{{short description|Soviet chess player (1904–1986)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}} {{family name hatnote|Vladimirovna|Rudenko|lang=Eastern Slavic}} {{Infobox chess biography | name = Lyudmila Rudenko | image = Lyudmila Rudenko.jpg | image_size = | caption = Lyudmila Rudenko {{circa|1928}} | birth_name = Lyudmila Vladimirovna Rudenko | country = Soviet Union | birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|7|27|df=yes}} | birth_place = Lubny, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1986|3|4|1904|7|27|df=yes}} | death_place = Leningrad, Soviet Union | title = International Master (1950)<br />Woman Grandmaster (1976) | womensworldchampion = 1950–1953 }}
'''Lyudmila Vladimirovna Rudenko''' ({{langx|ru|Людми́ла Влади́мировна Руде́нко}}, {{langx|uk|Людмила Володимирівна Руденко}}; 27 July 1904 – 4 March 1986) was a Soviet chess player and the second women's world chess champion, from 1950 until 1953.<ref>{{cite book|author=Graham, John|date=1987|title=Women in Chess, Players of the Modern Age|url=https://archive.org/details/womeninchessplay00grah|url-access=registration|publisher=McFarland & Company}}</ref>
Rudenko was awarded the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman International Master (WIM) in 1950, and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1976. She was the first woman awarded the International Master title. She was also USSR women's champion in 1952.
== Early life and swimming career == Rudenko was born in 1904 in Lubny, in the Poltava region of what is now Ukraine.<ref name="Bishard ">[http://www.e3e5.com/article.php?id=1011 E. Bishard about L. Rudenko]. ''e3e5.com''. 28 July 2004.</ref> At age 10, she was taught how to play chess by her father—although, at first, she was more interested in swimming. After secondary school, she moved to Odessa and took a degree in economics.<ref name="Bishard "/> Rudenko became the swimming champion of Odessa in the {{Convert|400|m|ft|adj=on}} breaststroke. In 1925, she was swimming vice-champion of Ukraine (breaststroke). She started a career as an economic planner for the Soviet Union, and chess became a hobby.
==Chess career== Rudenko began playing tournament chess in 1925 after a move to Moscow. In 1928, she won the Moscow women's championship. She then moved to Leningrad, where she met and married scientist Lev Davidovich Goldstein; in 1931 they had a son.<ref name="Bishard "/> In Leningrad in 1929 she began training with chess master Peter Romanovsky. She won the Leningrad women's championship three times.
In World War II, Rudenko organized a train to evacuate children from the Siege of Leningrad. She described this as the most important accomplishment in her life.<ref name="Bishard "/>
Women's World Champion Vera Menchik died in 1944 during an air raid. After the war, in the winter of 1949–1950, the World Chess Federation FIDE held a tournament in Moscow to determine the new women's champion. Sixteen women from twelve countries competed, with the four Soviet players taking the top four spots. Rudenko, who was then 45 years old, won the tournament, a full point ahead of the field (scoring nine wins, one loss, and five draws). She held the Women's World Championship title until losing it to Elisaveta Bykova in 1953 in the next championship cycle. Her score was 6–8 (five wins, seven losses, and two draws).
Rudenko's post-war chess trainers were Alexander Tolush and Grigory Levenfish.<ref name="Bishard "/>
== Legacy == Rudenko was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/lyudmila-rudenko |title=Lyudmila Rudenko (1904–1996) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2015 |website=World Chess Hall of Fame}}</ref> She was honored with a Google Doodle on the 114th anniversary of her birth, 27 July 2018.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://time.com/5351117/lyudmila-rudenko-google-doodle/ |title=Google Doodle Celebrates Chess Grandmaster Lyudmila Rudenko's on What Would Have Been Her 114th Birthday |website=Time|access-date=27 July 2018}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{cite web|title=Chess Goddesses. Ludmilla Vladmirovna Rudenko|url=http://goddesschess.com/chessgoddesses/rudenko.html|website=Goddesschess|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012051422/http://goddesschess.com/chessgoddesses/rudenko.html|archive-date=12 October 2011 }} *{{chessgames player|id=72246}}
{{s-start}} {{succession box | before= Vera Menchik, then ''vacant'' ''(no champion from 1944 to 1950)'' | title= Women's World Chess Champion | years= 1950–1953 | after= Elisaveta Bykova }} {{s-end}}
{{Women's World Chess Championships}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudenko, Lyudmila}} Category:1904 births Category:1986 deaths Category:Ukrainian female chess players Category:Ukrainian chess players Category:Russian female chess players Category:20th-century Russian chess players Category:Soviet female chess players Category:Soviet chess players Category:Women's world chess champions Category:Chess International Masters Category:Chess Woman Grandmasters Category:People from Lubny Category:20th-century Russian sportswomen