When ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ premiered on Netflix in the Fall of 2020, it marked an event larger in import than millions of viewers tuning into a thrilling series featuring the dramatic journey of a brilliant and gifted young female chess player. The premier also marked a public shift, where hundreds of thousands of young women would be introduced and drawn into the exciting world of competitive chess, and subsequently explore learning the game themselves.
“I love the fact that it highlighted a woman playing chess and that the title of the show emphasized that the queen is the most powerful piece on the board. This show has helped to galvanize women and young girls to join the chess world. It had a huge impact,” says Ivona Jezierska.
Not familiar with Ivona Jezierska? She is a Women’s FIDE Master, teacher, two-time Olympic chess player, and an active player for more than 30 years. In short, Ivona Jezierska is a chess queen. A real-life Beth Harmon on the chess board, minus the complex family life and personal idiosyncrasies that threatened to derail the fictional character’s rise to meteoric success within the game.
And this chess queen is bringing you some serious skills to succeed in life. In 2001, Ivona launched Chess4SuccessLA, inviting women of all ages to learn the game that has given her an edge in life, and in doing so, to pick-up game changing life skills.
Along with the promise of learning to play the game of chess, Ivona’s new 6-week online chess program for women is designed to help female players acquire the skills to be strong chess players that translate into claiming their power in life. Self-confidence, creativity, personal growth, resilience and resourcefulness. Additionally, high level strategic thinking and a constant focus on identifying the best possible option are all on the menu for the chess queen’s newly minted players when they sign up for her new program offering.
For many, chess can appear to be an esoteric world. It has its insiders, arbiters and stars, all of whom may remain largely unknown to much of the outside world. That is, unless an event or a public figure such as Ivona, comes along to teach the world what this very deliberately played game is all about. When the chess olympian launched Chess4SuccessLA, she felt driven to share with other women the elements of her beloved game that empower her to tackle daily life with a winning strategy and approach. Once a woman learns the principal skill set to win on the chess board, the
world can quite literally become her oyster. Recently, we sat down with Ivona to learn more about this intriguing new 6-week program.
What are some examples of some chess lessons or strategies that apply in life?
I moved to the United States from Poland when I was 22 years old. I spoke no English at the time. I had played chess in my home country from a young age, and I had learned to read body language and take social cues from people’s mannerisms across the chess board. This was a very helpful skill when I first moved to this country. I didn’t yet have language skills, but I could apply the skills I learned over the chess board.
I also had the confidence to trust that I would be successful in moving across the world by myself with just one suitcase, because I had learned confidence through playing chess.
On your website, you speak of acquiring “the chess mindset”. What is this?
To have a chess mindset means that you’re incorporating many traits into your real-time thinking process and decision making. The helpful tactics that my students commonly develop and strengthen during this course are:
- Be Strategic
- Respond and don’t be reactive
- Look at and consider the big picture
- Focus
- Consider different perspectives
- Find best choice among many options
- Be a team player
- Play and work harmoniously
How can “the chess mindset” help us in life?
Chess is an exercise in focus. When your mind wanders, you learn to bring it back to the task at hand. Each piece has an important function. Chess improves our analytical skills, thinking ahead about how our decisions will impact future choices. After each chess move, the position of the pieces change so you need to adjust and be flexible and strategic.
Would you call chess a strategy game, or is it more than that? How do you characterize the game?
Chess is a philosophy of life and art. It’s an art form and spiritual practice and mindfulness practice. It’s not just left brain, not just analytical it has deep intuitive sensibility. It’s the melding of the left and right brain.
How does the game of chess empower you?
My chess skills give me a great sense of confidence and competence, because no matter what the social circumstance, I know what I have to offer. Chess is an intellectual art that makes me more confident in all aspects of my life, knowing that I can use my brain to figure out any situation. No matter what your skill level or age, when you learn chess, you are learning a new language. Chess is a language that opens your mind and improves your brain!
When one views the chess game as a living, breathing exercise akin to the practice of yoga or the game of golf, it is easy to see how its practice sharpens the same skills that deliver success in life. If one has the strategic know-how to navigate life’s moves with the precision of a competitive champion, then rock-solid confidence is sure to follow. Further deepen that confidence by viewing life events through the lens of the queen – the most powerful player on the board – and you experience the game changing power that Ivona’s training provides.
You may have heard the term “main character energy”. With Chess4SuccessLA, Ivona puts her students on the map, empowered with queen energy. Ivona’s next 6-week chess program for women will begin September 27th, and is available fully online. We think your winning strategy is to sign up while space is available.
For more information about The Chess Queen online programs for women, visit https://chess4successla.com/chess-boss-queen/. You can also follow Chess4SuccessLA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
