The Chess Equity Project

Kamryn Hellman is a YouTuber and writer that produces excellent educational chess content, and also runs a local girls' chess club. Her channel has helped thousands of people make improvements to their game, and she does it while keeping the channel and community positive and welcoming (with help from her strict ban hammer). Kamryn's energy and hustle have propelled her from zero to 2000 chesscom...

WCM Maddie Weber - known online as madchess - exudes positivity and optimism about chess. She began competing at age 10 and has continued through high school and through her undergrad program at NYU. Having just finished her Bachelor's, she continues to compete and coach chess while working on her Master's in Accounting at NYU's Stern School of Business. She is most well-known for streaming in Was...

Kiera G is an amateur player, community builder, and creator of "Hot Girls Play Chess." In this interview, she shares how she’s leveraging TikTok to inspire more women to pick up the game, challenge stereotypes, and create supportive spaces for everyone. Kiera's journey from casual player inspired by "The Queen’s Gambit" to a content creator advocating for gender equity offers a powerful insight i...

Dr. Jose De Sousa, a FIDE Master and renowned labor economist, discusses how a simple but profound rule change in the French chess league sparked tangible progress. In this episode, Jose shares the surprising results from over 35 years of data on gender quotas in French chess. The mandate of one woman per team increased female participation both at top levels and across the community. It also dram...

The legacy of the infamous "Vera Menchik Club" is alive and well in the psyches of modern male chess players. Dr. Maria Cubel’s research reveals that behavioral and psychological factors, likely fueled by stereotypes and social expectations, are driving women to underperform when facing men. Why do men wait longer to resign against women? And how do societal biases subtly influence every move? In...

The conversation covers Julia Engel's journey from the US to Germany, her chess background, and the inspiration behind her research. It discusses her analysis of Titled Tuesday data, psychological responses to failure, feedback, gender differences, stereotype threat, and its psychological impact. The conversation delves into the challenges of extrapolating chess performance results to the general...

Women make up a fraction of competitive chess players and an even smaller fraction of top players. This project will educate the chess community on the reasons behind the gender gap (spoiler alert: it isn't ability), amplify women's voices, and make recommendations to eliminate the gap.