{"id":176306,"date":"2026-03-26T18:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/176306\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T18:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T18:22:45","slug":"queens-of-chess-women-only-club-breaks-down-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/176306\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens of chess! Women-only club breaks down barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zoya Boozorginia with the club from St Pancras Library<\/p>\n

A WOMEN-only chess club is breaking down barriers in a game long dominated by men, as more women and girls take up the sport.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to think about chess today without recalling The Queen\u2019s Gambit, the hit TV mini series that ignited a global surge in the game.<\/p>\n

Now, a new Netflix documentary, The Queen of Chess, shines a spotlight on Grandmaster Judit Polg\u00e1r \u2013 the only woman ever to break into the world\u2019s top 10 rankings.<\/p>\n

But in Camden, a group of women and girls have been meeting every week in St Pancras Square Library to play chess and challenge some of those longstanding norms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve created something unique here,\u201d said Zoya Boozorginia founder of London Women\u2019s Chess Club (LWCC), adding: \u201cA dedicated space for women makes them feel comfortable and where they can learn and not simply be scrutinised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment you are on the board nothing exists around you in the world. The game is about narrative, it has a story to it. It helps with your thinking, articulation, creativity and strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The London Women\u2019s Chess Club is a community dedicated to providing a welcoming safe place for all women and girls to learn and enjoy playing chess.<\/p>\n

Founded in 2023, the aim was to give women a space to play chess away from what many describe as the pressures of traditional clubs.<\/p>\n

Lucinda Thompson, treasurer at LWCC said she learnt chess as a child having been taught by her father.<\/p>\n

She said:\u2008\u201cI think over time the narrative will change, hopefully in places like our club and other chess clubs that are trying to get more women members,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will see it as less of a men\u2019s sport and just be taken more seriously, as a sport, a mind sport. A lot of experiences that people have when they go to a traditional chess club where there are a lot of men is that all the focus is on chess.<\/p>\n

\u201cSitting down in silence, there is not a lot of skill sharing or supporting each other to play better chess. Whereas at our club we definitely don\u2019t sit and play in silence. Women and girls can learn in a fun environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Boozorginia added: \u201cMen are highly competitive, women are competitive too but we use our time to teach new players the basics of the game, whereas when you go to a men\u2019s club there is just a clock on the table they only want the game. It can be quite intimid\u00adating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite its growing popularity, chess is not recognised as a sport in the UK, unlike in many European countries.<\/p>\n

Ms Boozorginia said: \u201cIn the UK chess is just considered a board game. \u201cThere are funds available for it but the government is not paying as much attention to it as European organisations are. This is why playing chess is just considered a hobby and that you can\u2019t make money out of it. It makes it difficult for people who are dedicating their time to it but not gaining much in a professional way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ms Thompson said the rise of online chess had also introduced the game to a wider audience but added: \u201cIt\u2019s so different playing chess online to playing chess in person. Having that time out to sit in front of a board with somebody for however long and zone out of everything that is happen\u00ading in my life and focus on the board it\u2019s quite relaxing no matter how stressful chess can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to see the person you are playing, their reaction when you make a blunder \u2013 it\u2019s all forgiven easily and you don\u2019t get so wound up in person and it\u2019s also so easy to get distracted playing online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere doesn\u2019t need to be barriers in chess. It doesn\u2019t really matter where we learn chess, as long as we are playing it and that whoever you are you have a place to play chess in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group meets on Sundays at Pancras Square Library from 1pm-5pm.<\/p>\n

They say all women and girls are welcome to come along and take part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zoya Boozorginia with the club from St Pancras Library A WOMEN-only chess club is breaking down barriers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1882,7150,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-176306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-community","tag-king","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}