The ECU Girls and Women’s weekend took place 15-16 May. Hosted by the German Chess Youth Association aka Deutsche Schachjugend e.V., the virtual festival collected more than 800 participants. They enjoyed a rich program of events including multiple GM/IM/WGM/WIM/WFM simuls, seminars by top players, live commentary, workshops, coaching sessions, and series of tournaments.
A combination of a brilliant idea and perfect organization, we can only hope that this event dedicated to women chess becomes a tradition.
More on Girls and Women chess weekend
Official website / Information / Opening ceremony
Schachjugend Twitter / Schachjugend Instagram
Women chess section on Chessdom / Next event: FIDE Women’s Chess Grand Prix Gibraltar 2021
ECU Secretary General: we should be proud of Women chess players
Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony of the Girls and Women’s weekend with the organizer Lilli Hahn, the ECU Vice President Eva Repkova, and the director of Sports German chess youth association Kristin Wodzinski featured a special guest – Tatia Skhirtladze, director of the documentary “Glory to the Queen”.
See a video of the opening ceremony here
Chess lectures
The Girls and Women’s weekend contained a broad selection of free chess lectures. It started with a beginners class by WIM Andreea Navrotescu, beginners coaching with WFM Anna Endress, and the „Golden Rules for Improving your game“ with WGM Petra Papp.
The chess classes continued with more advanced sessions as „The Instructive Games of Women World Champions“ with WIM Jana Schneider and „Attacking the king“ with GM Marie Sebag.
In the advanced class the participants enjoyed „The Instructive Games of Women World Champions“ with WIM Jana Schneider, while the fans of Queen’s Gambit by Netflix were enticed by the chess opening lecture „The Queens Gambit“ by WIM Lara Janzelj & WIM Teja Vidic.
Small group of coaching sessions took place in the second day of the festival – beginners coaching with FM Akshaya Kalaiyalahan, intermediate coaching with WGM Josefine Heinemann & WGM Ticia Gara, Advanced coaching with WGM Petra Papp & IM Elisabeth Pähtz.
WIM Andreea Navrotescu on chess for beginners
WIM Andreea Navrotescu – Positional Chess Masterpieces
The Queens Gambit – with WIM Lara Janzelj and WIM Teja Vidic
Simuls with WGM Laura Unuk, WFM Denise Trippold, WGM Petra Papp, and GM Marie Sebag
The participants of the Girls and Women’s weekend could try their luck against titled female players. The simuls were streamed live, while WFM Nikola Mayrhuber, WIM WIM Inna Agrest, WGM Katarzyna Toma, WIM Lara Janzelj, and WIM Teja Vidic joined for live commentary.
GM Marie Sebag live simul – commentary by WGM Katarzyna Toma
IM Laura Unuk live simul – commentary by WIM Lara Janzelj and WIM Teja Vidic
WFM Denise Trippold live simul – commentary by WFM Nikola Mayrhuber
WGM Petra Papp live simul – commentary by WIM WIM Inna Agrest
Chess tournaments
The Girls and Women Chess Weekend contained multiple tournaments where players were divided according to their level.
Leela_NLCS from England won the open Arena tournament ahead of Christhecat (Germany) and KatalinEngel (Slovakia).
U1300 winner is Regentropfen21 (Germany), silver is for Nette0169 (Norway) and the bronze for Greta5724 (England).
U1800 winner is AnajBeber (Slovenia), silver is for spongebob4 (Norway) and the bronze for A-R-Y-A (Turkey).
Workshops and debates
- Workshop: Eat and Win – What to eat and when to eat to perform at your best. Miriam Moerwald & IM Harald Schneider-Zinner
- Presentation: Time Management: The endless chess struggle. WGM Regina Theissl-Pokorná
- Workshop: My daughter wants to play chess Aylin Albayrak and her daughter Nese
- Workshop: How to start streaming. WIM Andreea Navrotescu
- Round Table: How to publicly present and report about womens chess. IM Stefan Löffler & Alice O’Gorman
- Round Table: Do we need more female arbiters? Anemone Kulczak, Sandra Schmidt
- Workshop: Working with a Women’s National Team. IM Harald Schneider-Zinner
