A wide-ranging and interesting interview from Chessbase with WIM Rita Atkins (born Rita Zimmersmann and also for a time Rita Hennigan, in case people are more familiar with those names) - she is currently the Secretary of FIDE's Chess in Education Commission:
Rita Atkins: “Gender stereotypes are changing, but they are changing slowly” (Chessbase)
The bits that caught my eye (I was partly familiar with Rita Atkins's title history, as she was registered ENG up until 02/11/2023 when, according to the FIDE transfer listings she transferred from ENG to HUN):
- "...ancestors from my father's side partly coming from Austria."
- she taught for a time at "St Paul's Girls' School in London".
- "Give it another hundred years, and there will be just as many good female players as male ones."
- Some interesting insights into Hungarian male-female family dynamics.
- "In 2023 we trained 473 participants, 284 of whom became FIDE School Instructors."My dream is to make some of these [chess and mathematics] problems accessible to a younger audience, so I have started writing a book that discusses 64 such problems and games. The progress has been slow since I started my work at FIDE, but I am determined to finish it.
There is also a lovely tribute to her friendship with GM David Norwood.
