I am the Woman FIDE Master Ailén Mena, 21 years old, currently living in Argentina.

I started playing chess when I was eight years old; in my elementary school, chess was a subject, and we got a grade for it. Chess has helped me with a lot of subjects at school, especially in math.

The things that you learn the most are analytical thinking, and something that will help you not only at school but also in life is to make yourself responsible for the consequences of every choice you make. When you make a plan that doesn’t go as you expected, you need to find another method that can get you where you want to. Chess helps you with calculation, the anticipation of your opponents’ moves, and creating a game plan.

Another thing that we learn as chess players is patience, which is also an essential tool in life sometimes; in a chess game, we have to wait up to 30 minutes for our opponent to make a move.

I am currently in my second year of Architecture. I work as a chess teacher and also train to play competitive chess. How can I manage to do all of this together? With A LOT of planning and organization. If we learn to organize our time well, we can do all of this and more!

There are plenty of chess players who have finished Degrees and even Masters, which means it is possible to manage school and chess all together!

I also want to encourage more girls to start learning to play this beautiful game. Less than 15% of the chess players are girls.

Girls are capable of doing everything they set up their minds to do!