Cambridge Girls Chess Initiative

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Cambridge Girls Chess Initiative (CGCI)

Chess is not only fun, but also presents a fantastic way of developing logical and abstract reasoning skills in children. Chess playing is an excellent way of developing abstract reasoning skills, strategic thinking and learning to make decisions under pressure, and has been shown to support the development of general problem-solving and math skills in children as young as four. Sadly, chess playing girls are often vastly outnumbered by boys.

There is no gender pre-disposition to develop the skills to play chess. And yet, chess coaches often report that it is difficult to attract girls to after-school chess clubs and to keep them involved due to a general perception that ‘chess is mainly a game for boys’. Given the current emphasis across the UK on encouraging girls to choose subjects such as math and sciences at GCSE and A-levels, we believe that encouraging more girls to take up chess at a young age is important. Indeed, showing girls that activities such as chess, math and computer programming can be fun both in and outside of school, it’s an excellent first step in addressing deeply ingrained gender imbalances in our education system and workplaces.

With these issues in mind Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni founded the Cambridge Girls Chess Initiative - CGCI - in November 2015 with an initial donation from four Cambridge colleges. Microsoft Research was also an early supporter of the initiative. CGCI has continued to grow rapidly since then. It now has four Trustees and Managers (Elisa Faraglia, Chryssi Giannitsarou, Kerry Carter-Cox, and Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni), involves a large number of girls in our monthly training sessions and engages a team of top coaches to teach our girls. This year the five strong coaching team is led by Dagne Ciuksyte, International Chess Master and top-three women player in England.

To date, more than one hundred girls—aged between 5 and 13—have attended our chess coaching sessions, and many have become regulars. About 80% of participants are from state schools, many of which do not offer extra-curricular chess clubs. Since 2017, CGCI has also entered teams in the Cambridgeshire Chess Championship (CCC) League in which chess teams from 24 Cambridge-based primary and secondary schools compete on a monthly basis. The CGCI’s A-team won third place overall in the 2018 Championship.

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