Her League Season 2 Recap
Season 2 began on January 7, 2022, with Her League 11, which was Her League’s first event reaffirming its title of most active All Girls Chess League/Tournament in the United States.
by CHLOE COHEN
THE CHAPIN SCHOOL - COACH & Managing Editor
AND
BY SUHANA KUMAR
STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL - COACH & COLUMNIST
On December 2, a cohort of Her League players and coaches retrieved their New Year’s hats a little early and finished the 2022 Her League season in true Her Move Next style. The gathering began with chess puzzles during Her League’s signature Community Time. Participants then learned about architecture with guest speaker Jean Hahn, whose brief presentation –– part of Her Move Next’s effort to introduce audience members to various career paths and interests through its Her Talks series –– preceded an engaging Q&A session with many questions from our players. Her League’s main event followed: three rounds of USCF online-rated tournament games, with the opportunity to receive live game analysis from coaches immediately after play.
Her Move Next’s own New Year’s Eve ball drop took the form of a closing ceremony in celebration of players’ successes as well as their individual and team awards. (Prizes are awarded after each event to players who take first place in their quad or swiss section alongside similarly-ranked players, as well as to one of four Her League teams –– red, yellow, green, or blue –– with the most points accumulated by its members throughout the tournament.) With Her League’s second season officially complete, players will usher in Season 3 on January 6, 2023. Before then, however, it’s time to roll the Season 2 highlight reel, featuring this past season’s guest speakers and winners.
Season 2 began on January 7, 2022, with Her League 11, which was Her League’s first event reaffirming its title of most active All Girls Chess League/Tournament in the United States. Players heard from guest speaker Yasmine Mahdavi, whose book Roots In Iran: Stories of Visionary Women features the lives and accomplishments of 15 Iranian women, including Iranian-American chess player Dorsa Derakhshani. Players learned about Yasmine’s experiences as an author as well as her relationship with the stories she has helped to tell.
Following Her League’s standard three rounds of tournament play, Her League’s event emcee revealed the evening’s winners. In a fitting reflection of the new frosty season, the blue team took home the first-place team prize; however, its victory came down to the wire, with the blue, red, and yellow teams tying at 10.5 points apiece. The Blue Team’s three quad wins (compared to the Red and Yellow Teams’ two quad wins, respectively) solidified its first-place status for the evening. Participants also congratulated the evening’s individual award recipients:
Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1), Lilianna Gao (Quad 3), Jiaming Li (Quad 4), Min-Hee Chong (Quad 5), Vera Felciano (Quad 6), and Kalea Ann Keitch (Swiss 7). Emma Phu, Sophia DeGregorio, and Daisy Yuen tied for first place in Quad 2. Note that swiss section results are not included in team point totals.
February’s Her League 12 event featured a Q&A with Neela Saldanha, a behavioral scientist who serves as the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale’s executive director. A Her Move Next parent and board member, Neela beautifully tailed her responses to Her Move Next’s players and overall mission. Her use of chess analogies, in particular, was impactful and appreciated. During the Closing Ceremony, players and coaches congratulated the Yellow Team for its decisive first-place victory of 14.5 points to the Blue Team’s 10 points. The evening’s individual winners were Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1), Emma Phu (Quad 2), Mia Tsukerman (Quad 3); Reha Agarwal (Quad 4), Maya Vostrikova (Quad 5), Risha Agarwal (Quad 6), and Emily Gu (Swiss 8). Abigail Zhao, Mairead K Manning, and Viola Marie Vitticore tied for first place in Quad 7.
Her League’s third and final speaker of the winter season was Beck Bamberger, founder of BAM Communications. Beck’s enthusiasm made her presentation all the more engaging, and players were eager to hear about her travel experiences. (Even at the time of her visit, Beck has visited over 70 countries!) The Green Team accumulated an event-winning 11.5 points, resulting in three distinct champions in as many events. Her News also congratulates Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1), Jiaming Li (Quad 2), Min Hee Chong (Quad 3), Arianna Nahrim Rim (Quad 4), Abigail Zhou (Quad 5), and Samantha Michaud (Quad 5) for winning their respective quads!
Her League did not have an event in April, as its organizers decided the first Friday of the month would be better spent finalizing plans for… April Fools! (Does this count as an April Fools prank if it was done in December?) On that Friday the first, Her League participants heard from the incredible Rochelle Ballantyne, who starred in Brooklyn Castle, an award-winning documentary about Brooklyn’s P.S. 318 chess team. Rochelle is currently pursuing the title of chess master, which she would be the first Black woman in the United States to achieve. Rochelle has also devoted much of her time to education: she received bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and, with honors, African-American Studies from Stanford University in 2017, earned a masters degree in education from Columbia University in 2020, and is now enrolled at NYU law school. Her News had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Rochelle in July of 2021, and her Q&A was equally engaging.
