Odette Vollenweider ( * 30.07.1933 - † 26.02.2021)

Swiss chess composer                                                                                                                                                                      Life                                                                                                                                                                                      Vollenweider grew up in Zollikon and on Schaffhauserplatz in Zurich. She came from a wealthy family and was the older of two daughters. An ancestor of hers once emigrated on foot from Säuliamt via Calais to Russia, where he was a tailor to the last tsar. It was not until the revolution in 1917 that the family was forced to return to Switzerland.

Vollenweider completed commercial school so that she could enter working life as quickly as possible. She later assisted her father on trips as a secretary and worked independently in the trade with Italian ceramics. Vollenweider traveled a lot, for example to the then communist Soviet Union with a special permit. In the legendary quiz show “Wer gwünnt?” with Mäni Weber, she won on the subject of Michelangelo.

Even after her retirement, she remained faithful to the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”, which she called her home until old age, by reading it every day. Until shortly before her death, she enjoyed going for walks with her old man in Rieterpark in Enge, the neighborhood where she had lived for many years, enjoying coffee and cake and reading her way through world literature. She also enjoyed sitting in her favorite café, San Marco, and solving chess problems.

      Obituaries                                                                                                                                                                                 Die Schwalbe magazine (Germain magazine for chess composition wrote: "We were shocked to learn shortly before the editorial deadline that the great Swiss chess problemist Odette Vollenweider (30.7.1933-26.2.2021) has passed away. She started her problem career under the pseudonym Gabriel Baumgartner with the Schiffmann book Faszinierendes Schachproblem, published around 1963, which was followed around 1966 (both books are undated) by the Johner book Kostbarkeiten der Problemkunst under the same name. Only later did she reveal the secret of her identity and went on to play a significant role in Swiss chess life. Under her decades-long leadership, the chess corner of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung experienced a boom, and she also represented her country several times at the PCCC congresses."

    Obituary by Thomas Brand, Bornheim1
"The "secret first lady of the international problem chess scene" (Günter Büsing in his eulogy on her 80th birthday, 262 Die Schwalbe August 2013, p. 177) passed away unexpectedly at the end of February. For almost 60 years, she inspired problem chess enthusiasts worldwide: especially with her publications in book and article form, her editorship of the chess section of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung from 1976 to 2010, i.e. over 34 years, which led her to world fame. She represented Swiss problem chess as a delegate at the former PCCC for over 13 years. In 2007, FIDE awarded her the title of "Honorary Master of Chess Composition" for her services.

Odette Vollenweider was an exception as a woman in the male domain of chess. For 18 years, she hid behind a male pseudonym - until she revealed her secret because of a letter
She was the queen of chess problems: For more than 30 years, Odette Vollenweider developed them for the NZZ. She died in Zurich in February at the age of 88.

She was the queen of chess problems. This is how "Chessbase", one of the leading chess news websites, recently described Odette Vollenweider in an article. The Zurich native became famous at the end of the 1950s under the pseudonym Gabriel Baumgartner.
For 18 years, she published chess problems under her male name. Vollenweider wanted to avoid being prejudged because of her gender, as chess was a male domain at the time. It was only when a letter failed to reach her that she revealed the secret in 1976 and published under her own name from then on.

Vollenweider's encounter with the musician and chess master Hans Johner, 44 years his senior, was formative for him. For 50 years, he had devised the chess problems for the NZZ, which involved solving a problem in three moves. Vollenweider learnt to play the violin from Johner, but soon became interested in the chess problems and eventually became Johner's successor: from 1976 until her retirement in 2010 at the age of 75, she worked as editor of the chess problems at the NZZ for 34 years.

Vollenweider has been awarded various prestigious prizes; in 2007, the International Commission for Chess Composition awarded her the title of honorary master. And the Ukrainian composition grandmaster Valentin Rudenko once wrote about her: "If there were an Oscar for publications, Odette Vollenweider would receive it." During her career, she has written three books and numerous specialist articles. She was also the Swiss delegate to the World Chess Composition Congress for over 13 years."

Source: NZZ (Swiss newspaper)