BCN wishes Happy Birthday (and seasonal greetings) to WIM Rita Atkins (25-xii-1969)
Rita Zimmersmann was born on Thursday, December 25th 1969 in Hungary.
She became a Women’s International Master in 1992.
Her peak FIDE rating according to Felice was 2225 in January 1998 aged 29, however according to MegaBase 2020 her peak rating was 2280 in July 1992 aged 23.
Rita has played for the Cambridgeshire CCA and 4NCL Blackthorne Russia.
Rita’s first recorded game in Megabase 2020 was runner-up the 5th Schoeneck Under-18 Girl’s Open with 5.5/7.
In 1990 she was =runner-up with 6/9 in the Aarhus Women’s tournament.
She was =1st in the Budapest Women’s IM tournament securing a norm.
In 1992 she became Hungarian Women’s champion with 8/11 :
With the white pieces Rita both 1.e4 and 1.d4 playing open Sicilians, the Trompowsky Attack and the Accelerated London System.
As the second player she plays the Sicilian Four Knights, the Modern Benoni and recently, the Czech System.
In 1997 Rita relocated to England and played in her first 4NCL weekend for Slough. She married IM Michael Hennigan and settled in London.
By 2014 Rita had transferred to Blackthorne in the Four Nations Chess League and had become Rita Atkins.
In the last few years Rita has become active in the field of chess education and has combined her interests of mathematics and chess especially in the teaching of children. She has presented at various London Chess Conferences and works with John Foley within ChessPlus.
On December 24th 2023 an interview with ChessBase News was published entitled
“Rita Atkins: “Gender stereotypes are changing, but they are changing slowly”
