Hermanowa Róża Maria

Hermanowa Róża Maria (16 January 1902, Łódź – 7 March 1995, Łódź) – doctor, two-time Polish champion in women's chess.

Róża Hermanowa née Lubińska devoted her life to healing people and chess. After graduating from high school, she began medical studies at the University of Warsaw and graduated at the end of the 1920s. She was a doctor of internal medicine. She began her life-long adventure with chess at the age of twelve, and her father taught her the basics of the royal game.

She started appearing in tournaments in the mid-1930s, which was due to the lack of women's events in the previous period. Both in the Warsaw championship and in the Polish championship, she was in the forefront, thanks to which she was guaranteed a place in the Polish national team for the world championship.

In 1937, she competed in the 6th women's world championship and shared the 10th-16th position, among others with Regina Gerlecka, the then undisputed leader of Polish chess. At that time, Hermanowa successfully tried her hand at men's tournaments.

During the Warsaw championship in 1939, a journalist from "Kurier Polski" wrote:

"Dr. Róża Hermanowa is a handsome brunette. Her young face looks original surrounded by smooth, slightly graying hair. She is a doctor, an assistant to one of the most important branches of Warsaw medicine. Professional work does not prevent her from playing (...). In her opinion, the future in chess belongs to women who will undoubtedly reach the level of the men's game."

After the outbreak of the war, Hermanowa found herself in the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942, she participated in a chess tournament organized as part of winter aid. From among the dozen or so participants of this tournament, only she and brothers Jerzy and Marek Szapiro survived the ghetto period. In the ghetto, Hermanowa together with her husband, the renowned neurologist Eufemiusz Herman, helped the sick during the typhus outbreak.

After the war, Róża Hermanowa won the title of Polish champion in 1949 and 1950. She represented Poland in the world championship tournament in Moscow in 1950, winning the title of international champion. In 1951, she became the vice-champion of the country. She competed in tournaments for the Polish championship until 1969.

She was interested in chess and chess players until the end of her life. In the early 1970s, she looked after the seriously ill dove of Polish chess, Kazimierz Makarczyk in the last months of his life.

Róża Hermanowa died on 7th March 1995 in Łódź.

Stefan Gawlikowski