This post comes from Laura Sherman. Laura Sherman founded Your Chess Coach (www.YourChessCoach.com) with her husband, Dan Sherman. Together they teach children to play chess through various schools in Pinellas County, Florida, as well as privately in students’ homes and online.

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As a young girl growing up in rural Connecticut, it was hard to find many chess tournaments - certainly there were none for kids. My father had to drive a ways to find any and I was usually the only girl. I remember the adult males being very supportive of me, allowing me into their fold. It was a very positive experience for me.

One would think there would be a lot of sexism in chess. Really there isn’t. OK, once in a while I encountered the stray inappropriate comment, but for the most part my participation was always encouraged.

Today many girls play in scholastic chess tournaments around the country. As a chess coach, I can tell you that our classes have an equal number of boys and girls. I have never seen any prejudice amongst our students. Why would there be? It just doesn’t occur to them.

One of the plus points of chess is that you can sit down and play anyone and you are on equal footing. Think about it. You both have the same starting point, the same pieces to direct around the board. It comes down to creating the winning position - it comes down to your intelligence and imagination.

There are no gender, racial or economic barriers. Even age doesn’t matter. The color of your skin, your sex, your job, all don’t matter. Scanning over a room full of players at a tournament you’ll find a doctor playing a stay-at-home mom, a teacher playing a construction worker and a rocket scientist playing a high-school freshman.

Who wins? Really it boils down to who plays the better game. Bottom line, chess players respect a good game.