Girls just wanna play chess - two chess news reports about girls and chess

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hello everyone,

We always like chess stories when they are about kids and children - particularly girls. Not that we don't like chess stories otherwise. Here are two chess news reports about girls' chess events.

The first chess story - In the photo you see Aarika Rex of Clearmont School sitting in the lap of Alexa Hursh of Northwood School as Alexa makes a chess move against Tess Cunningham, who also attends Northwood. Hurst and Cunningham are both fifth-graders, while Rex is a first-grade pupil. All three competed in last week’s Stark Youth Chess League competition at Glenwood Intermediate School. The story is about chess catching up as a trend.  “Some of the girls, they’re more aggressive,” said Carl Patron, chess coach at Clearmount Elementary School in North Canton City Schools. “They’re attacking right away.”

Patron, who also runs the free youth chess program from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at the North Branch of Stark County District Library, says he’s seen a steady influx of young girls getting involved in area chess competitions during recent years.

“At Clearmount, we probably have a dozen girls out of 25 students who are playing,” said Patron. “At the library, maybe we’ll have four or five out of 12 to 14. We’re well represented with girls.” 

Read the full story here.

Iowa girls chess championship

Chess-loving girls from around the state gathered Saturday at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City to compete for the Iowa Girls Chess Championship title.

Twenty-three kindergarten to 12th-grade girls — and one 6-year-old boy (to make even numbers) — played four games each, competing for the first-place trophy and a stipend to attend the national girls chess championship in Chicago in April. Read the full story here.

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