Our last event of the year 2024 took place on the 29th December in Stockholm, Sweden. We closed the year with a beautiful Celebration of Women in Chess event in partnership with the Rilton Cup and Swedish Chess Federation.
The event consisted of a pilates session, panel with speeches of inspiring personalities and a chess tournament for women players.
Speakers
Pia Cramling, former women world number one and an Olympian medalist, spoke about her journey in the world of chess, emphasising importance of community and how chess enriches lifes, no matter if you are a professional or just love the game. Pia also shared many heart-warming pictures from her private collection.
After Pia’s speech guests were in for another special treat. Anna Bellon Cramling, who came for the event to support her mom, kindly agreed to share her perspective with the audience. It was certainly a very memorable moment for all the viewers, especially young girls as Anna is one of the most famous chess personalities, with her YouTube channel being very close to 1.5 mln subscribers and she is a fantastic role-model, mixing great chess skills with a kind positive personality.
Anna talked about her journey, which started from going for tournaments accompanying her parents, through…not being all that impressed about chess to falling in love with the game. “I went to the Chess Olympiad and I saw over 2000 people from 180 countries competing in the same moment. At that point it really hit me how special chess is. What other sport has something like that?!”
Anastasia Sorokina, Chair of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess, highlighted the Commission’s most important projects and achievements and gave us a sneak peek into the exciting initiatives planned for 2025. Anastasia also shared some stories from her private life and shared that one of the most valuable things the chess world can give are very special relationships and friendships.
She concluded with an important wish: “I wish all girls and women around the world to be safe and to believe in themselves”.
Bojana Bejatovic, Secretary of the Fair Play Commission and event moderator, shared crucial ideas on instilling a fair mindset in younger generations to help create a more inclusive and equitable chess community.
Andra Cimina, Latvian chess arbiter, moved us with her personal journey in chess, sharing many obstacles she faced growing up in a country with closed borders. She also shared an inspiring story of her student – a woman who began learning chess at 75 and is still playing at 84!
Sanna Eriksson shared her journey into chess and the transformative projects she’s been involved with, demonstrating how the game empowers and changes lives. One of the examples is that she created a community of chess players who also learn Swedish together to be able to improve quality of their life living in Sweden. Sanna was also leading the pilates session as she is a fitness trainer!
We are incredibly grateful to all these fantastic women who shared their stories with all our guests.
Chess tournament for women
After the panel we have held a short blitz tournament for female chess players. With mix of very young players to very experienced ones it was a perfect end to the celebration.
Thank you to all participants and congratulations to the winners!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Celebration of Women in Chess in Stockholm. What a fantastic way to wrap up the year 2024!
