Ingrid Lauterbach

Vice President

Ingrid Lauterbach is a German-English chess player, Women’s International Master (WIM, since 1987) and International Arbiter. Since 20 May 2023, she has served as President of the German Chess Federation.

Beyond chess, Ingrid Lauterbach brings extensive senior management experience from the corporate sector. For over 25 years, she led teams in multiple IT disciplines, with management positions at ISI (a subsidiary of Mars Inc.), RAG and Deutsche Bank. Since 2010, she was responsible for cybersecurity at Deutsche Bank in Germany.

She holds a university degree in Mathematics from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen. Earlier in her career, she worked with IBM in Munich and, from 1990 onward, helped building the IBM branch in Dresden.

Elected in May 2023 as the first female President of the German Chess Federation, Ingrid Lauterbach took office at a time when the federation’s finances were in disarray. Within two years, she led a turnaround that restored financial stability and strengthened governance and organizational reliability.

Alongside the financial recovery, she supported the planning and delivery of major national chess activity at scale, including the Chess Summit in Dresden (July 2026), bringing together a wide range of German championships and around 1,000 participants across all categories. At the same time, the German Chess Federation has reached an all-time high in membership, approaching 100,000 members, which is an indicator of sustained growth, relevance, and trust among clubs and players.

Ingrid Lauterbach has represented national teams at the highest level. She participated in three Women’s Chess Olympiads, in1990 for West Germany, and 2008 and 2010 for England. With England, she also played in the European Women’s Team Championships in 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2019.

Ingrid Lauterbach is married to GM Klaus Bischoff, a former German national player. Outside chess, her interests include skiing, travelling, and good food – prepared at home or enjoyed in a restaurant.

Having lived in both Germany and England, her candidacy for the ECU Vice President stands with firm conviction that a strong, unified Europe is essential – both politically and in chess.