Rudenko Lyudmila Vladimirovna (27.07.1904 – 05.03.1986)

The second World Champion, Ukrainian Women’s Grandmaster (1976), International Master (1950), Honoured Sport Master. USSR Women’s Champion in 1952. Rudenko began to play chess at the age of 10. In 1928 she won the Moscow Women’s championship and later the Leningrad Women’s championship three times. In the 1949-50 Moscow Women World Championship, she took the first prize and became the first Soviet chess player to be World Champion.

Best women player she won also the USSR Women Championship in 1952. In 1953 she lost her title in a match against Elisabeth Bykova 6:8. In 1956 in the Moscow three-round tournament, she was third. Rudenko was also the holder of the title of Swimming vice champion of Ukraine (breaststroke) in 1925.