Two American Champions

In this ongoing series of Top eBay Chess Items by Price, I only look at items sold since the previous post, usually two weeks earlier. In this post I'll make an exception, because there was nothing else that was especially compelling and because the auction was under my price cutoff when it sold.

The item pictured below was titled '1961 B&W Chess Photo of Lisa Lane & Bobby Fischer (Will be signed by Lisa Lane)' and sold for US $382.50 after five bids from two bidders. On top of 'Will be signed by Lisa Lane', the seller could have added 'Is being sold by Lisa Lane'.

The description said,

I am Lisa Lane and you are bidding on my '1961 Original 9" x 13" Black & White Photo' of Lisa Lane playing chess against Bobby Fischer, replaying the games of Russians Tal and Botvinnik. This photo is a one of a kind and is from my personal collection. I will autograph it for you with a Black Sharpie.

I was born April 25, 1938 in Philadelphia, PA and began playing chess at local coffeehouses when I was 19 years old and winning all the time. After being coached by master Attilio Di Camillo, I won the women's championship of Philadelphia in 1958 and took my first U.S Women's Chess Championship in 1959 when I was 21 years old. I held this title until 1962, losing it to Gisela Kahn Gresser. I had an Elo rating of 2002, a low expert rating, from the United States Chess Federation as of the end of 1961. In 1963, I opened my very own chess club, The Queen's Pawn Chess Emporium in New York City and in 1966 I shared the U.S. Women's Chess Champion title with Gisela Gresser.

It's hard for me to believe that I've never had a post about Lisa Lane. That lapse has now been rectified, with a short bio as a bonus.