On September 21st, during the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, the WOMEN&CHESS&BALANCE Conference was held, first-ever organized by FIDE’s Women’s Chess Commission. The event gathered over 25 distinguished speakers from diverse fields to address the challenges faced by women in chess and to propose solutions for creating a more inclusive, safe, and supportive environment. This landmark conference provided a platform for inspiring discussions and highlighted key initiatives aimed at uplifting women in the chess world.
A Diverse Range of Speakers and Insights
The conference brought together an impressive array of leaders and experts, starting with legendary female chess player Judit Polgar. Also in attendance were Dr. Melita Moore, Vice President of the Global e-Sports Federation, representatives from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Daniel Rensch, CCO of Chess.com, and Sagar Shah, CEO of ChessBase India. Their diverse backgrounds ensured a comprehensive conversation about creating a better future for women in chess.
The conference wasn’t just about the game—it featured discussions ranging from safeguarding, health, and social equity to brand-building, ensuring the chess community grows in a way that benefits all its members.
Panel: Balancing Family and Professional Life
The main point of the Conference was a panel featuring the legendary Judit Polgar, the CCO of chess.com Daniel Rensch, first ever female Confederation President Tshepiso Lopang and a Deputy Chair of FIDE’s Management Board Dana Reizniece-Ozola. The discussion focused on balancing professional and family life, a critical topic for all pursuing careers in chess and beyond.
“Everything changed when my son was born. We wanted him very much. I started to play more relaxed [after that]. In the first tournament after having a baby, I understood that a chess tournament can be a relaxation. Priorities completely changed, but I felt much better – like a complete person. Chess was very important for me but not as before. When I was not cooking and dealing with the kids, then I was focusing more on chess. I became more efficient, I guess”, Polgar said.
Tshepiso Lopang added that ‘’I work a lot, I travel a lot, but when I am home, I am fully there, the family is a backbone of everything.’’
‘’I have two tricks. First – do not try to be perfect. (…) Second – allow yourself to be helped.’’ Dana Reizniece-Ozola shared. Adding another trick later: ‘’Traditions are my method how to keep a family strong, they serve as anchors. (…) Kids know that there are certain things, that they know that whatever happens they will be there and that gives them this feeling of being grounded and this feeling of security that they really much need.’’
Daniel Rensch importantly mentioned about time spent away from the kids: ”As someone once told me ’’You will never look back and believe that you spent too much time with your family’’, that’s not the case. At the same time you see skills and you see characteristics that they have and you hope some of those things came from the example you set, even if you maybe missed a few important moments.’’
Celebrating Initiatives: The Queen’s Festival, Girl’s Club and ChessMom Project
The Conference was also an opportunity to reward the winners of the Queen’s Festival, an on-line Festival for female players organized by our Commission, as well as meet with all the members of the Commission, who were able to attend the Olympiad and appreciate their work.
Winners of the Queen’s and Princess’ Festival were invited to the Olympiad as a prize, where they could experience the most prestigious event and get inspired from the best players in the world. During the Conference they were rewarded by the General Director of the Queen’s Festival Ozgur Solakoglu and Anastasia Sorokina.
Leontxo Garcia, an experienced Spanish journalist, was moderating the event, introducing all the guests and topics enabling viewers who were present at the Conference in-person as well as on-line to follow it smoothly.
Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Deputy Chair of FIDE’s Management Board, opened the conference. She has been an important supporter of many of our projects and emphasised how important the development of women’s position in the chess world is for her: ‘’I see it as my personal mission and very much FIDE’s mission to improve women’s chess… We want to encourage young women chess players not to stop their active chess careers”.
Anastasia Sorokina, Chair of the Women’s Chess Commission, welcomed everyone to the Conference and spoke of the achievements and projects of the Commission in the last years. From working with refugees in the Kakuma Camp, through projects to create more tournaments for girls and supporting chess mothers, to reaching the highest ever participation of female teams in the Olympiad – the Commission has worked on various fields to improve the situation of women and girls world-wide.
Meanwhile, Aleksandr Novikov and Nick Sore from the UNHCR discussed FIDE’s partnership with the UN Refugee Agency. They highlighted efforts to create meaningful chess programs for girls in refugee camps, an important step toward empowering marginalized communities through the game.
Then our Commission member Ulkar Umudova, who has been a main force behind the FIDE Queens’ Festival, gave us insights into organizing such a big all-continent event, and spoke what has been improved over the years to make the event even more accessible to female players from all countries.
TrisAnn Richards, Councillor of our Commission and a President of the St. Lucia Chess Federation, spoke on a National Female Team Initiative «Empowering Queens of the Chessboard: 2024 Chess Olympiad and Beyond» – initiative she lead, to bring to the Olympiad women teams from previously unrepresented countries to the 2024 Olympiad. Thanks to the project, 8 new teams participated in the event, and most importantly – the seed has been planted for hundreds or even thousands of girls from those countries to have better possibilities of chess development. The project was in cooperation with the FIDE Trainer’s Commission.
Francisco Cruz Arce, member of our Commission and a deputy president of FIDE America, spoke on our ChessMom project. A pilot project to support mothers playing in the Olympiad by covering the costs of their babies and an accompanying person, who can join the mom at the event. It was actually Francisco who initiated the help for the new chess moms and as a leader of the project made it possible to happen. Moreover, FIDE America is a first continent to replicate the project and support mothers who will participate in the continental championships.
“I thought – how many players have we lost because of this… We want to mitigate the impact on female players – so they have an accompanying person with them. These five players who came to the Olympiad [in Budapest] are a message we are sending.
“What’s next? We want this to increase and not be limited only to the chess Olympiad. We want the federations to be involved as well. America is the first one to do it. In November, we have the female continental tournament, and we want to spread the word and have other nations join this effort”.