Springing into success for the new season was the Blue Team, which narrowly evaded the Green Team’s 16.5 points and three quad wins with 17.5 points and five quad wins of its own. The competition for third place, too, was fierce: though both the Yellow Team and the Red Team earned two quad wins, the Yellow Team edged out a third-place spot with 13.5 points to the Red Team’s 12.5. Participants also congratulated Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1), Jiaming Li (Quad 2), Mia Tsukerman (Quad 3), Wanru Ye (Quad 4), Risha Agarwal (Quad 5), Alexandra Y Bruns (Quad 8), and Miyuki Sakaki (Quad 10). Players who tied for first place included Cara Wolfenberger and Aileen Lou (Quad 6), and Viola Marie Vitticore and Veronica Lion (Quad 9).
On May 20, Her League 15 participants welcomed guest speaker Erika Nitz, a biology and chemistry major turned celebrity and talent marketer. Participants learned about Erika’s responsibilities and experiences in celebrity marketing as well as her journey to that career path. Following tournament play and game analysis, players and coaches gathered to congratulate the Green Team on its decisive six-point victory and four quad wins. The Red Team placed second with 11 points and two quad wins, while the Yellow and Blue Teams finished with seven points apiece, and one quad win or zero quad wins, respectively. Her League 15 section winners included Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1), Daisy Yuen (Quad 2), Reha Agarwal (Quad 3), Hailey Tsai (Quad 4), Abigail Zhou (Quad 5), Macy Huang (Quad 6), and Chloe Zheng (Quad 7).
Her League 16 commenced with art (besides the art of chess, of course). Many players expressed interest in creating art, which worked perfectly for the event’s guest speaker. Dot Garcia-Manning, a Fulbright Scholar and former elementary school art teacher, co-founded San Francisco’s Alta Vista School, where she taught art, and is the author and illustrator of several picture books. Her published works include Rosita and the Night of the Radishes; Curly Hair, Straight Hair/ Cabello Rizado, Cabello Lacio; Two Tigers/ Dos Tigres; and The True Spirit of Christmas. Remedios Varo, a Mexican-Spanish artist whose works employed surrealism, will be the subject of Dot’s upcoming picture book biography. Players learned from Dot’s knowledge of the publishing industry as well as her experiences as a published author, including how she first became interested in children’s book illustrations and her inspiration. Following Dot’s visit, the Red Team earned its first victory of Season 2 with 9.5 points and two quad wins. The Yellow team finished as the runner-up with 7.5 points and one quad win, while the Blue and Green Teams each ended the evening with 6.5 points. The former had two quad wins, while the latter had one. Section winners included Jiaming Li (Quad 1), Rose Morden (Quad 2), Abigail Zhou (Quad 3), and Veronica Lion (Quad 5). Quad 4 ended in a first-place tie between Alexandra Y Y Bruns and Mairead K Manning.
To start off the summer season in July, Her League was visited by guest speaker Andrea Kowalski. Andrea is a Senior Vice President of Product at Tebra, where she works on software for functioning independent healthcare practices and billing companies. Previously, she had worked with companies such Athenahealth and Citigroup, supporting the advancement of the healthcare and technology industry. Aside from her work, Andrea enjoys traveling! Accompanying our guest speaker were three shocking three-way ties! The individual winners included Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1); Aliya Katharine Saldanha-Suri (Quad 2); Daisy Yuen, Rose Morden, and Scarlett L Kong (a three-way tie in Quad 3); Anan Liu, Dena N Wang, and Abigail Zhou (a three-way tie in Quad 4); Min-Hee Chong (Quad 5), Ivie Kristen Urieto, Alexandra Y Bruns, and Emily Gu (a three-way tie in Qhad 6); Chloe Zheng (Quad 7); and Angelic Miyoshi (Quad 8). The red team, with a whopping five quad wins and 25 points, took the lead!
For Her League 18 in August, players heard from Amélie Marian, a computer science professor. Marian is an assistant professor at the CS department of Rutgers university. She has a wide range of focus at the university, researching explainable rankings, personal digital traces, data integration and more. For our second tournament of the season, our winners included Chenyo Zhao (Quad 1), Bhavya Thakur (Quad 2), Hrtha Rajiv (Quad 3), Rose Morden (Quad 4), Abigail Zhou (Quad 5), Arianna Nahrim Rim (Quad 6), Mairead K Manning and Maria Camila Barutcu with a two-way tie (Quad 7), and Savannah Lin and Siobhan M Manning with another two-way tie (Quad 8)! Our Swiss winner was Erica Muturi. Three of these winners were a part of the green team, the winning team, which accumulated 14.5 points!
