Munich, Germany, is a German chess player. Discover Sonja Graf's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is she in this year and how she spends money? Also learn how she earned most of networth at the age of 57 years old?

Popular As Susanna Graf
Occupation N/A
Age 57 years old
Zodiac Sign Sagittarius
Born 16 December 1908
Birthday 16 December
Birthplace Munich, Germany
Date of death 1965
Died Place New York City, United States
Nationality Germany

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 16 December. She is a member of famous player with the age 57 years old group.

Sonja Graf Height, Weight & Measurements

At 57 years old, Sonja Graf height not available right now. We will update Sonja Graf's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
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Dating & Relationship status

She is currently single. She is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, She has no children.

Family
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Sonja Graf Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Sonja Graf worth at the age of 57 years old? Sonja Graf’s income source is mostly from being a successful player. She is from Germany. We have estimated Sonja Graf's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income player

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Timeline

1906

Born in Munich, Susanna Graf was the daughter of Josef Graf and Susanna Zimmermann, both Volga Germans from the Samara region, who had moved to Munich in September 1906.

Her father was originally a priest in Russia, but moved to Munich to pursue life as a painter.

She later wrote that despite the suffering she endured at the hands of her father, she was grateful that he taught her the game of chess when she was still a child.

Chess became her means of escape, both mentally and physically, and she began spending all her time in Munich chess cafés.

Her fame as a coffeehouse player grew and she was introduced to and became the protégée of the German master, Siegbert Tarrasch.

By age twenty-three, she had beaten Rudolf Spielmann twice in simultaneous competition and turned chess professional.

She began traveling throughout Europe, following the chess circuit both for the experience and to distance herself from what she considered the ominous National Socialist movement based, at the time, in Munich.

During the early decades of the 20th century, female chess players were a rarity and Sonja Graf basked in the popularity and attention her sudden fame brought her as much as she exploited the freedom and independence of her new itinerant lifestyle.

1908

Susanna "Sonja" Graf (December 16, 1908 – March 6, 1965) was a German and American chess player.

She was a women's world championship runner-up and a two-time U.S. women's champion.

1934

In 1934, she played against the era's other woman champion, Vera Menchik, in an unofficial match in Amsterdam and, subsequently, in an official 1937 world championship match in Semmering, Austria.

She lost both matches (by the scores of 1–3 and 4½–11½), but was invited, along with Menchik, to participate in what would normally have been an exclusive male tournament held that year in Prague.

She did not win against any of the champions, and her best result was a draw with the Estonian master Paul Keres.

1939

In 1939, Sonja Graf traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to play in the Women's World Chess Championship, held concurrently with the 8th Chess Olympiad.

As a result of her outspoken defiance of Hitler's government, she was taken off the list of German participants and played under "Libre" ("free" in Spanish) flag.

In September, with the tournament still in progress, Germany invaded Poland, unleashing World War II and causing unprecedented confusion within the competition.

Some teams withdrew, others refused to play teams from certain countries.

Both Graf and Menchik played the entire tournament.

Graf won 16 games and lost 3, finishing second.

1947

She also met merchant mariner Vernon Stevenson, whom she married in 1947.

The newlyweds moved to Southern California, settling in Hollywood, and Graf started playing under the name Sonja Graf-Stevenson.

1956

Sonja Graf died in New York City 2 1⁄2 months after her 56th birthday.

1957

She retired from chess to give birth and raise her son Alexander, but subsequently returned to co-win (with Gisela Kahn Gresser) the 1957 U.S. Women's Chess Championship.

She and her family moved to New York City's Greenwich Village, where she gave chess lessons at Lisa Lane's Queen's Pawn Chess Emporium.

1964

In her game against Menchik, Graf lost after achieving a winning position, something she always regretted ("against Menchik, when she was world champion, I had a won game, but I found the three stupidest moves you could think of and lost."—New Yorker, September 19, 1964).

Following the outbreak of the war, Sonja Graf, along with many other participants of the Olympiad, had decided to remain in the safety of Argentina.

She quickly learned the local Spanish language, assimilated herself in the culture and wrote the books, Así juega una mujer (This Is How a Woman Plays), which describes her experiences as a chess player, and Yo Soy Susann (I Am Susann), recounting the physical and psychological abuse she suffered during her childhood.

In 1964 she had her second win in the U.S. Women's Championship, but was already suffering from the liver ailment which would take her life the following year.

2016

In 2016, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.