Free Inaugural Girls Chess Festival Brings Young Players Together

Editor’s note: This report by WGM Iris Mou, Lisa Sun, and WIM Kelsey Liu details how a group of dedicated high school chess players were able to plan, coordinate, and organize a free chess festival for 60 girls in New York City.

WGM Iris Mou is a rising senior at the Dalton School, and she is currently competing in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship. Together with Lisa Sun, she serves as a co-president of Rooks and Roots, handling communications, marketing, outreach, event planning, curriculum design, teaching, and more.

Lisa Sun is a rising junior at Hunter College High School and has been playing chess tournaments for over ten years. Beyond the playing hall, her most memorable experiences in chess come from inside the team room, working with kids at summer chess camps, and teaching at the weekly Rooks and Roots workshops, where she is a co-founder along with Iris Mou.

WIM Kelsey Liu is a recent graduate from Boston University Academy, and she has been playing chess since she was eight years old. She is passionate about sharing both the beauty of chess and the confidence, resilience, and analytical thinking it fosters. She currently serves as president of Unruly Queens, where she has been a teacher for four years.

This event was made possible in part by a US Chess Women and Girls Programming Grant. The 2026-2027 cycle is currently accepting applications. We hope their report inspires other readers to think about what they can put together in their own communities to provide more support for women and girls pursuing chess.

Being one of the only girls in the room can be intimidating, exhausting, and isolating. “As a top twenty female chess player in the United States,” WGM Iris Mou said, “I have experienced my fair share of isolation for being one of just a handful of women in the game.” But when all of the “only girls” come together in the same room, they realize they’re not alone, and beautiful friendships begin to form.

Mou co-founded Rooks and Roots in 2024 with Lisa Sun, a friend she made through chess. Their nonprofit is dedicated to expanding access to high-level chess and math education for girls nationwide. According to Sun, their goal is to “create more supportive spaces for girls and to help them find the sense of community that I have found within chess and math.”

Echoing these sentiments, WIM Kelsey Liu said, “Representing the United States and winning gold medals at continental girls’ championships has been rewarding, though it also meant being the only girl at some tournaments.” She went on to add, that her success now “makes me feel comfortable pursuing other male-dominated fields that interest me, including computer science.”

Liu currently serves as president of the Unruly Queens — a group that hosts free tournaments and camps, giving girls the opportunity to show their skills and learn from others — where she has taught for four years. “I hope more young girls can experience the same sense of curiosity and opportunity that playing chess has given me,” she said.

Attendees and Organizers of the First Inaugural Girls Chess Festival take a group photo. (All photos courtesy of the organizers)

This May, Rooks and Roots and the Unruly Queens collaborated to organize the First Inaugural Girls Chess Festival in New York City! The event brought together 60 girls from 19 schools for an evening of chess lessons, puzzle competitions, and games, not to mention a pizza dinner, raffle prizes, and robust opportunities for students to meet other girls who share an interest in chess.

As Rooks and Roots and the Unruly Queens share a mission to bridge the gender gap and provide spaces for girls to thrive in chess, the First Inaugural Girls Chess Festival marks the beginning of close collaboration between the two organizations to make chess more accessible, equitable, and community-oriented for girls everywhere.

Planning & Community Outreach

This shared commitment in expanding opportunities for girls in chess was inspired by friendships formed through years of competing together on national and international stages. Those experiences demonstrated the beautiful impacts that welcoming communities can have on our horizons, which in turn motivated us to create an event where younger girls can similarly build their life skills and lifelong friendships.

“The chess community in New York is pretty tight-knit and I feel that I have seen a lot of the NYC chess girls consistently at tournaments,” Sun said. “But I would only see them within the competition atmosphere and during games, so I never really found the chance to strike up a conversation with many of them.” The goal, then, was to facilitate ways for girls to become friends with the people they will be seeing again and again as they continue to compete in chess. “Having friends with the same interests can help motivate you, provide support, and, of course, make the memories that you’ll more likely remember when looking back,” Sun added.

With this vision established, every aspect of the event revolved around making girls from across New York City feel welcomed, supported, excited to continue playing chess. Word-of-mouth through both organizations’ networks and ongoing online lesson programs, as well as promotional fliers and email announcements to school coaches and parent networks, made up the majority of successful outreach that ultimately brought together 60 girls representing 19 schools.

