Lisa Lane, also known as Marianne Elizabeth Lane Hickey, was the first chess player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. An early star of American chess passed away due to cancer on February 28, 2024, at the age of 90.
She took her last breath at her home in Carmel, N.Y., in Putnam County. Let’s explore her net worth and career earnings at her demise.
Key Takeaways
- Lisa Lane won her first U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in 1959, just two years after she began playing.
- She couldn’t join the 1963 Women’s Chess Olympiad national team due to poor finances.
- An early star of American chess lost her championship title to Gisela Kahn Gresser.
Lisa was born on April 25, 1933, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up with her sister, Evelyn, in various neighborhoods.
They lived with their grandmother, as their mother had two jobs. Lisa never knew her father, a leather blazer. She studied at Temple University.
Luckily, the chess player wasn’t charged when she struck an older woman while driving her mother’s car in 1957.
Lisa Lane’s Net Worth And Earnings
Although Lisa Lane had a successful career path, she had a net worth of $1 million at the time of her passing.
During her playing period, there were few prizes in American chess during the 1950s and 1960s.
Only independently wealthy women could give time to chess without worrying about being paid.
About a decade before Bobby Fischer made the cover, the inaugural chess player on the cover of Sports Illustrated was 1960s U.S. chess star Lisa Lane. Lane won her first of two U.S. women's championships at age 21, only a few years after taking up the game.#SundayMorning pic.twitter.com/yWHSCpNoKr
— Dr. Jimmy Yam (@JimmyJoeYam) January 6, 2019
Lisa didn’t have family money and lived in the tiny studio apartment above her chess club. Thus, she couldn’t join the 1963 Women’s Chess Olympiad national team.
She asked the Associated Press, “Since when did you have to be a millionaire to represent your country in sport?”
Moreover, Lisa was disappointed that the 1966 U.S. Women’s Championship award was $600, but the guys in the U.S. Championship had received $6,000. It was a difference by a factor of ten. She said,
“I decided to complain at the tournament, and I found that I couldn’t get any of the other women to be interested in mounting any kind of complaint. They were all just too happy to be there.”
Lisa might have accumulated a substantial net worth in her career. The average chess player makes around $127,432 annually.
Thus, Lisa might have also amassed the same earnings or more from the sponsorships.
Her other endeavors, including The Queen’s Pawn Chess Emporium and Amber Waves of Grain, have helped her net worth grow significantly.
Lisa Lane Strategically Moves Up the Ranks with Masterful Plays
Lisa Lane discovered chess in her late teens and started playing at local coffeehouses.
Chess master Attilio Di Camillo coached her, and she won the women’s championship in Philadelphia in 1958.
Lisa won the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship in 1959, just two years after she began playing the game. She was only 21.
She held the title until 1962 before losing it to Gisela Kahn Gresser.
Afterward, Lisa opened her chess club, The Queen’s Pawn Chess Emporium, in New York City in 1963.
An early star of American chess partly quit the game because she was annoyed with being identified as a chess player.
In 1970, Lisa and her husband Neil Hickey opened Amber Waves of Grain, a health and natural food store in Carmel, New York.
It evolved into a gift shop called Earth Lore Gems & Minerals in Pawling, New York.
FAQ’s
Who was Lisa Lane’s first husband?
Lisa Lane’s first husband was Walter Rich. He was a Philadelphia ad man and commercial artist. They were married from 1959 to 1961.
Did Lisa Lane appear in a TV show?
Lisa appeared as a contestant in an episode of the TV show To Tell the Truth on March 31, 1960, and in What’s My Line? On May 21, 1961.