For Sempter's Her League 19, Vivien Lyra Blair, a 10-year-old actor, was our guest speaker. Vivien’s first major debut came from her role in The Bird Box, a popular movie on Netflix. Expanding on her career, Vivien created her very own video game, starred in films such as We Can Be Heroes, and is the youngest spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She shared her love for animals with us as well as her hobby of Taekwondo. Vivien even mentioned that she previously performed her own stunts, and was very engaged with our audience. She stayed afterwards to play a few games online against our players! To wrap up our third event of the season, the individual winners were Bhavya Thakur (Quad 1) Daisy Yuen (Quad 2) Dena N Weng (Quad 3) Min-Hee Chong (Quad 4) Emily Gu (Quad 5) Chloe Zheng (Quad 6) Maria camila Barutcu (Quad 7) and Samantha Michaud (Quad 8)! The team winner for this tournament was the Red Team with 13 points and two quad winners!
To begin the final quadrant of Season 2, the fall season, we were accompanied by Woman International Master (WIM) and Candidate Master Rachel Miller. Rachel is Jamaica's second WIM and the youngest in the country. She recently represented Jamaica at the World Chess Olympiad in India, which she had done before. When Rachel is not playing chess, she can often be found at the gym, specifically enjoying weightlifting. Rahchel shared with us her intriguing chess stories, and truly connected with our players. She spoke of her time off the board, answering many questions such as what her favorite piece was and giving advice to many of our curious younger players. Following Rachel’s visit, three rounds of tournament play, and post-game coaching, the event concluded with the announcement of winners. The individual winners were Chenyo Zhao (Quad 1); Mila Antonios (Quad 2); Scarlett L Kong, Min-Hee Chong, and Abigail Zhou (a three-way tie in Quad 3); Fiona Tushman (Quad 4) Wanru Ye (Quad 5); Olvia Asselta (Quad 6); Ivie Kristen Urieto (Quad 7); Viola Marie Vitticore (Quad 8); and Annabel Makanga (Quad 9)! The red team achieved yet another first-place victory with 15 points and three quad winners!
For the second event of the fall season and our 21st Her League event, we were joined by Mona Davids, a previous banker-turned-New York Public and Charter school advocate. Mona established the New York Charter Parents Association and New York City Parents Union, both in efforts to make changes to New York Public Education laws. Mona later founded LittleAfrica News, partly as a result of her experience in media relations, public policy advocacy and international affairs. LittleAfrica News, which featured two of our own members Bernice Wambui and Ivie Ivieto, started out as LittleAfrica Bronx News, a digital news outlet intended to inform Africans of regional news and events that impact their communities. The newspaper is currently distributed to over 400 locations in NYC! Mona also answered questions concerning the publication process and gaining information from various sources. She hopes to help with smaller-scale projects, suggested by our own players! Our 20th League winners included Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1) Riziki Kuka and Indira Lakshmi Raparthi (a two-way tie in Quad 2) Abigail Zhou (Quad 3) Sharanya Munjal Chudgar (Quad 4) Vera Felciano (Quad 5) and Claire Blanchard (Quad 6)! Our Swiss Section winner was Elsie Kamoni. The Red Team took the win for the fifth time this season with 11 points and three quad winners!
In our most recent event, Her League 22, which concluded our year of tournaments, Jean Hahn, an innovative and thoughtful architect, shared with us some information about the architectural field as well as her individual experiences. Currently the Vice President of Croxton Collaborative, Jean has accumulated over 25 years of experience in a combination of management, design, and client relations. Her designs are sensible and of high sustainable standards, as is evident in her project with the Natural Resource Defense Council. Jean detailed the process of coming up with and approving a design, and, additionally, answered many questions from our players. Overall, we had a great time learning about (and viewing) architecture –– both historical and modern!
Our final individual quad winners of the season were Chenyu Zhao (Quad 1), Fiona Tushman (Quad 2), Vera Felciano (Quad 3), Ivie Kristen fUrieto (Quad 4), and Angelica Miyoshi (Swiss 5), while the team carrying their first-place victory into the new year, with three quad wins, was… the Red Team! The Green Team finished as the evening’s runner-up, while the Blue and Yellow Teams came in third and fourth place, respectively. Congratulations (and thank you!) to all Her League Season 2 participants!
Even outside of Her League, Her Move Next is keeping the chess coming. Her Coaches, HMNs free, student-run coaching program, hosted its second tournament event on ChessKid.com on Friday, December 30. HMN also sponsored a team at this past February's U.S. Amateur Team East (USATE) tournament. Here’s to another year of chess, community, and competition in 2023!