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This month 10 of the best young female chess players in the country will compete in St. Louis for the title of U.S. Girls Junior Champion. It is the first in-person national championship among girls since the pandemic moved American chess online in early 2020. It is also the first such championship since the premiere of The Queens Gambit, the Netflix hit series about an orphan girl, Beth Harmon, partly based on American chess champ Bobby Fischer, who rises to the pinnacle of the chess world.

The tournament marks a transition point between Americansespecially American girls and womenand chess. Nearly half a century ago, Fischers Cold War shootout with the Soviet Unions Boris Spassky ignited American passion for the game. But the Fischer phenomenon didnt include women. Fischer even asserted in 1962 that women are terrible chess players and shouldnt be involved in intellectual affairs.

The recent chess boom has brought new players to the game, and a higher percentage of women have been playing on chess.com since the debut of The Queens Gambit. Sales of chess sets have grown, as have the number of games played online, with millions of new members signing up.

Now, with life starting to return to normal, will interest in chess fade? And, in particular, will it fade for women and girls?

I think not. What we are witnessing is anything but a fad.

Read this article:
Make Way for the Queens of Chess - The Wall Street Journal