SPTW April 2026 Newsletter
Editorial
By Lorin D'Costa, Founder and CEO of She Plays To Win
March saw a number of events for girls, regardless of chess level.
Our flagship event, the Athena Finals, saw hard-fought chess amongst 42 girls across 7 age sections.
SPTW launched its Primary School Series, to help offer opportunities to play and learn chess for state school girls who have not had access to chess previously.
The 4NCL National Chess League saw the Lionesses win both crucial matches and move back into the promotion places in Division 2. Can they gain promotion to Division 1 in the final weekend in May?
The end of March saw the ECF Girls Schools Championships take place at St Catherine's School, Bramley. Girls really like taking part as a team, and so seeing them play not just for themselves but with their teammates further develops their team-work skills.
SPTW Founder Lorin D'Costa also gave a talk at the Harrington Starr 'Leadership That Opens Doors' event in the Barbican, London, on Tuesday 3rd March. He was accompanied by Alisha Vyas, a member of the Lionesses team fighting at the top of the 4NCL National League, who gave a fantastic speech about how chess has been so inspirational for her with the skills and experiences learned.
Lorin D'Costa
Founder & CEO, She Plays To Win
Charity Number: 1210171
sheplaystowin.co.uk
3rd March International Women's Day Talk — 'Leadership That Opens Doors'
Tuesday 3rd March saw She Plays To Win invited to a very special event in central London. Harrington Starr, a financial-tech recruitment company, ran a 'Leadership That Opens Doors' event for over 250 business attendees.
The International Women's Day FinTech event brought together senior leaders, executives, women, men and allies across the financial technology and financial services sector for TED-style talks, discussion and networking. The 2026 theme — Leadership That Opens Doors — explores how leadership decisions create opportunity, influence careers, and drive meaningful change across modern FinTech organisations.
Lorin's talk was centred around why he set up She Plays To Win, and how 8% participation in chess by girls is more than just on the chess board: this has longer-lasting effects on the numbers of girls doing STEM subjects at university and therefore going into areas such as FinTech.
Alisha gave a fantastic speech on how she will go on to study Maths at university, and what playing and learning chess has done for her since learning chess at the age of 6.
The She Plays To Win team at the Harrington Starr event: Lorin and Alisha gave talks in their SPTW hoodies, and we were helped by 3 of our trustees who explained to attendees all about the charity and its aims.
The response from attendees on LinkedIn, such as the example above, was very positive feedback on the event.
Listen back to the podcast on chess and STEM: https://www.harringtonstarr.com/resources/podcast/the-strategic-game-shaping-future-fintech-talent/
She Plays To Win Athena Finals, Saturday 7th March
The Athena Finals is the flagship event of She Plays To Win.
The 2025/26 Finals were held at the London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith, London.
Girls had to go through two rounds of online qualifying since October to win a place at the Finals: Ismini (first round) and Enyo (Semi Finals).
The girls hard at focus during the tournament.
The tournament was played in an excellent spirit, with girls socialising between games and plenty of hard-fought chess on the board.
Trophies were given for the top 3 girls in each section — beautiful glass trophies — and there was a £1000 prize pot.
The trophy winners across the 7 sections — well done to all those who qualified for the event!
Primary Schools Series, Friday 20th March
Friday 20th March saw a new event by She Plays To Win, in collaboration with The Young Harrow Foundation.
30 girls across 5 state schools in North West London attended the event.
Most girls didn't know how to play chess, or knew very little about the game.
The day involved an introductory class with SPTW Founder Lorin D'Costa, and then various lessons in groups with our 4 female coaches Liz, Jenny, Maria and Alisha.
Girls then had lunch and were encouraged to play a practice tournament game with chess clocks.
The feedback from the girls after the event was very promising:
'I thought playing with a chess clock would be scary — it was at the start, but I got used to it.'
“I learned how to checkmate. I want to go home and play my brother.”
“I really liked being inspired by the female chess coaches.”
Our thanks to The Young Harrow Foundation and Orley Farm School for their collaboration and effort to help us put this event on.
Hopefully She Plays To Win can do more of these in the future after this successful pilot event.
Full report: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7442466089806135296/
Coach Liz, a former Barnet County and England junior player, inspiring the next generation of girls. Here Liz challenged the girls with learning about checkmate and stalemate. Photo: Niaz Meleknia Photography — https://www.niazmalekniaphotography.com/
4NCL Weekend 4
The 4th weekend (of 5) of the 4NCL National Chess League took place on 21st & 22nd March.
As usual we had 4 teams play, with the University and young development teams playing in Division 4.
The Lionesses A team in Division 2 got their promotion campaign back on track with two crucial wins.
Saturday saw them beat the Greater Woodpushers 5–3, a match where the Lionesses were again outrated.
Sunday saw them again pull out a tight 4.5–3.5 victory over the higher-rated Crowthorne chess club.
This means that with the final weekend to play on the Bank Holiday weekend 2–4 May, the Lionesses sit in 3rd place.
With 3 teams going up to Division 1, the final weekend looks to be an interesting one for the Lionesses!
Eline Roebers, winner of the European Women's Blitz Championship in Monaco back in January, has joined our team and made her debut. Here she is playing Irish International Tarun Kanyamarala in the Saturday match (4-hour draw).
ECF Girls Schools Finals, 28th & 29th March
Congratulations to Eltham College (Under 11) and St Paul's Girls (Under 19) for winning the ECF Girls Schools Championships held at St Catherine's School, Bramley, on 28th & 29th March 2026.
Under 11 final results: https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1365759.aspx?lan=31&SNode=S0
Under 19 final results: https://s1.chess-results.com/tnr1365756.aspx?lan=31&art=0&turdet=YES&SNode=S0
Well done to all the girls on playing long, hard-fought games every round, and to the ECF and St Catherine's School for sponsoring the event.
A view of the action: the girls settle down to focus and represent their school in this prestigious competition.
Easter Members Event, Sunday 19th April
Well done to Eunice, who won the SPTW Members Easter Tournament held on Lichess on Sunday 19th April. 26 girls participated — well done all!
https://lichess.org/tournament/MIAwNXbb
Chesskid
Well done to the following girls for winning 1-1 lessons by coming 1st and 2nd in the Puzzles and Stars leaderboards for February. These girls all win 1-1 lessons with Woman International Master Coach Cami! https://lichess.org/@/Cami3
BusyJuniorMovie
IcyDottedFawn
NearChattyPeanut
GoldinspiredPhoenix
Puzzles:
Stars:
Chesskid — Official Learning Partner
Chesskid is the Official Learning Partner of She Plays To Win. Learn about the Gold Membership and how your daughter can learn from home using their puzzles and videos:
