Lisa Lane facts for kids

Marianne Elizabeth Lane Hickey, known to many as Lisa Lane, was born on April 25, 1938, in Philadelphia. She is a famous American former chess player. Lisa made history by becoming the U.S. Women's Chess Champion in 1959. She was also the first chess player ever to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, appearing on August 7, 1961. This happened even before the legendary Bobby Fischer was on the cover in 1972!

Becoming a Chess Champion

Lisa Lane was born in Philadelphia. She discovered chess later in her teenage years, which is quite unusual for a top player. She started playing chess at local coffeehouses and quickly found she was very good at it. After getting some coaching from a chess master named Attilio Di Camillo, Lisa won the women's championship of Philadelphia in 1958.

Just one year later, in 1959, at only 21 years old, she won her first U.S. Women's Chess Championship. This was an amazing achievement, considering she had only started playing chess two years before! She held this important title until 1962, when she lost it to Gisela Kahn Gresser.

By the end of 1961, Lisa had an Elo rating of 2002 from the United States Chess Federation. An Elo rating helps measure a chess player's skill. In 1963, Lisa opened her very own chess club in New York City, called The Queen's Pawn Chess Emporium. She continued to play well and even shared the U.S. Women's Chess Champion title with Gisela Gresser again in 1966. Lisa also competed in the Women's World Championship Tournament twice, in 1962 and 1965.

Lisa Lane has been married twice. Her second marriage was to Neil Hickey, who was an editor. Both Lisa and her husband were friends with the famous chess player Bobby Fischer. They even helped him with some of his chess articles.

Life After Competitive Chess

As time went on, Lisa Lane found that being a famous chess champion could be a lot of pressure. She mentioned that it became "embarrassing" to always be introduced as a chess champion at parties.

In an interview in 2018, Lisa explained that she felt a lot of responsibility. She felt like she was always "working" and defending her title, even when she wasn't in a tournament. This feeling made playing chess less enjoyable for her. She also said that she doesn't think her chess achievements from many years ago are the most important things in her life now.

In the 1970s, Lisa and her husband opened a gift shop. It was first called Amber Waves of Grain, but now it's known as Earth Lore. The shop is located in Pawling, New York.

TV Appearances

Lisa Lane also appeared on television shows. She was a contestant on the TV show To Tell the Truth on March 31, 1960. On this show, a panel tries to guess who the real person is among imposters. The panel members, including Polly Bergen and Kitty Carlisle, correctly guessed that she was the real chess champion.

She also appeared on the TV show What's My Line? on May 21, 1961. This show featured a panel trying to guess a contestant's job. Lisa managed to stump the panel, meaning they couldn't figure out her profession!