WGM Anastasia Karlovich, who has been involved in many of our projects throughout the years, especially the FIDE&UNHCR Girl’s Club and the CHess4Peace project, spoke about those two initiatives. She also welcomes the participants of the Chess4Peace, who were invited to the Conference as a final stage of the project. One of the participants, Anastasia, gave a short speech in which she explained how the program has inspired all of them and showed many possibilities in the chess world.
Powerful Personal Stories: Aruna Anand’s Managing the Mate
Aruna Anand, wife and manager of five-time World Chess Champion Vishy Anand, joined us on-line and delivered a humorous and insightful talk titled “Managing the Mate”.
She shared anecdotes about balancing her roles as wife and manager, and Vishy Anand himself attended the talk to show his support. Her speech provided a rare glimpse into the life of one of chess’s most famous couples.
Bridging the Gender Gap: Grandmaster David Smerdon’s Data-Driven Approach
Grandmaster David Smerdon, member of our Commission, gave a thought-provoking speech on the gender equity and gap in chess. Data-backed reasons why women do not perform on the same level as men, among them: social stereotypes and the “motherhood penalty” – where the data showed that women chess players lose rating after giving birth, while the ELO remains the same for male players who have just become parents. Truly interesting lecture, that showed how much there is still to do on various levels, to close the gap.
Building a Modern Chess Brand
A ‘’Mastering the Chess Content Game’’ lecture was delivered by CEO of the ChessBase India, Sagar Shah. Sagar shared some behind the scenes of the ChessBase India success and emphasized how important passion is when creating content.
Ilya Merenzon, CEO of World Chess, joined the Conference on-line and spoke about building of the brand. He mentioned many possibilities that are still waiting for the chess world to be used and how important a proper brand image and a modern approach is.
A ‘’Norway Chess: From Vision to Global Prestige’’ delivered by Norway Chess founder Kjell Madland and a marketing manager Dea Maioli Egeli. Why has Norway Chess been compared by Kasparov to the Wimledon tournament, how the Norway Chess brand ensures trust from sponsors and viewers and why is it important to work on attracting chess to the audience completely new to chess and how to do it, and finally – why introducing women’s event with equal prizes was so important – where the key points of the speech.
Maria Fragkaki who is a social media manager at Norway Chess followed and delivered a very interesting presentation on how she and her team managed to make Norway Chess a highly successful brand in social media and how they managed to reach over 140mln people throughout the event.
Philosophy and Chess
Doctor of Philosophy Uliana Karagezian, University of Oxford, Author of the books: “My interview”, “The Game of Life, Her Rules” spoke on Chess – A Game of Strategic Thinking That Builds Character: Discipline, Patience, and Resilience, finding many comparisons between life and chess, using her impressive experience in various fields.
Importance of safeguarding
Ranae Bartlett, Executive Director US Chess Federation, spoke extensively on safeguarding and its importance in chess in her ‘’US Chess: Our Commitment to Safe Play’’ speech. Giving many examples she noted that even experienced figures in the chess world were not fully aware of the problem and appreciated the training that the US Chess Federation implemented.
Vice President of the Global Esports Federation, Dr. Melita Moore also spoke on safeguarding in her ‘’Checkmate on Harassment: Enhancing Online Safety for Women In Chess’’. She shared her experience from WNBA and gaming environments and compared how the chess world could use it to the advantage of all members.
Health, Wellness, and Performance
We were then treated to a video recorded specially for our Conference by the 12th Women’s World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, who introduced the topic of ‘’Sporty Strategists: chess and beyond’’. Kosteniuk emphasized the importance of the healthy lifestyle in chess by saying: ‘’I always dedicated a lot of time to my daily physical routine along with my chess and mental preparation’’.
The topic was continued by Alexandra’s husband, Grandmaster Pavel Tregubov in his ‘’Combining Chess with a Dynamic Lifestyle’’ lecture. The key point of the lecture was that on a high level, when playing opponents of a similar chess level it is exactly the physical preparation that can make a significant difference and decide the outcome of a whole tournament.
The importance of health in relation to performance was echoed medical doctor Maria Rubio-Yuste, member of the FIDE Medical Commission. She spoke on ‘’Chess, Women & Health’’ and focused a lot on the nutrition and how to elevate your performance using physical and mental wellness.
Passion and Community in Chess
Susan Namangale Zone 4.5 President, Global head of Gift of Chess, a charity that secured 132,000 chess sets in over 30 countries, delivered a ‘’Passion vs work and sport life balance’’ speech, sharing a lot from her personal experience. She also mentioned that she herself plays chess, to inspire women from her country (Malawi) by leading an example.
Simen Agdestein is a GM, chess coach, famously previous coach of Magnus Carlsen and a former professional football player. He gave a fascinating speech in which he shared that what really makes him proud though is his school, in which he trains intensely with hundreds of biggest Norwegian talents. He claimed that perhaps the biggest thing that he’s given Magnus is ‘’social environment’’ and that this is something that truly allows talents to flourish – ‘’friends’’, as kids in his school train closely together, support, motivate each other and become connected by passion to chess and their life together.
A Day of Impact and Inspiration
The conference concluded with Anastasia Sorokina, Chair of the Women’s Chess Commission, thanking all the speakers and participants. She expressed hope that this first WOMEN&CHESS&BALANCE Conference would pave the way for more such events in the future, as the global chess community continues working toward greater gender equity and inclusivity.
We would like to use this opportunity and thank all our speakers, guests, as well as everyone who joined the Conference in-person and on-line. Special thanks to our team who went through an enormous effort to organize this event, especially to the Conference Coordinator Nadezhda Kravchuk.
