Leading Voices In Chess Celebrate 'Positive Change' On International Women's Day

The Chess.com community celebrated International Women's Day on Friday with a roundtable discussion featuring leading female voices in chess as well as a two-hour blitz arena, which was won by Mexico's NM Emilio Hernandez.

The discussion, led by Chess.com's Director of International Growth Nigarhan Gurpinar (Naycir) and GM Pepe Cuenca featured the Women in Chess Foundation President Emilia Castelao, IA Judit Sztaray, content creator WCM Tallulah Roberts (Lularobs), and Norwegian sports broadcaster Kaja Snare and focused on the development of female participation, diversity, challenges and careers in chess.

The subsequent arena event was joined by over 1900 users and Hernandez received 20 Twitch subs for finishing first. The top-scoring woman was WIM Maria Florencia Fernandez, who notched an impressive 21.5/23 score.

Many women have made their mark on the game of chess, including but not limited to Vera Menchik, the first female GM Nona Gaprindashvili, the Polgar sisters, and more recently, GMs Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun. However, as Castelao highlighted, "We have such a large world now where women can participate in chess that's not strictly over the board."

As the founder of the Women in Chess Foundation, Castelao shared an anecdote about a time she attended a chess club and was immediately asked what her rating was before her name, which is a familiar scene for chess players everywhere. Her foundation aims to create a "safer, more inclusive environment for women at chess tournaments."

Roberts, who is a leader online when it comes to gender equality in chess, spoke about the importance of diversity in broadcast and creator roles, stating: "Seeing women in these roles is important and it's been a positive change." Two days before the roundtable Roberts posted about a FIDE initiative that will see funding allocated for debuting women's Olympiad teams.

I am such a trendsetter https://t.co/ZISmE7UdU8

— lula (@lularobs) March 5, 2024

Norway Chess will also be leading from the front in terms of equitable initiatives and in June the event will see an equal prize posted for both the open and women's super tournaments.

As we celebrate International Women's Day, we asked players and chess enthusiasts their insights on the significance of the inaugural Norway Chess Women's Tournament, a groundbreaking classical chess event featuring equal prize funds alongside its male counterpart in Norway… pic.twitter.com/Mrxa1nhdhT

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) March 8, 2024

One of the members of the 2024 Candidates Tournament commentary team Snare also shared how excited she was that the women's event would be held at the same time as the open event for the first time in 2024, noting that GM Vaishali Rameshbabu provided the most exciting pre-tournament interview out of all the participants.

While the open event in Toronto will feature eight male participants, the future is bright for women and girls looking to contest the chess world champion title in the coming years. A recent survey conducted by World Chess showed that 65% of elite women's players believe that a woman will become the world champion and 32% believe it could happen in the next five years.

At the time of writing, WCM Bodhana Sivanandan is the highest-rated eight-year-old in the world, and several other U8 girls—U.S.A.'s WCM Romi Milner and Stella Xin—have been working their way up the rankings.

All in all, the work to make chess a fairer, more inclusive sport is starting to pay off.

Arena Standings

(Full final standings here.)

Following the roundtable, a two-hour, 3+2 blitz arena open to all Chess.com users took place and was won by Hernandez. The former junior national champion of Mexico, who is a streamer and blogger, posted a score of 117, having scored 32 wins, one draw, and conceding five losses.

Finishing second on 110 was Peru's IM Renato Terry, who joined the event late and conceded only one draw in 29 games, while GM Benjamin Bok finished third with a score of 106. The leading woman player in the event though was Fernandez and she managed to fly through her last 21 games undefeated.

Fernandez was tactically brilliant throughout and in the later stages of the arena she scored a scintillating win over Angelika Valkova.

Since the release of The Queen's Gambit, interest in chess has soared in popularity, and female players, particularly in scholastic age groups are taking to chess in larger numbers than ever before. For chess players, administrators, parents, and coaches, we all have a responsibility to promote inclusiveness for the future of chess, and events such as this should serve as a launchpad for the cause.

The 2024 International Women's Day celebrations consisted of a roundtable featuring several of the leading women in chess, followed by a two-hour blitz arena open to all Chess.com members with Chessable courses and Twitch subs as prizes.

Previous coverage:

• • Celebrate International Women's Day With A Special Arena Tournament & Roundtable