ASHLEY LYNN PRIORE | PHOTO BY DOMINIQUE MURRAY

Only 1% of the top 100 chess players in the world are women, and they are underrepresented in local chess programs as well.

Ashley Lynn Priore, founder and CEO of Queenside Ventures in Pittsburgh, is trying to change that on many fronts, including with a new series of chess meet-ups for women.

She has played chess since she was 4 and would often attend chess events where she and her sister would be the only girls in attendance. “It was like a sea of testosterone,” she says.

After seeing this gender gap first hand, she founded the national nonprofit Queen’s Gambit Chess Institute at age 14, teaching people of all genders and backgrounds to play chess, according to PittWire. Priore continued to grow her career around chess, which has opened up opportunities. She gave a TEDxPittsburgh talk, wrote a playbook for youth engagement for the Biden-Harris administration and was ranked in the top 1,500 chess players in Pennsylvania. Her Queenside Ventures is a consulting firm in which “the chessboard becomes a canvas for expansive thinking,” according to the firm’s website.

When the Netflix limited series, “The Queen’s Gambit,” was released in 2020 more people, especially women, became interested in chess. “What I find and what I think a lot of women have experienced, is there is not really a great space for women to learn with other women,” she says.

Project d4, an initiative started by Priore and Queenside Ventures, aims to teach 1 million women to play chess. The project received its name from the square of the queen’s pawn. Priore says, “It is showing that when the pawn comes out in front of the queen, it is really going to open up a whole new space. It is going to empower people to unleash their queen.”

Queenside Ventures is partnering with The Salon Pittsburgh, a women’s social and  networking group, to host a five-week Women’s Chess Meet-Up, beginning Jan. 20 at Field Day, 3706 Butler St., Lawrenceville.

The chess meet-ups welcome both experienced and inexperienced players. Priore vows that not only will everyone leave with a greater understanding of chess, but also real-world goal setting skills. Women will also be able to engage with other women to heighten mindfulness along with developing confidence and leadership skills, she says.

The meet-ups will run every Monday evening from 6-7 p.m. until Feb. 17. The program is open to those 18+ and costs $20 for non-Salon members and $15 for Salon members.