Primary Schools Series event in Harrow

Friday 20th March 2026 saw the first She Plays To Win Primary Schools Series event take place in North West London.

30 girls from 4 state schools in the local area were invited to a day’s chess training, learning and fun, as part of our mission: to encourage more girls to play, learn and benefit from chess.

This involved demo board lessons, tactics and puzzles sheets, and then a mock tournament where girls played with chess clocks and under tournament conditions for the first time.

It was great to see the impact of the event on girls like Grace, who gained confidence, skills and strategic thinking that the day encouraged from the girls. Socially it was also nice for the girls to meet the girls from other local schools over the day’s chess.

Our thanks to Young Harrow Foundation & Orley Farm School for their collaboration in helping this event take place.

She Plays To Win has a plan to grow the numbers of girls from state schools, who mostly have had no opportunities to get into chess and receive training, to be given the chance to benefit from the skills we know the game offers them. This pilot event was very successful and more events are in the pipeline to reach out to even more state school girls.