Jennifer Shahade welcomes high-school sophomore Laurel Aronian to Ladies Knight. Laurel is a president of her high school chess team, St. Luke’s, and talks to Jennifer about how she maintains her interest in the game while juggling a busy high school academic and extracurricular schedule. 

Laurel talks to Jennifer about keeping more girls in the game, homework, plateaus and the importance of pizzas.

Laurel is an active member of our US Chess Women girls club, and also a teen ambassador for our program, where she spearheads activities at our girls club like the teen pizza party. Laurel is also the founder of chessin1day, where she has taught over 100 kids chess. She maintains a blog on chess.com and has contributed to several chess magazines, including a story on the Girls Club game against Judit Polgar for Chess Life Kids.

Ladies Knight features music by the artist Juga. Subscribe to us, review and share Ladies Knight on social media or with friends. Find out more about host Jennifer Shahade on her website or twitter. 

If you’d like to get more involved in making chess more inclusive, check out a new job description for a US Chess Women Program Coordinator.