Zoya Boozorginia with the club from St Pancras Library

A WOMEN-only chess club is breaking down barriers in a game long dominated by men, as more women and girls take up the sport.

It’s hard to think about chess today without recalling The Queen’s Gambit, the hit TV mini series that ignited a global surge in the game.

Now, a new Netflix documentary, The Queen of Chess, shines a spotlight on Grandmaster Judit Polgár – the only woman ever to break into the world’s top 10 rankings.

But in Camden, a group of women and girls have been meeting every week in St Pancras Square Library to play chess and challenge some of those longstanding norms.

“We’ve created something unique here,” said Zoya Boozorginia founder of London Women’s Chess Club (LWCC), adding: “A dedicated space for women makes them feel comfortable and where they can learn and not simply be scrutinised.

“The moment you are on the board nothing exists around you in the world. The game is about narrative, it has a story to it. It helps with your thinking, articulation, creativity and strategy.”

The London Women’s Chess Club is a community dedicated to providing a welcoming safe place for all women and girls to learn and enjoy playing chess.

Founded in 2023, the aim was to give women a space to play chess away from what many describe as the pressures of traditional clubs.

Lucinda Thompson, treasurer at LWCC said she learnt chess as a child having been taught by her father.

She said: “I think over time the narrative will change, hopefully in places like our club and other chess clubs that are trying to get more women members,” she said.

“People will see it as less of a men’s sport and just be taken more seriously, as a sport, a mind sport. A lot of experiences that people have when they go to a traditional chess club where there are a lot of men is that all the focus is on chess.

“Sitting down in silence, there is not a lot of skill sharing or supporting each other to play better chess. Whereas at our club we definitely don’t sit and play in silence. Women and girls can learn in a fun environment.”

Ms Boozorginia added: “Men are highly competitive, women are competitive too but we use our time to teach new players the basics of the game, whereas when you go to a men’s club there is just a clock on the table they only want the game. It can be quite intimid­ating.”

Despite its growing popularity, chess is not recognised as a sport in the UK, unlike in many European countries.

Ms Boozorginia said: “In the UK chess is just considered a board game. “There are funds available for it but the government is not paying as much attention to it as European organisations are. This is why playing chess is just considered a hobby and that you can’t make money out of it. It makes it difficult for people who are dedicating their time to it but not gaining much in a professional way.”

Ms Thompson said the rise of online chess had also introduced the game to a wider audience but added: “It’s so different playing chess online to playing chess in person. Having that time out to sit in front of a board with somebody for however long and zone out of everything that is happen­ing in my life and focus on the board it’s quite relaxing no matter how stressful chess can be.

“Getting to see the person you are playing, their reaction when you make a blunder – it’s all forgiven easily and you don’t get so wound up in person and it’s also so easy to get distracted playing online.

“There doesn’t need to be barriers in chess. It doesn’t really matter where we learn chess, as long as we are playing it and that whoever you are you have a place to play chess in.”

The group meets on Sundays at Pancras Square Library from 1pm-5pm.

They say all women and girls are welcome to come along and take part.