Provided by KIMBERLY DOO, chair
With the recent chess boom and the return of OTB tournaments showing more support for chess, since September 2022 the Women's Committee continued to emphasize and promote the importance of girls playing chess by hosting successful Girls' Club Rooms at all the National Scholastic Tournaments. Parents (of girl chess players who have visited the Girls' Club Rooms) have reported that the presence of the GCRs has become an important "staple" and "safe space" in bringing girls and their parents together. The Women's Committee has worked hard on the "branding" of the GCR with our red/black colors, banners and tables so that the girls and their parents recognize the GCR as an integral part of every National Scholastic Tournament.
National Harbor in Maryland was the setting for the K-12 Grade Championships last December. Led by the dynamic duo of chess coaches, Arthur and Krista Alton of Florida, the Girls' Club Room hosted over 200 girls who participated in various events, including a tandem simul, arts and craft sessions, a chess tower-building contest, game analysis, puzzles and the ever popular human-chessboard game. We greatly appreciate the generosity of Teen Ambassador, Laurel Aronian, and her family, who sponsored a pizza party that was instrumental in bonding the girls together at the event. Special guests were WIM Carolina Blanco (who led a "Learn Chess in Spanish" class) and WGM Sabina Foisor, who took part in a lecture and triple simul with Women's Program Director, Jennifer Shahade.
Washington, D.C. was the site for the HS National Championships in early April 2023. WGM Rusa Goletiani was the special guest in the Girls' Club Room. Rusa and Jennifer both gave lectures on how each became a U.S. Women's Chess Champion and also performed game analysis for the girls. Laurel Aronian and her family once again hosted a pizza party for all the girls. On Sunday morning, the Women's Committee started a new tradition by hosting a "Donuts for Moms" social, which was a great opportunity for the moms (and their daughters) from all over the country to connect.
We were fortunate enough to have 3 special guests for the Girls' Club Room at Middle School Nationals, which took place in Round Rock, Texas in mid-April. WIM Luciana Morales, WIM Emily Nguyen and WIM Dr. Alexey Root all gave inspiring lectures and performed game analysis over the course of the weekend. The WC hosted another "Donut Social" on Sunday morning, which was a big hit in drawing both girls and parents to the GCR.
Thank you to Dave and Sheila Heiser and the Renaissance Knights for giving the Women's Committee a table at the All-Girls' Nationals in late April in Chicago, Illinois. With the help of several volunteers, we were able to have a presence in the Skittles Room and gave out candy, small prizes and "Empowering Women and Girls Through Chess" pencils to the girls.
Elementary Nationals took place over Mother's Day weekend in May at the Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Numerous activities took place over the weekend, including game analysis, a tandem simul with special guests WGM Sabina Foisor and WGM Jennifer Shahade, a chess-tower building contest, lectures by Sabina and Jennifer, a chess trivia contest and musical chairs. The Women's Committee again hosted a "Donut Social" on Sunday morning. The big hit of the Girls' Club Room that weekend, however, was the Mother's Day card-making "station." Construction paper, markers, scissors, glue sticks and stickers were provided to the girls so that they could make Mother's Day or "Caregiver" cards, which were reported to us meant a lot to the moms that were giving up their special day to be at Elementary Nationals.
Women's Program Director, Jennifer Shahade, has continued to lead monthly Zoom lectures since last September--featuring special guests such as U.S. Women's Champion Jennifer Yu, GMs Maurice Ashley, Pontus Carlsson and Pia Cramling and a collaboration with teen-led non-profit, Queens United. Many of the on-line lessons have been archived on YouTube so that they can be viewed and enjoyed by the public.
We appreciate the renewal by the St Louis Chess Club of their generous grant for a two-year cycle starting in 2023, which will allow continued resources for the Girls' Club Room in the next scholastic season.
The Women's Committee will be focusing on four main goals in the coming year:
The first goal is to plan a program to encourage and train more female tournament directors. We believe that having more female tournament directors could serve as positive role models for girl chess players and keep more girls involved in chess. We would like to start by trying to organize both Zoom and on-line informational sessions to not only the girls, but their parents. Getting more parents involved would be beneficial--not only for their potential support of chess, but also because it could help their daughters stay involved in chess.
The second goal is to increase the number of regional tournaments for girls and women. Robin Ramson of ChessGirlsDC hosted the only regional girls'/women's chess tournament in the U.S. last year, which took place in October 2022. The number of players were lower than pre-pandemic numbers, but 30 girls and women from 7 states and also Washington, D.C. participated. Hopefully with the chess boom currently underway, the numbers will increase in the coming year. We are also hoping to encourage and provide more support for more state and local all-girls' tournaments by reaching out to affiliates and tournament organizers across the country.
Our third goal is to connect with girls participating in the Barber, Denker, Haring and Rockefeller Invitationals this summer and also with their parents to coordinate a "parent and girls' ambassador program" so that we can form a network of supporters and volunteers for our Girls' Club Rooms at National Scholastic tournaments.
Our fourth goal is to work with Shawn Sullivan of US Chess Sales to increase the variety of merchandise in the online US Chess Store and at our national scholastic tournaments, in line with our US Chess Women branding. Currently, pins, hats, mugs and chess bags with the US Chess Women's logo are available for sale in the chess store online and at the national scholastic events. We are now in discussions with Shawn to have US Chess Women-branded necklaces, pendants and earrings designed, which we think will be appealing and sell well to the girls and their parents.
The Women's Committee appreciates the support that we have been given by U.S. Chess for the presence of the Girls' Club Rooms at all of the National Scholastic Tournaments and believe our presence is playing an important role in empowering women and girls through chess!
