Biography of Nava Starr

Nava Starr is one of the top female chess players in Canada. Starr was born in Riga, Latvia, on April 4, 1949 and currently lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is married to Sasha Starr and has one married daughter, Regina and a grandson, Mathew.

Starr’s chess style is sharp, offensive and always looking for combinations. She favours sharp and unusual openings, such as the Gran Prix attack (Sicilian), b3 in French, f5 variation in Ruy Lopez and many others. Received the IWM title by winning her 1st Canadian Ladies’ Championship in 1978 in Victoria, British Columbia. The best players she has defeated are: Pia Cramling (Sweden), Milunka Lasarevich (Former Yugoslavia), Barbara Hund (Switzerland) and Roman Pelts (Canada). Starr wrote an article in En Passant magazine dealing with the reasons “Why men are superior to women in chess”.

Major tournament and match results

IWM - Current Canadian Ladies’ Champion
8-times Canadian Ladies’ Champion
Represented Canada at 10 Chess Olympiads
1976 – Haifa, Israel. Won the GOLD MEDAL on 2nd board
1978 – Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1st board
1980 – Valetta, Malta. 1st board
1982 – Luzern, Switzerland. BRONZE MEDAL on 1st board
1984 – Thessaloniki, Greece. 1st board
1988 – Thessaloniki, Greece. 1st board
1992 – Manila, Philippines. 1st bord
1994 – Moscow, Russia. 1st board
1996 – Yerevan, Armenia. 1st board
2002 – Bled, Slovenia. 1st board
6-times participant in the individual Women’s World Championships
1978 – Alicante, Spain
1982 – Bad Kissingen, Germany
1985 – Havana, Cuba
1990 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1993 – Jakarta, Indonesia
2001 – Moscow, Russia.