MANAGEMENT TEAM
Officers
President
Kavya Meiyappan
Hi, I'm Kavya! I'm a student at Washington High School, and I've been playing chess for 10 years. My current USCF rating is 1730, and my FIDE rating is 1604. I hope to help more girls learn and enjoy chess like I do through FEMChess.
Vice President
Rakshita Dhanasekar
Hi, I'm Rakshita Dhanasekar, and I am a freshman at American High in California. My current USCF rating is 1771, and my current FIDE rating is 1736. I began my chess journey as a student in FEMChess in January 2022, which gave me my first opportunity to participate in my first-ever OTB tournament, coordinated by FEMChess. Since then, I have participated in numerous tournaments, including the Girls Nationals, American Open, and North American Open. Besides chess, I enjoy spending my time doing art, piano, and taekwondo. I am excited to be a coach where I began my journey, sharing my knowledge, experiences, and passion with other young girls.
Head Coach
Aksithi Eswaran
Hi! My name is Aksithi Eswaran and I'm a junior at Saint Louis University in Missouri. I have been playing chess for over 14 years. My current USCF is 2079 and my FIDE is 1911. I have participated in many World Youths, Pan-ams, Nationals and North American championships. In every tournament, I've noticed a huge gender gap and as a coach, it's my goal to inspire young girls to learn more about the game that has brought so many benefits to me, both on and off the board. I look forward to sharing my enthusiasm and experiences from chess and helping to bridge the gender gap!
Web developer
Ayush Marwal
Hello there! I'm the new head of web dev for FEMChess and I'll shortly be updating the UI and make navigation a bit easier. As for my experience, I'm well versed in C++, Java, Python, SQL, Javascript and a variety of other dev tools. I've worked on a quite a few projects, out of which one was a poetry campaign(website) for new writers around the world to share poems and the other one's a platform for med students to practice diagnostics. I'm a senior at Washington High School and I really enjoy playing chess in my free time. A few other things I like doing other than chess are cooking, baking, creative writing, reading, playing tennis and playing the guitar.
Board of Directors
co-founder
WCM Allyson Wong
Growing up, I was always surrounded by male players in the chess tournament hall. In 2020, Annapoorni, Kavya, and I co-founded FEMchess to encourage more girls to learn and compete in chess in an empowring environment. In 2022, FEMchess started partnering with Fremont Unified School District to provide chess lessons to title-1/McKinney-Vento students, using chess as a tool to uplift them and help them gain confidence. I’m proud that our FEMchess team is contributing to closing the gender gap in chess. During my spare time, I enjoy serving as a guest journalist for US Chess and directing rated tournaments. On 10/14/24, I was granted a FIDE National Arbiter license, becoming the current youngest FIDE International Chess Federation National Arbiter in the US (only 16 out of the current 136 National Arbiters in the US are women). I decided to pursue the NA title not only to be a role model for young girls in this male-dominated sport, but also to be able to hold FIDE tournaments, making high-level tournaments accessible to those that otherwise don't have the financial means to compete.
co-founder
WFM Annapoorni Meiyappan
Hi! My name is Annapoorni and I’m currently a UC Berkeley undergrad studying microbial biology. I’ve been playing chess for over a dozen years now and have noticed the wide gender gap in the sport. When I first started playing chess I would notice the lack of girls in the tournament hall as well as my chess classes. As a woman in chess, always struggled to find a community that understood my struggles as a minority. I hope that through FEMchess I can help young girls grow to love the sport whilst also giving them a supportive community to rely on during their chess careers.
co-founder
Kavya Sasikumar
Hey, my name is Kavya Sasikumar! I’m going to be a third year computer science major at UC Davis this year. I have been playing chess for last 15 years. I soon noticed that there was a huge gender gap that was very discouraging, similar to many fields in STEM. To combat this, I co-founded FEMchess to drive women’s empowerment and help close that gap. I’m proud to be building an empowering community for the younger generation, especially for girls I can relate to. I’m excited to see how FEMchess grows and to watch our impact expand.