Chess Empowers Girls
Our mission is to build the confidence of girls through Chess
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking
Our Story, Our mission
The mission of Chess Girls DC is to build the confidence of Girls using Chess as a tool. Chess teaches persistence. The Chess Girls DC program develops a solid foundation of chess knowledge taught in a way that properly prepares girls to apply it in a productive fashion, in order that every maneuver becomes a way to practice effective thinking.
Chess Girls DC 501c3 Nonprofit Organization was launched in response to scientific evidence that self-confidence plays a tremendous role in a girl’s approach to course work that requires higher level thinking skills and challenging circumstances. Chess teaches the focus and strategic thinking used to successfully tackle college examinations. Scientific studies show that, confidence in one’s abilities has a significant impact on learning and performance on many levels. Self-belief about one’s ability determines how well students motivate themselves and persevere in the face of difficulty.
Chess Girls DC is a nonprofit organization created to provide a space for all girls to play Chess and Thrive.
On the anniversary of our 9th year, Chess Girls DC is most proud of the community that helps us provide resources to teach and assist girls with travel to compete in national tournaments and professional coaching to elevate their tournament performance.
Our Vision
Our vision is to prepare girls to be global citizens and leaders. They will be equipped to tackle complex issues and promote positive change in their communities through the intellectual engagement and strategic thinking achieved by playing Chess.
Experience a breakthrough with our team
Over the years, Chess Girls DC presented several approaches to teaching chess to students during the year and incorporating family engagement. Rest assured that our commitment to a solid foundation continues with our online classes.
- · Weekly lectures by an experienced chess professionals
- · Supervised chess games with volunteers
- · Video conferencing with young up and coming higher ranked chess players
- · Students are taught how to use chess clocks
- · All students received age appropriate books to encourage chess literacy
- · Students are taught and practiced chess notation
- · Lessons are guided by chess books appropriate for younger students
- · Students are given weekly take home activities to reinforce lesson
- · Students have the ability to participate in on line chess education (chesskids.com) with videos, lectures and chess puzzles.
- · Students participate in the end of the semester recognition award ceremony for personal accomplishments during semester
- · Students are coached and supported to participate in local and national tournaments.
- Chess Girls DC 501c3 organization hosts a National & Regional Girls tournament.
- · There are field trips to meet Chess masters
·Student led Podcast about Chess Players and Leadership Series
Chess Girls DC students
Our students are doing exciting things!
Everything is better with friends
Participate in tournament play, enjoy discussions, learn to improve your chess game.
Chess Girls DC hosts coed tournaments at dcscholastichess.org
We believe no problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
Check out dcscholasticchess.org events
Sarah is the 2023 DC Middle School Representative
Congratulations to Sarah. She represented the District of Columbia in the 2022 Haring Girls National Tournament of Champions and the 2023 Middle School Barber tournament of Champions.
2021-22 Sports Diplomacy
Chess Girls DC welcomes French speaking students
Funded by the U.S. State Department and the Embassy of France, Chess Girls DC hosted an intercultural exchange with students from France, Martinique, Guadalupe, French Guyana Our focus was the impact on girls through our unique leadership model.
Chess Girls DC Welcomes Mexico
Funded by the U.S. State Department and the Embassy of Mexico Chess Girls DC hosted and intercultural exchange to to focus on Chess as a Science and empowering girls in STEM. For more information go tohttps://eca.state.gov/sports-diplomacy/sports-visitors
Chess Girls DC Welcomes Colombia
Chess Girls DC hosted a week of advanced Chess training for visiting students from Colombia at the Colombian Embassy. The students were instructed by National Master David Bennett
The students participated in a Simul with
International Master Oladapu Adu
Intercultural Exchange
Students enjoyed dinner and chess tournament at the end of the week with youth from the MD, VA and DC region
Thank You
Students from Colombia enjoyed meeting youth from Howard University, Catholic Universtiy and students from around the region.
