Jasmine Frazier used her queen and a bishop to patiently pursue Elnora Pearson’s king across the chess board.
Soon, Frazier had the king cornered. Time ran out on the game, but with Frazier one move away from forcing checkmate, she was declared the winner.
Frazier, 18, and Pearson, 63, were competing in a chess tournament exclusively for women and girls held Saturday at the Upper Marlboro public library. The tournament, the first of its kind at a public library in Prince George’s County, was aimed at encouraging females to play chess, a game that for a long time has been more popular among males.
‘‘I think it’s a great idea. It’s good to get women involved in chess, to get people involved,” said Frazier, an Upper Marlboro resident.
Ted Fagan, a chess instructor and coach from Forestville, organized the tournament through his Largo-based nonprofit, Eagle Chess Academy, which focuses on teaching chess to children and teenagers.
‘‘I’ve been wanting to encourage more girls to play. What happens is, most scholastic tournaments and open tournaments are predominately male,” said Fagan, a former president of the Maryland Chess Association. ‘‘They have to overcome the idea that chess is for boys, not girls.”
Fagan said that females who play chess at a high level are equal in skill to males but that in terms of their numbers, they are ‘‘few and far between.”
Katrina Thompson, a 35-year-old engineer from Upper Marlboro who played in the tournament, said she thinks a major reason females shy away from playing chess, especially against the opposite sex, is that the emphasis on conquering your opponent can be intimidating.
Chess, which originated centuries ago as a simulated war game, ‘‘gives women an opportunity to play to conquer, which is something they don’t always set out to do,” Thompson said.
An all-female tournament is good for girls and women who might still be learning the game or want to compete in a friendlier environment, she said.
Fagan, who runs chess clubs at eight county libraries and a handful of local schools, said that chess events geared specifically to women and girls are rare in this area.
The Upper Marlboro tournament drew only six participants ranging in age from 11 to 63. They played round-robin games and were awarded points for a win or a draw. Small cash prizes and plaques were awarded to the top three finishers, who were Thompson, and sisters JorDanna,11, and Jasmine Frazier.
Most of the competitors were drawn from the library’s chess club.
The club, which Fagan runs, meets twice a month and with about 20 regular participants is the library system’s largest club, said Anne Ramsey, manager of the Upper Marlboro library.
Fagan said he was ‘‘disappointed” with the small showing, but that participants enjoyed themselves.
‘‘That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to get more kids interested and create an environment that supports chess,” said Fagan, who plans to hold another all-female tournament at the library next year.
Pearson, of District Heights, said she plays chess infrequently, but that ‘‘it’s a wonderful game. It’s a very mental game.”
Pearson said she runs a music school and encourages her students, both boys and girls, to play chess because the mental exercise of playing helps with music.
Thompson said events like the library tournament are a good way of encouraging girls to play a game that teaches ‘‘strategy, critical thinking analysis, and that there are consequences to moves.”
Thompson said that even though many women might be turned off by chess because its ranks are dominated by males, it is important to create an environment that encourages more women to play.
‘‘I don’t think it’s necessarily women trying to live in a man’s world. It’s women trying to take their place in the world,” she said.
E-mail Andy Zieminski atazieminski@gazette.net.
