SPTW girls meet Magnus at chess.com Speed Chess Championships in London

6-8th February 2026 saw the chess.com Speed Chess Championships held in the Strand, London with 4 of the biggest names in chess: Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja and Denis Lazavik.

She Plays To Win were specially invited backstage as VIPs with 20 UK girls part of the SPTW Programme missing a day of school on the Friday to meet the top stars and experience the event.

Mary and Kayal were invited to the press conference to ask questions, and they put to the players questions such as how they think more girls can get into chess, and what aspect of their development did they enjoy the most.

Our thumbnail photo shows the girls meeting world #1 Magnus Carlsen, which they were understandably excited about! Girls also met ‘FunMasterMike’ aka Mike Klein from Chesskid, ‘GothamChess’ aka Levy Rozman, top female streamer Anna Rudolf and a host of others.

She Plays To Win would like to thank chess.com for their partnership and invitation. With Chesskid as the official SPTW learning partner, we are happy to continue this collaboration to inspire more girls to play, learn and benefit from chess as per our mission!