We wish WFM Helen Milligan all the best on her birthday, this day (August 25th) in 1962.

Helen became a Woman’s FIDE Master in 2000 and a Candidate Master in 2013.

Her highest FIDE rating was 2138 in July 1999.

Helen Milligan (born Helen Scott; 25 August 1962) is a Scottish-New Zealand chess player holding the FIDE titles of Candidate Master (CM) and Woman FIDE Master (WFM), and five-times Asian senior women’s (50+) champion. The CM title was earnt at a FIDE open zonal.

In 2004 Milligan co-authored the book “Chess for Children” with Grandmaster Murray Chandler. She has been an officer of the New Zealand Chess Federation, and has worked as a coach at Murray Chandler’s National Chess Centre in Auckland. She currently works as a self-employed chess coach. The National Chess Centre has since been sold by Murray Chandler.

[pgn]
[Event “EU-chT (Women)”]
[Site “Leon”]
[Date “2001.11.11”]
[Round “6.1”]
[White “Milligan, Helen”]
[Black “Reizniece Ozola, Dana”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B32”]
[WhiteElo “2117”]
[BlackElo “2303”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “61”]
[EventDate “2001.11.06”]
[EventType “team-swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ESP”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2002”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2001.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2001.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “Scotland (W)”]
[BlackTeam “Latvia (W)”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “SCO”]
[BlackTeamCountry “LAT”]

{[%evp 0,61,19,38,40,41,51,40,25,22,3,11,1,-14,-28,-8,-8,-8,21,4,16,26,19,-24,
12,-14,-10,-62,-30,-36,-48,-59,16,19,18,13,12,12,54,33,109,96,117,15,43,41,41,
31,103,43,-56,-74,-64,-35,-30,-56,-21,-110,-96,-130,507,537,29991,29992]} 1. e4
c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 {Lowenthal / La Bourdonnais} 5. Nb5 d6 6.
c4 {The second most popular move but interestingly given little mention in the
famous book by Tim Harding and Peter Markland.} (6. N1c3 a6 7. Na3 (7. Nd5 $6
axb5 8. Be3 Be6 $17) (7. Bg5 $6 f6 8. Nd5 axb5 9. Be3 Be6 $17) 7… b5 8. Nd5
Nge7 9. c4 Nd4 10. Be3 Nxd5 11. cxd5 Be7 12. Bd3 O-O 13. O-O f5 14. Bxd4 exd4
15. exf5 Bxf5 16. Nc2 Qb6 17. Bxf5 Rxf5 18. Nxd4 Rf7 19. Ne6 Bf6 20. Qd2 $18 {
is the modern main line in 2020.}) 6… Be7 7. N1c3 a6 8. Na3 f5 ({Relevant:}
8… Be6 9. Nc2 Rc8 10. b3 Nf6 11. Bd3 O-O 12. O-O Nd7 13. Bb2 Nc5 14. Ne3 Bg5
15. Ncd5 Nd4 16. Re1 b5 17. cxb5 axb5 18. Bxd4 exd4 19. Nf5 Bxd5 20. exd5 Bf6
21. Bxb5 d3 22. Rc1 g6 23. Ng3 Qa5 24. Bxd3 Qxa2 25. Bc4 Qa5 26. Ne4 Nxe4 27.
Rxe4 Rfe8 28. Rxe8+ Rxe8 29. g3 Qb6 30. Kg2 Bd4 31. Rc2 Kg7 32. Bb5 Qxb5 33.
Qxd4+ Kg8 34. Rc6 Qxb3 35. Rxd6 Qc2 36. Rd7 Qf5 37. Rc7 Qe4+ 38. Qxe4 {
Ivanchuk,V (2740)-Kramnik,V (2730) Paris 1995 1/2-1/2 (66)}) 9. Bd3 (9. exf5
Bxf5 10. Bd3 Be6 11. O-O Nf6 12. Nc2 O-O $15 {has been a common path.}) 9… f4
10. Nc2 Nf6 {[#]} 11. Be2 $146 ({Predecessor:} 11. b3 O-O 12. Bb2 Kh8 13. Qe2
Be6 14. Nd5 Rc8 15. O-O-O b5 16. Kb1 bxc4 17. Bxc4 Na5 18. Bxa6 Ra8 19. f3 Nxd5
20. exd5 Bf7 21. b4 Bf6 22. Bb5 Qb6 23. bxa5 Rxa5 24. a4 Bg6 25. Qc4 Raa8 26.
Rd2 Rfc8 27. Qb3 Rc7 28. Rc1 Rac8 29. Ka2 Qa5 30. Re2 h6 31. Bc6 Bf7 32. Nb4
Rb8 33. Ka3 Bd8 34. Re4 Ra7 35. Bc3 Bb6 36. Kb2 Be3 37. Rb1 Rc7 38. Kc2 Rb6 39.
Qc4 Qa7 40. Qd3 Bg6 {De Firmian,N (2605)-Shabalov,A (2645) Denver 1998 1-0})
11… Be6 12. g3 O-O 13. gxf4 exf4 14. Nd4 Nxd4 15. Qxd4 f3 (15… Nd7 $142 16.
f3 Bh4+ 17. Kd1 b5 $17) 16. Bxf3 Nd7 17. Be2 Ne5 18. Nd5 Bh4 19. Be3 b5 20. Rg1
bxc4 $6 (20… Kh8) 21. Kd1 (21. O-O-O) 21… Bxd5 22. Qxd5+ Kh8 23. f4 $1 Ng6
24. Rc1 Nxf4 25. Bxf4 Rxf4 26. Rxc4 Rb8 27. b3 Qf6 28. Rc7 Qa1+ 29. Rc1 Qxa2 $4
(29… Qf6) 30. Qb7 $1 Rg8 31. Qxg7+ {and Black resigned.} 1-0
[/pgn]

