Girls-first chess education · Chicago, IL
Eighth Rank Chess is designed to help close the gender gap in scholastic chess with a girls-first club model, a published curriculum and a coach certification pathway that any school or library can adopt.
Founded in Chicago. Built to be run anywhere. · Free and low-cost sessions · [email protected]
The eighth rank
A pawn that crosses the board is promoted — usually to a queen. That single rule is the whole idea behind this program.
The problem
Participation is close to even among the youngest players and collapses before high school. The research is unusually clear about why, and unusually clear that ability is not the reason.
18% → 11%
In a cohort of roughly 32,000 US Chess players followed over nine years, the proportion of girls fell from 18 percent to 11 percent.
Li, Glickman & Chabris, CHANCE (2025)
About 2%
Share of open Grandmaster titles held by women.
FIDE title records, 2025
Same rate
Girls and boys who start at the same age and rating improve at the same rate. The gap is participation and retention, not ability.
Li, Glickman & Chabris, CHANCE (2025)
Our mission
Everything we run has to serve at least one of them.
Retention is the metric that matters.
Almost every girl who leaves chess leaves quietly, between one term and the next. We design around that moment: small groups, the same coach each week, a friend already in the room, and a term that ends with something to be proud of.
We track how many girls come back after a term rather than only how many sign up for the first session, and we use that measure to evaluate the program.
A club is a social place before it is a competitive one.
A girl who is the only girl in the room is doing two things at once: learning chess and managing being the exception. Our girls-focused sessions remove the second job so all of her attention goes to the first.
Open events sit alongside them so nobody is separated from their friends, their brother or their school team.
The pipeline problem is a coaching problem.
Most scholastic coaches are men, which means most girls have never been taught the game by a woman. We recruit strong club players, alumnae and classroom teachers, and put them through a documented certification pathway rather than an informal apprenticeship.
Every coach we certify can run our curriculum somewhere we are not.
Programs
Girls-focused clubs at the center, open events around them.
The starting point for learning chess: building confidence, understanding the board, and developing the habits that make learning possible.
Students move from knowing the rules to understanding how to play: making plans, recognizing patterns, and learning from their own games.
Students apply their skills in meaningful competition while developing confidence, responsibility, sportsmanship, and the ability to contribute to a chess community.
Our approach
We wrote the curriculum down so it survives a coach moving away, and so any school can run it.
Eighth Rank Chess creates welcoming chess environments that encourage girls to participate, build confidence, and develop their skills. Our programs are open to all children, while placing special emphasis on increasing opportunities for girls in chess. We provide a supportive environment where students can learn, practice, compete, and grow together.
Every session follows a structured curriculum with clear learning objectives, age- and skill-appropriate instruction, and carefully selected chess exercises and puzzles. Our goal is to create a consistent educational experience that does not depend on one individual coach and can be implemented across different program locations.
We introduce students to competition step by step. Students begin with practice games and friendly in-club activities, then progress to matches with other students and partner programs, followed by local tournaments and more advanced competitive opportunities. This approach helps children build confidence and develop practical tournament skills without unnecessary pressure.
We track student participation, attendance, skill development, tournament participation, and chess rating progress whenever available. We also gather feedback from families and students to understand what is working and where the program can improve. These results help us continuously refine our curriculum and demonstrate the impact of the program.
Impact
Reported every term, including the figures that still need to improve.
1
The gap is not ability.
Across more than 680,000 US Chess players tracked over nearly three decades, girls and boys who begin at the same age and rating improve at the same rate. Girls leave sooner. That is the gap.
2
Balance in the room closes it.
In places where more girls play from the start, the difference in starting ratings shrinks. The study also found similar development among girls and boys with similar starting age and rating.
3
Adults carry part of the bias.
Parents and mentors may perceive less chess potential in girls than in boys. The research highlights the importance of supportive adults and well-prepared coaches in creating an environment where girls can develop and remain in chess.
4
The problem is national.
Women and girls remain underrepresented in U.S. Chess. As of May 2026, female members represented 13.04% of total US Chess membership, despite continued growth in female participation.
News
Building the next generation of chess educators
Calendar
Get involved
Whether you’re a student, parent, coach, school, community organization, or supporter, there’s a way to get involved. We will reply within two business days with the next concrete step.