ChessMom Returns to Samarkand: Supporting Chess-Playing Mothers

ChessMom Returns to Samarkand: Supporting Mothers On and Off the Chessboard

A major chess tournament is always a test of endurance. Long games, preparation, travel, recovery, and constant concentration require a full commitment. But for female chess players who are also raising young children, there is another important challenge: organizing family life while competing.

At the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, this issue once again received a practical solution. The ChessMom project, created with the support of FIDE and the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess, returned to the international stage and became significantly larger in 2026. Its central idea is simple: motherhood should not automatically mean putting a professional chess career on hold.

From Budapest to Samarkand

The history of ChessMom began with a pilot project at the 2024 Olympiad in Budapest. The initiative was created in response to a very practical problem: for a professional chess player with a young child, traveling to a major competition can be extremely difficult, especially when the event lasts for several weeks.

FIDE decided to address one of the key aspects of this challenge — childcare support.

The program provides financial assistance for the travel expenses of a companion who can take care of the child during games and training sessions. This allows the chess player to focus on competition without having to leave her child behind.

The positive response to the first edition provided a basis for continuing the program. In 2026, ChessMom returned in an expanded format.

The Project Has Grown in Samarkand

One of the most significant changes was the expansion of the age requirement.

Under the 2024 pilot program, support was available to mothers with children under one year old. In Samarkand, the program was open to chess players with children under two years of age. This significantly broadens the potential pool of participants and recognizes that caring for a young child does not suddenly become unnecessary once the child reaches their first birthday.

FIDE initially announced support for 10 chess players, but the final ChessMom 2026 list included 12 players from different countries around the world. The group includes grandmasters, international masters, and representatives of various national chess federations.

The participants were:

* GM Marie Sebag — France;

* GM Elisabeth Pähtz — Germany;

* WIM Elisabeth Hapala — Austria;

* WIM Bayarmaa Bayarjargal — Mongolia;

* WGM Beatriz Irene Franco Valencia — Colombia;

* WIM Zenia Corrales Jiménez — Mexico;

* WFM Razan Alshaeby — Jordan;

* WFM Patricia Evarista Castillo Peña — Dominican Republic;

* Robyn Julian Klaasen — South Africa;

* WCM Karen Julissa Figueroa Figueroa — Barbados;

* WFM Luzia Fernandes Pires — Angola;

* WIM Onkemetse Linda Francis — Botswana.

The geographical diversity of the participants is particularly striking: ChessMom brings together female chess players from different continents and national chess systems.

What Does a Participant Receive?

The purpose of the project goes beyond simply providing financial assistance. ChessMom helps create conditions in which a mother can travel to the Olympiad with her young child and a person who can take on part of the childcare responsibilities.

FIDE covers the travel expenses of the accompanying person up to a specified limit. Participants in the program can also have their child and companion included in the official delegation with the corresponding rights.

Accommodation was also addressed. For delegations that include a ChessMom participant, the number of rooms provided does not increase: the player's single room is converted into a double room so that the mother, child, and accompanying person can stay together.

In practice, this means the program is designed to address not an abstract issue of equality, but the concrete everyday challenges that can become barriers to participation in the year's biggest team event.

Why ChessMom Matters Especially at the Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is not an ordinary weekend tournament. In Samarkand, the competition takes place over several weeks, while players have to combine their games with preparation, recovery, and team responsibilities.

For a mother with a young child, such a trip requires even more planning.

The player needs to be ready for her game, while the child still requires constant attention. Sleep, meals, walks, medical needs, and everyday routines all have to be organized. Without additional support, these responsibilities can become a serious obstacle to participation.

This is why ChessMom functions as more than a financial program. In essence, it creates an additional support structure around the player, allowing her to remain both an athlete and a mother.

“Motherhood Does Not Mean the End of a Career”

One of the project's central ideas is to rethink the way professional sport approaches motherhood.

FIDE emphasizes that women should not have to choose between family and a chess career. The creators of ChessMom see the program as a way to reduce the barriers that can arise after the birth of a child.

For the participants themselves, this has both practical and psychological significance.

WIM Zenia Corrales Jiménez has noted that combining motherhood with professional chess is difficult, but that support from programs like ChessMom makes it possible to continue competing at a high level. WIM Bayarmaa Bayarjargal has also spoken about how ChessMom helped her manage her time more effectively between motherhood and preparation for her games.

GM Marie Sebag connected the current opportunity with her own experience. She recalled that ten years ago she was unable to participate in the Olympiad in Baku because her first child was only three months old.

These stories demonstrate why initiatives of this kind matter in practice.

Chess Is Changing Alongside Its Players

The return of ChessMom comes amid the broader growth of women's chess.

The Samarkand Olympiad has set a record for the number of women's teams, with 189 teams taking part. The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess is using the Olympiad not only as a sporting platform but also as an opportunity to discuss a wider range of issues related to women's participation in chess.

In Samarkand, the Commission for Women’s Chess also held a session titled “Beyond the Board: Women, Innovation and the Business of Chess.” The discussion focused on opportunities for women not only as players, but also as entrepreneurs, content creators, streamers, investors, and professionals in other areas of the chess industry.

Against this backdrop, ChessMom can be seen as part of a broader conversation: a professional chess career does not necessarily have to follow a single path.

On the Chessboard — A Mother, a Player and a Person

What makes ChessMom distinctive is that the project does not attempt to separate the athlete from her family life.

Instead, its purpose is to make it possible for these two parts of life to coexist.

At the Olympiad, a chess player sits at the board representing her country. But outside the playing hall, she continues to have another important role — that of a mother to a young child. ChessMom helps ensure that she does not have to choose only one of those roles.

That is why the symbolic significance of the project may be just as important as its financial component.

When a young chess player sees mothers competing at the biggest international events while raising their children, she is presented with another possible path for her own career.

Samarkand: The Next Chapter for ChessMom

In 2024, ChessMom was an experiment. In 2026, it has returned as an established program with broader eligibility criteria and a larger group of participants.

That is an important difference.

The project is gradually moving from an idea toward an ongoing practice: a problem is identified, a solution is tested, feedback is collected, and the program is then expanded. This is the path ChessMom has followed since its debut in Budapest.

Samarkand has become the next chapter in that story.

And perhaps the most important developments are happening away from the chessboard. On the board, ChessMom participants are fighting for team points and results for their national squads. But away from the board, they are demonstrating something equally significant: a professional chess career and motherhood can coexist when the sporting system creates the necessary conditions.

ChessMom has returned not simply for another tournament. The project shows how chess can gradually become an environment where family life is not treated as an obstacle to a professional career. And Samarkand has become another place where that idea has been put into practice.