Milligan has won or jointly won the Scottish women’s championship three times: in 1982, 1986 and 1988. In 1983 she was joint British Ladies’ champion with Rani Hamid.

Milligan represented Scotland in eleven Women’s Chess Olympiads between 1982 and 2006. Since 2008 she has played for New Zealand in this competition, having transferred national federations in 2007.

Milligan became Oceania women’s champion at the Queenstown Chess Classic tournament in January 2012. She also competed in Women’s Zonal Chess Championships in Bath 1987, Blackpool 1990, Delden 1993, Saint Vincent 1999, and the open zonal at Gold Coast in 2009.

She won the Asian senior women’s (50+) champion title in 2014 in Kalutara, Sri Lanka; 2015 in Larestan, Iran; 2016 in Mandalay, Myanmar; 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand; and 2018 in Tagaytay, Philippines.

Here is Helen’s chess web site

Here is Helen’s Lichess coaching account

Helen co-authored Chess for Children with Murray Chandler in 2004 :

Here is a notable game :

[pgn]
[Event “Olympiad Women-28”]
[Site “Thessaloniki”]
[Date “1988.11.13”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Savereide, Diane”]
[Black “Milligan, Helen”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “C42”]
[WhiteElo “2245”]
[BlackElo “2020”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “38”]
[EventDate “1988.11.13”]
[EventType “team-swiss”]
[EventRounds “14”]
[EventCountry “GRE”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2019”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2018.10.10”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “US of America (W)”]
[BlackTeam “Scotland (W)”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “USA”]
[BlackTeamCountry “SCO”]

{[%evp 0,38,31,15,40,24,43,-2,44,36,21,-7,8,11,11,48,48,21,32,18,16,0,0,0,26,
12,28,61,55,-137,-139,-305,-287,-969,-1057,-1082,-1196,-1196,-937,-1196,-1252]
} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8.
Re1 Bg4 9. c3 f5 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. Qb3 Kh8 12. Qxb7 Rf6 13. Qb3 Rg6 14. Ne5 $2 (
14. Bb5 Nxd2 15. Nxd2 Bd6 16. Nf1 $16) 14… Nxe5 15. dxe5 Nxf2 $1 16. Kxf2
Bc5+ 17. Kf1 Qh4 $19 18. Re2 Qxh2 19. Ke1 Qg3+ {and white resigned} 0-1
[/pgn]