Larissa Volpert

Who is Larissa Volpert?

Larisa Ilinichna Volpert is a Russian chess Woman Grandmaster. She was three times Soviet women's chess champion.

Born in Leningrad, she learned chess from her older brother and received chess instruction at the Leningrad Pioneers Palace. In 1947, she tied for first at the Leningrad Women's Championship. She played her first USSR Women's Championship in 1949 and finished equal fifth. In 1954, she won her first USSR Women's Championship. She scored 2–0 against Nina Hrušková-Bělská in the 1954 USSR v. Czechoslovakia match. In 1958 she shared the USSR Women's Championship title, and in 1959 she won for the third time, her second outright victory.

Volpert earned the Woman International Master title in 1954 and the Woman Grandmaster title in 1977. She has a degree in philology from Leningrad University and is Professor Emerita of philology at the University of Tartu, Estonia.