Women’s chess is women’s sports

Visibility. Investment. Strategic Power.

Chess is a sport - one defined by endurance, preparation, composure, and performance under pressure.
And women belong in every part of that arena.

Yet for decades, women’s chess has lived on the margins: underfunded, underrepresented, and disconnected from the broader women’s sports movement - despite the discipline, training, and athletic rigor the game demands.

We work to change that and elevate women in chess through visibility, culture, leadership development, and strategic investment. It’s where chess meets the women’s sports movement, and where confidence, opportunity, and power are built move by move.

Netflix’s Queen of Chess drops trailer

February 6th on Netflix: Queen of Chess brings women’s chess into the spotlight. A powerful cultural moment for visibility, representation, and the future of the sport.

U.S. Women's Chess Champion Lisa Lane & the first chess player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated on August 7, 1961 | Dave Pickoff for the Associated Press

Our mission? To make women’s chess visible, valued, and impossible to ignore.

We are building the ecosystem - programs, partnerships, platforms, and cultural moments - that place women’s chess firmly inside the global women’s sports movement, where it has always belonged. Because visibility drives investment. Investment creates opportunity. And opportunity shapes the future of women’s sport.

Women in chess face the same structural barriers seen across women’s athletics - pay gaps, limited sponsorship, unequal access to resources, and lack of media coverage - compounded by long-standing cultural bias. This persists despite the fact that chess is officially recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee and demands physical endurance, intense concentration, rigorous training, and elite performance under pressure.

Investing in women’s chess is not symbolic. It is strategic. It strengthens leadership pipelines, advances gender equity, expands access to cognitive and career skills, and unlocks cultural and commercial potential that has been overlooked for far too long.

The Moment Is Here, but The Investment Hasn’t Caught Up

Women’s sports are at an inflection point - and chess belongs in this movement.

Across the globe, women athletes continue to face deep disparities in pay, visibility, and opportunity. Even as women’s sports grow in viewership and cultural relevance, investment has lagged behind. Chess reflects these same inequities - often more quietly, but no less powerfully.

The game is surging worldwide. Participation is up. Audiences are engaged. Cultural moments have pushed chess back into the mainstream. And yet, women remain significantly underrepresented - not because of a lack of talent or ambition, but because of long-standing gaps in access, investment, and visibility.

Like women’s sports more broadly, women’s chess has been underfunded and undervalued despite its alignment with elite performance. Chess develops the same high-performance skills celebrated across sport: strategic thinking, endurance, composure under pressure, and resilience in high-stakes environments.

Investing in women’s chess isn’t symbolic. It’s strategic. It expands access to leadership and career skills. It strengthens pipelines across industries. And it unlocks cultural and commercial potential that has been overlooked for far too long.

This is the moment to bring women’s chess fully into the women’s sports movement - and invest accordingly.

Read "The Case for Investing in Women's Chess"

A young woman with dark hair, wearing a red patterned sweater and a white ruffled collar, sits with her arms crossed at a table in a room with ornate drapes and a grand piano in the background, appearing serious or contemplative.

The Numbers Tell the Story

5.4%

of sports media coverage features women’s competitions. Visibility drives legitimacy. Chess mirrors this imbalance - women’s talent exists, but without coverage, investment and opportunity stall.

600M+

people worldwide play chess - making it one of the most widely played games on Earth. Chess is not niche. The scale is already there. What’s missing is equity in who gets supported, seen, and celebrated.

15-16%

of active chess players globally are women. This number reflects structural barriers, not ability. When women’s sports receive sustained investment, participation rises. Chess has yet to receive that commitment.

1%

of global sports sponsorship dollars go to women’s sports. Capital has historically failed to follow audiences. Women’s chess sits at the same inflection point women’s sports faced before intentional investment.

PROJECT D4

A group of people attending a chess workshop or seminar in a modern conference room, watching a woman demonstrate chess strategies on a large screen.

Teaching One Million Women to Play and Lead.

Project d4 is a bold global movement on a mission to teach one million women and girls how to play chess and to lead with strategy, confidence, and power.

Chess is more than a game. It is a framework for decision-making, resilience, and long-range thinking. Through Project d4, we use chess as a practical tool to build confidence, sharpen critical thinking, and expand access to leadership and life skills that translate far beyond the board.

This work is rooted in a simple belief: when women learn how to think strategically, they change how they move through the world.

Project d4 lives at the intersection of women’s sports, leadership development, and cultural change - creating access points for women and girls who have historically been excluded from both competitive chess and strategic power.

Young woman playing chess, sitting at a table with chess pieces, a chess clock, and a green tablecloth, with a red curtain in the background.

OUR INITIATIVES

Building the Ecosystem Around Women’s Chess.

Project d4 is the foundation, but it’s not the finish line.

We are building an ecosystem of programs, platforms, and cultural initiatives that elevate women’s chess and embed it firmly within the broader women’s sports and leadership movement.

Our initiatives are designed to expand visibility, create pathways, and shift narratives - from who chess is for, to what chess makes possible.

These efforts include:

Public-facing campaigns that position women’s chess within the women’s sports conversation
Strategic content, storytelling, and media projects that elevate women players and leaders
Educational programs and experiences that connect chess to confidence, career skills, and leadership development
Special projects and collaborations that challenge outdated norms and reimagine the future of the game

Partners & Collaborators

Growing women’s chess requires partners willing to invest in culture, visibility, and long-term change.

We actively collaborate with brands, organizations, teams, and institutions that share a commitment to equity, innovation, and women’s leadership and who recognize chess as a powerful, underleveraged platform for impact.

Together, we partner on initiatives that expand access, elevate visibility, and build sustainable pathways for women and girls - from program development and cultural storytelling to research, investment, and special projects at the intersection of sport, leadership, and social change.

This work is especially aligned with organizations invested in women’s sports, education, leadership, and cultural influence - including partners looking to show up meaningfully in this moment.

If you’re interested in partnering, supporting Project d4, or building something bold together, we’d love to explore what’s possible.

Let's Play