Promotional flyers designed by the organizers.

Through the gracious support of WIM Beatriz Marinello, Director of Chess at the Dalton School and President of the US Chess Trust, the festival garnered a lot of attention and excitement among the vibrant Dalton girls chess community. The support of the Dalton School was instrumental in the success of this event, as they were gracious enough to provide both space and funding for this initiative.

“I loved the space. I can play with more friends that are girls. I liked the lessons too,” said Solaris Wang, a fourth grader who attended the festival. The festival was held in the Dalton School Commons, a new lounge space for community events and athletic teams. With the gracious support of Sloan Warren, Director of Auxiliary Programs and Operations at the Dalton School, as well as building, maintenance, and security staff, the space smoothly accommodated all festival attendees and their families, creating a warm environment for students, volunteers, and parents alike.

Our goal was to provide a space where all girls — from beginners to competitive tournament players — could feel comfortable and engaged. Given this scope, the festival developed three separate lesson plans and grouping of activities tailored to each skill level, with student instructors deployed accordingly. Taking interested students on a first-come-first-serve basis, the festival filled up quick with a healthy mix of ages and skill levels.

Because the instructional tracks were split into three skill levels, recruiting a diverse, experienced band of volunteers was essential. All had to rush over from their own respective high schools after classes to help out and mentor the middle and elementary school participants. WIM Chloe Gaw, a teacher at the Unruly Queens, utilized her chess connections to casually round up friends and peers from Dalton, Hunter, and Chapin willing to help out for the afternoon.

By splitting up the girls into different groups, we were able to reinforce the main point of the festival: Everybody belongs here. “When girls are greatly outnumbered by boys, I think they inherently feel like they don't belong or feel alienated,” George Wang, a parent of one of the festival participants, said. “But events like this take that stress away and make all the girls feel at home.”

Volunteers help students with questions about the puzzle contest.

After the lessons, we reconvened for pizza and during dinner, the girls continued playing games with each other, some playing blitz and bughouse. We also handed out several puzzle contest packets for any interested girls and gave them some time to figure them out, work together, and ask questions.

Volunteers from Dalton, Chapin, Stuyvesant, and more sit at the check-in table during festival setup.

Curated by Kelsey, the puzzle contest proved to be an exciting challenge for many. Students were given thirty minutes to give their best shot at 36 puzzles, which increased in difficulty as they went.

Volunteers grade the puzzle contest.

Spirits were high after the puzzles, but the night was coming to an end. We made a few more announcements, including some chess-themed jokes, a raffle of a few chess books and sets, and the winners of the puzzle contest. We also had a few chess-themed erasers and trinkets for all our participants to end the night.

But don’t take our word for it. According to one fifth-grader, “This was an amazing event and I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to go again next year! Everything was amazing and the lesson, games, raffles, puzzles, and the food was amazing. It’s an event where you can see your friends from other schools that play chess and it would be a fun time to hang out together too!”

One of the special parts of the festival was the amount of schools that were represented; our participants came from across 24 schools in NYC. This festival offered a really unique space for girls from different parts of the city to all play games and learn together.

Funding Support from Grants

The Girls Chess Festival was made possible through the generous support of the US Chess Women & Girls Programming Grant and Dalton School’s Treasurer’s Grant. This funding allowed the festival to remain free of charge for all girls who wanted to attend! Grant support funded all activities and materials that made the festival memorable.

The festival was held in the Commons, a new lounge space for community events and athletic teams. With the gracious support of Sloan Warren, Director of Auxiliary Programs and Operations at the Dalton School, as well as building, maintenance, and security staff, the space smoothly accommodated all festival attendees and their families, creating a warm environment for students, volunteers, and parents alike. Moreover, the Dalton School’s Treasurer’s Grant funded dinner and prizes for all attendees. A sincere thank you to The Dalton School for making all of this possible!

Participants enjoyed tokens from bracelet-making activities, ate pizza together, and each received custom festival T-shirts designed by the volunteer team to commemorate the inaugural partnership for building friendships.

Front pocket and back designs for the official Girls Chess Festival T-Shirt!