Chess Inspiration
Chess Inspiration from the West Coast
Chess Inspiration from the West Coast
Chess Inspiration from the West Coast
Meet Lauren Goodkind
Chess Kids Girl Power
Chess Inspiration from the West Coast
Chess Inspiration from the West Coast
What's more powerful than confident girls playing chess? Not much! If the queen is the most powerful piece in chess, then it makes sense to see the best moves of two of the top queens of chess -- Vera Menchik and Judit Polgar!
Girls in Chess
Chess Inspiration from the West Coast
Women's Championship
A spotlight on the gender gap in the world of competitive scholastic chess.
Women's Championship
Women's Championship
Women's Championship
The 2020 U.S. Women's Championship is an online national championship event, featuring 12 of the strongest female chess players in America.
The 7th Rank
Women's Championship
AKSHITA GORTI
Famous chess coach Elizabeth Spiegel, as featured in "Brooklyn Castle" talks about the importance of using the 7th rank for a strong rook. This lesson is a follow-up from her piece on Open Files.
AKSHITA GORTI
Women's Championship
AKSHITA GORTI
Womens International Master at 13, Akshita inspires the girls to be consistent playing at least 4 mini games a day to improve.
FIONA LAM
SANJANA VITTAL
SANJANA VITTAL
Fiona has represented Maryland as the state champion more than once. She encourages the class to continue expolre your possibilities and playing daily games is the best experience
SANJANA VITTAL
SANJANA VITTAL
SANJANA VITTAL
As a Women's Female Master, Sanjana encourages the class to stay in the fight ! As the New Jersey state champion 3 years in a row she definitely proves girls rule !
Effective Tips to improve your chess game
Advice by Womens International Master Akshita Gorti
Welcome !
Timeless advice to help you improve your chess game.
Tips to Balance Chess and School Classes
It is definitely not easy to manage trying to improve in chess as well as academics (especially for high school students). Elementary students will have more time to practice chess. But there are ways to balance both improving in chess and academics. It’s very important to make the best use of the time we are given, and follow a daily plan to finish school homework and get time to improve in chess.
- One possible way would be to wake up early before going to school. By waking up early, you may get an extra hour or even more to practice chess. The extra time can be used to do plenty of tactics before going to school. Tactics are extremely important in chess, and doing them daily can help sharpen your skills. It’s very crucial for players of all levels to do tactics. Doing tactics is one of the fastest ways to improve in chess. Some very good websites to practice tactics are chesstempo.com, chesskid.com, and chess.com.
- If there isn’t any time in the morning to do chess, it would be best to do as much chess as possible after coming back from school. I recommend to at least spend 3-4 hours on chess. Spending 3-4 hours on chess daily will immensely improve your chess.
- It’s also needed to know how to improve in chess, and what to do on a daily basis so that the playing strength can increase. I had already mentioned tactics as a necessity to improve the playing strength. Its also very important to play as many online games as possible. Playing online games is a very good way to gain plenty of practice and experience. The experience can help when it comes to playing actual tournaments, where you will feel more prepared because of playing so many online games. Chesskid.com and ICC are great platforms to play online games.
- A very crucial part of improving in chess is to always analyze your games. It’s a healthy habit to analyze both tournament and online games. Analyzing the games helps identify the mistakes and most importantly helps you to not repeat the same mistakes in another game. Analyzing the games helps you identify the good and bad parts of the game and can immensely help improve your chess.
- Doing plenty of checkmating puzzles is very important for beginners. In a chess game, the main goal is to always checkmate the opponent. So, knowing how to checkmate is very important. It’s not just about knowing how to checkmate, but also being able to identify the checkmates quickly. Doing plenty of checkmating puzzles keep the brain sharp and whenever you are presented with a checkmating pattern in a tournament game, it will become really easy to solve it and win the game. Chesstempo.com and chesskid.com are great websites to practice checkmating puzzles.
- Another way to improve in chess is to follow the games of world champions. Following the games of world champions is a great way to improve since we can get many ideas from their games. Getting inspiration from their games is very helpful, since we can try to use similar if not the same ideas in our own games.
- The last thing I would like to mention about improving in chess would be to play as many tournaments as possible. Playing tournaments gives lots of experience. Playing tournaments also helps you implement all the chess you’ve been practicing and it’s a lot of fun to win!
In a future article, I will recommend some very important chess books for beginners.
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