Marianne Elizabeth Lane Hickey (April 25, 1933 – February 28, 2024), also known as Lisa Lane, was an American chess player. She was the U.S. Women's Chess Champion in 1959. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the August 7, 1961 edition, making her the first chess player to appear on its cover (Bobby Fischer did so in 1972).

Early life and chess career

Born in Philadelphia, Lane never knew her father, a leather glazer. As a child, she and her sister Evelyn lived with their grandmother and various neighbors while their mother held down two jobs. In 1957, while attending Temple University, Lane struck and killed an elderly woman while driving her mother's car (she was not charged). This, and the end of a love affair, set Lane into a depression. After coaching by master Attilio Di Camillo, Lane won the women's championship of Philadelphia in 1958 and took her first U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 1959 at the age of 26, just two years after she began playing the game. She held this title until 1962, losing it to Gisela Kahn Gresser. Lane had an Elo rating of 2002, a low expert rating, from the United States Chess Federation as of the end of 1961. In 1963, Lane opened her own chess club, The Queen's Pawn Chess Emporium in New York City. In 1966, she shared the U.S. Women's Chess Champion title with Gresser. She competed in the Women's World Championship Tournament twice, in 1962 (joint 12th of 17) and 1965 (12th of 18).

Lane was married twice – first to Walter Rich, a Philadelphia ad man and commercial artist, from 1959 to 1961; which in its last years moved to Kent, Connecticut in 2012.

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Television appearances

Lane appeared as a contestant on the March 31, 1960, episode of the TV show To Tell the Truth. The four panel members (Polly Bergen, Don Ameche, Kitty Carlisle, and Tom Poston) correctly guessed her identity. She also appeared as a contestant on the May 21, 1961, episode of the TV show What's My Line? and stumped the panel (Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene Francis, Bennett Cerf, and Abe Burrows). Abe Burrows remarked at the end of the segment that "because she is so pretty, we ruled out anything intellectual."

Chess.com noted in their eulogy that "the glamor cut both ways: media often fixated on her physical appearance and personal life, with chess being a secondary point of interest".

References

  • – an unofficial page containing many articles
  • Lisa Lane – The first chess beauty queen ChessBase.com