The grants also allowed for a robust collection of prizes with the hope of inspiring continued interest and involvement in chess beyond the festival itself. Raffle prizes included chess sets, instructional books, and merchandise to enable girls to continue enjoying and improving at the game in their own spaces, even if they didn’t win many games.

Several of the featured books were authored by players whom the organizers themselves admired, among them Judit Polgar and Jennifer Shahade. Perhaps the students will find role models from the bunch.

Prizes awarded for merit in winning the puzzle contest or blitz tournaments also included ChessKid memberships to allow the girls to discover training platforms that work for them.

raffle — Raffle winners pick up their prizes.

Above all, these grants turned one afternoon’s worth of activities into a perennial memory for the families who attended, rooted in connecting through chess. It provided the resources to create an environment where girls could connect with older girls who provided mentorship and meet peers from schools across New York City.

Future Opportunities: Rooks and Roots

Each Monday, Rooks and Roots runs free workshops for both chess and math at the Bloomingdale New York Public Library, taught by high school girls. These workshops are geared towards elementary and middle school girls and offer a warm, supportive space to learn, play, and meet other interested girls from across the city.

We have been running this program for the past two school years and through these events, we have reached over 400 students. Denise Beck, parent of one of our students, remarked: “Luna absolutely loves her chess class… I’ve seen so much growth in Luna’s confidence and skills, and she stays fully engaged the entire time. We’re truly grateful for such a positive and supportive learning environment.”

Running events like our Girls Chess Festival helps bring more girls in chess together and strengthens the community in chess as a whole. “From my own experience, having once been the only girl at a chess camp, I know how easy it is for girls to feel a sense of isolation because of the striking gender gap,” Sun said.

Having these events where girls meet other girls who love playing chess not only gives a sense of belonging, but makes us excited and proud to play chess. This positive feeling that is fostered by the programs gives us lots of optimism for the next generation of girls who will see this strong community and feel encouraged and supported to pursue the sport too.

Next up for Rooks and Roots is their 2026 Girls Chess & Math Summer Camp? The three-day series will take place in NYC from August 24-26. This event will feature six hours of chess and math activities and instruction over three days, giving children an immersive learning experience during their summer! Activities include original chess & math lessons designed for all skill levels, a friendly chess tournament supported by Chesskid, a chance to win a Chess.com membership, fun math games, competition practice, prizes for all participants, and much more!

Led by Mou, Sun, and an all-girls coaching team, this girls-only event seeks to provide an inclusive environment for girls to learn in the often male-dominated subjects of chess and math, directly aligning with our mission to bridge the gender gap. It is open to interested girls aged 7-12, and, as all Rooks and Roots events, it is 100% free for all! Readers interested in getting involved can learn more at https://www.rooks-and-roots.org/events!

If you are interested in looking for more events for girls in chess, please check out Rooks and Roots’ weekly workshops based in NYC or the Unruly Queens’ Online program:

Future Events: Unruly Queens

Every spring and fall season, Unruly Queens hosts a free, 10-week long online lesson series for girls of all ages and playing levels. This coming fall, stay tuned for its launch in mid-October. Taught by nationally and internationally recognized high school players, the program combines many of the enjoyable activities from the festival — puzzle contests, tournaments, game review sessions, guest lectures — to connect girls who share their passion for the game. Interested players can register here.

Since its founding in 2020, the program has welcomed over 400 participants from more than 15 states in hopes of augmenting a supportive national community in girls chess. Additionally, we welcome more girl players to participate, volunteer, and take leadership in the UQ initiative by sharing their chess journeys and aspirations with a larger audience!

Conclusion

“The Girls Chess Festival marked an important personal milestone for my goal of providing girls with a stronger opportunity to high-level chess education,” Mou said.

“As someone who was involved in every step of the process, from venue to flyer and T-shirts and grant-writing and marketing and prizes and communications and planning and teaching and so much more, it brings me great joy not only to hear from our supporters at the Dalton School just how successful the event was in their eyes, but also to see directly from the students that this event made an impact.”

More photos from the event are available here.

Want to get involved with either Rooks and Roots or the Unruly Queens? If you're interested in volunteering — or participating — with either organization, visit our websites and contact us directly!