Editorial

By Lorin D'Costa, Founder and CEO of She Plays To Win

I received the following from a delegate in a UK county chess association. I wonder what readers think:

“Personally, I would love to understand better why many girls play less on reaching their teen years. A conference I attended some years ago now (pre Covid) presented some thoughts on this from across Europe and the US. One interesting suggestion was that girls, often being more perfectionist, may be less willing to risk losing compared to boys. Of course, this is a very general statement and wouldn't apply to all girls (or to all boys). Another interesting fact was conversion rate, with the suggestion that more boys are encouraged to take up chess at an early age than are girls, although there are signs that this is changing.”

They then went on to say they would not offer girls' prizes at their county junior events, citing:

"The committee felt that chess is one of the sports in which girls can compete on equal footing to boys as, for example, it does not require physical strength. Chess is a test of mental skills and girls are equally as good at this as boys (sometimes better). Some committee members felt that giving a Girl's Prize could be seen as demeaning or condescending to the girls."

The idea of girls' prizes has always been a source of contention. In general, most strong female players have told me that the prizes helped incentivise them when they were young and first starting out. After all, who doesn't want to win a prize as a child!

How we encourage girls to get into chess, learn, and then stay in, is what She Plays To Win plans to help with. After all, it is in our Mission: https://www.sheplaystowin.co.uk/mission

She Plays To Win is a charitable project whose aim is to encourage more girls to learn, play and benefit from chess. We need to encourage as many primary schools as possible to get involved and benefit from chess as we know they can.

Finally, this week at her school chess club a 10-year-old girl told me:

"I want to be a Formula One Engineer. I know it's not something girls do."

Changing girls' perception that they really can do these things will take time.

Lorin D'Costa
Founder & CEO, She Plays To Win
Charity Number: 1210171
sheplaystowin.co.uk

SPTW Pairs Invitational — Sunday 21st June 2026

The 2nd She Plays To Win Pairs Invitational was held on Sunday 21st June 2026 at the London Mindsports Centre in Hammersmith, London.

Top young male titled players (Grandmaster, International Master, FIDE Master) were each paired with a girl. Every girl had won her respective age section — Under 8 up to University age group — back in March at the She Plays To Win Athena Finals.

FM Stanley Badacsonyi (2509) & Elis Denele Dicen (2308)
IM Ezra Kirk (2458) & Emma Hng (2209)
IM Marcus Harvey (2565) & Alisha Vyas (1943)
GM Shreyas Royal (2569) & Thisumi Jayawarna (1870)
FM William Claridge-Hansen (2469) & Lam Vy Nguyen (1922)
GM Ameet Ghasi (2588) & Mary Cawdery (1695)
GM Matthew Wadsworth (2620) & Tiara Khanna (1539)
IM Lorin D'Costa (2441) & Irys Yang (795)

Groups A and B had four teams each, with the top two teams per group going through to the semi-finals.

After five rounds at 20 minutes plus 5 seconds a move, spanning practically the whole day, the winners emerged: congratulations to Lam Vy Nguyen and FM William Claridge-Hansen!

Winners of the 2nd SPTW Pairs Invitational: Lam Vy Nguyen and FM Will Claridge-Hansen.

Winners of the 1st SPTW Pairs Invitational in June 2023: IM Marcus Harvey and Alisha Vyas were not quite able to defend their crown, losing in a tight semi-final.

The girls have spoken about how much they learned from the interaction with the titled male players, in terms of planning, calculation, and endgame play. While the event was fun, we can see that there were huge benefits for the girls in being around strong players and learning from them.

A number of the male players commented on how promising they thought the girls were, using words such as "she seems such a promising talent" and "she is clearly extremely underrated!"

She Plays To Win stands for gender equality and believes it can be reached over the chess board. Playing and learning between male and female players is a big part of that, and this event was a fantastic vehicle to help further UK girls' chess.

The Final was a close affair between William & Lam Vy and their opponents Stanley & Elis.

William Claridge-Hansen & Lam Vy Nguyen — Stanley Badacsonyi & Elis Denele Dicen

2nd SPTW Mixed Pairs Invitational, London 2026

1.e4 e6

Stanley and Elis go for the French Defence.

2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bd7 6.Be2 Nge7 7.a3 c4 8.Nbd2 Na5 9.0-0 Qb6 10.Rb1 0-0-0 11.Ng5 Be8 12.b3 cxb3

Here William called his team a one-minute time out to discuss the position. They didn't have much time to calculate, and went for Nxb3, which worked out well for them:

13.Nxb3 Nxb3 14.Rxb3 Qc7 15.Bb5 Nc6 16.c4 dxc4 17.Bxc4 Rxd4 18.Qc2 Rg4 19.Bb5 Be7 20.Nf3 Nd4 21.Nxd4 Rxd4 22.Rc3

Pinning and winning.

22...Bc6 23.Bxc6 bxc6 24.Rxc6 1-0

All pairs in action at the start of a round.

SCCU Team Event — Saturday 27th June

Saturday 27th June saw two She Plays To Win teams take part in the SCCU (Southern Counties Chess Union) Team Championships in London.

SPTW Team 2 finished 7th, and SPTW Team 1 finished 9th.

Full results: https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1435925.aspx?lan=1&art=63&SNode=S0

Well done to the girls who represented She Plays To Win in this event!

A view of the hall. Again we see very few female players, with SPTW players in the minority.

ECF Schools Under 19 Championships — 23rd & 24th June

Congratulations to St Paul's Girls School, who finished 13th out of 24 teams in the National Secondary Schools Finals in Nottingham, held on Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th June.

They qualified by winning the ECF Girls Schools Under 19 title in March, and scored the best ever result by a girls' school in this competition.

The event, run brilliantly by Neill Cooper, has hundreds of secondary schools taking part from October in regional zones, with knockout phases commencing in January.

More information about the event: https://englishchess.org.uk/Schools/u19-championship/

Final result: https://s3.chess-results.com/tnr1434657.aspx

Chesskid

Well done to the following girls for winning 1-1 lessons by coming 1st and 2nd in the Puzzles and Stars leaderboards for May. These girls all win 1-1 lessons with Woman International Master Coach Cami! https://lichess.org/@/Cami3