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Olga Rubtsova

Full name Olga Nikolaevna Rubtsova
Country Soviet Union
Born August 20, 1909
Moscow, Russian Empire
Title Woman Grandmaster (1976)
Women's World Champion 1956-1958

Olga Nikolaevna Rubtsova (Russian: О́льга Никола́евна Рубцо́ва; August 20, 1909 - December 13, 1994) was a Soviet chess player and fourth Women's World Chess Champion.

She won the Soviet Women's Championship four times (1927, 1931, 1937 and 1948), and was second in the Women's World Chess Championship 1949-50, a point behind Lyudmila Rudenko. She won the title in 1956, finishing ahead of Rudenko and Elisabeth Bykova in a match tournament, before losing it to Bykova in a match in 1958.

Rubtsova also played correspondence chess, and became first Women's World Correspondence Chess Champion in 1972 (she also finished second in the next championship, only losing the title to Lora Jakovleva on tie-break, and fifth in the one after that). As of today, she remains the only player, male or female, to become World Champion in both over-the-board and correspondence chess.

Preceded by
Elisabeth Bykova
Women's World Chess Champion
1956-1958
Succeeded by
Elisabeth Bykova
Preceded by
none
Women's World Correspondence Chess Champion
1968-1972
Succeeded by
Lora Jakovleva
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