1st Chess & Science Festival for girls

by ChessBase
3/21/2013 – Many parents still believe that science, business and mathematics are for men and their daughters should not compete in these areas. It’s sad, but it is true – girls are encouraged to go into music, art, teaching… and stay away from the areas currently dominated by men. Three-time US Women's Champion WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia wants to do something about this – with a Kickstarter project.

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1st Chess & Science Festival & All-Girls Tournament in Tucson

April 13, 2013. Funds are needed to organize the event

Chess is one of the games where girls can challenge the notion of men’s thinking superiority and compete at the highest intellectual level, effectively proving that there should be no barriers for women’s accomplishments.

Girls’ social needs are quite different than those of boys. While the majority of boys are naturally competitive and love to win, girls face the dilemma of hurting the losers and traumatizing their friends by beating them. It takes time and a nurturing environment to build girls’ self-esteem, confidence and competitiveness, so they realize there is nothing wrong with winning the games, being successful, setting high goals and achieving them, all while keeping friendship and helping others to improve.

In an effort to help girls get on the right track, encourage and celebrate their success in chess and in life, Catalina Foothills Chess Academy and Flandrau Science Center are organizing “1st Chess & Science Festival” on April 13, 2013. The event will include an All-Girls Chess Tournament, simultaneous chess exhibition, various science exhibits, museum admission, laser shows and more! While the time to prepare is quite short, we strive to make it an exceptional quality, memorable event that will set a precedent and hopefully become an annual tradition.

We need sponsors. So far, we got offers of free T-shirts, wristbands, pens & chess books for prizes... However, we still in need of funds for chess sets, clocks, pairing software, etc... with a total amount in the range of $1,000. We truly hope that you’d be able to provide some funds to help us in our mission to promote intellectual development for girls through chess and science. Any excess of funds will be used for future events. Thanks in advance.

We are pleased to inform you that $1,529 has already been pledged, so that the event can go ahead. But of course more funds will mean more prizes and greater encouragement for the girls. So do back the project with a small donation. $1 is the minimum amount.

Brief background: My name is Anjelina Belakovskaia and I'm a 3-Time U.S. Women's Chess Champion, Woman International Grandmaster, World Champion among students (USSR Team) and Leader of the US Olympic Chess Team.

Anjelina Belakovskaia

Brief background: My name is Anjelina Belakovskaia and I'm a three-Time U.S. Women's Chess Champion, Woman International Grandmaster, World Champion among students (USSR Team) and Leader of the US Olympic Chess Team. Back in 1998-2000, when I was a Chairperson of the Women's Committee of the United States Chess Federation, I tried very hard to get separate girls tournaments going, but faced extremely tough opposition from within. Luckily, the times have changed. All-girls tournaments are great – they boost self-esteem, confidence and help girls to prove that they are at least as smart as boys and can be very successful in all areas of life, including science, mathematics, business, finance and other male dominated areas.

More information on the project is available here

Kickstarter is an American-based private for-profit company that provides tools to raise funds for creative projects via crowd funding through its website. Kickstarter has funded a diverse array of endeavors, ranging from indie films, music, stage shows and comics to journalism, video games and food-related projects. People cannot invest in Kickstarter projects to make money. They can only back projects in exchange for a tangible reward or one-of-a-kind experience, like a personal note of thanks, custom T-shirts, dinner with an author, or initial production run of a new product.


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