QUINCY – Think you're a great chess player? Here is one way to find out just how good you are.

Chess players of all levels can test their skills against one of only 41 female grandmasters in the sport's history. Nadya Kosintseva will give a simul exhibition during the South Shore Chess Club's next meeting, when she will play two dozen competitors at the same time.

There are still boards open for those bold enough to challenge the grandmaster on March 27 at 7 p.m., with priority given to women and girls. If interested, email club founder and director Michael Yezukevich at [email protected].

"Girls and women have typically been discouraged from learning chess around the world," Yezukevich said. "There's a movement to try to get more girls involved. I'm a part of that on a small scale."

The event, which takes place Bethany Congregational Church, promotes chess among girls and women in recognition of Women's History Month, Yezukevich said.

The church is located at 18 Spear St. in downtown Quincy, a short walk from the Quincy Center MBTA Station.

Born in the northern Russian oblast of Archangelsk in 1985, Kosintseva began playing at age 7 with her younger sister Tatiana, who is also a grandmaster.

"We decided to learn the game for our general development," she told The Patriot Ledger. "We both were fascinated with the game, just obsessed with it."

At age 10, she competed in her first international tournament, the European Championship, winning on her first attempt.

"A year later my sister did the same thing," Kosintseva said.

In the 2000s, she competed for the Russian national team, winning many team and individual prizes in European and world tournaments, according to Grandmaster Chess Institute. In 2010, she was named the best female chess player in the world by FIDE – the sport's international governing body – which awarded her the prestigious Caissa prize.

In 2013, Kosintseva retired and moved to the United States to study finance at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she earned a master's degree. A year later she gave birth to her daughter.

"(Raising a child) made it hard to compete at the top level," Kosintseva said.

She switched to teaching almost exclusively, the exception being those rare occasions when she and her sister, who still lives in Russia, get together.

"We don't see each other often now," she said. "But every time we meet, the very first thing we do is pull out the chess board and play blitz march (commonly know as speed chess). We completely forget about time. We can spend hours and hours."

Konsintseva said that entrenched social boundaries create many difficulties for women in all sports, especially chess.

Because of "physical, social and cultural obligations," she said that men "can be more obsessed with this game, spend their whole lives on it, make it there own profession. For women it's much harder."

One challenge for female players is the overwhelming male majority typically found in tournament settings. Kosintseva recalled often being one of only two or three female competitors.

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"You can feel alone," she said. "You can feel like you are not in this boys club."

The lack of female presence in chess creates a negative feedback loop, Kosintseva said, where girls aren't drawn to the sport because they don't see other girls playing, and so cannot imagine themselves outperforming their male counterparts.

"I hope we can encourage more girls, more kids, in Quincy particularly," she said.

Among the young women planning to challenge Kosintseva are students at The Woodward School for Girls in Quincy. Headmaster Alex Magay said the school's chess club meets twice a week to sharpen strategic thinking skills and forge deep friendships.

"It is a rare treat to witness and participate in such an extraordinary event," Magay said of Wednesday's simul exhibition.

On Wednesday night, Kosintseva will square off against two dozen or more competitors simultaneously. In the past, she's played as many as 100.

"Usually, I remember all the games," she said. "Because of years of experience, I remember a lot of patterns. My brain can recognize many patterns automatically."

A bigger challenge, even for a grandmaster, is the blind simul. "You don't look at the board.You don't see the pieces but memorize everything in your head," she said.

"That's next level. I cannot play blindly on many boards. I can still play blindly on a few boards."

Unfortunately for those who dare challenge the grandmaster on Wednesday night, Kosintseva's eyes will be wide open. She described her style as reserved, psychological and designed to make her opponents as uncomfortable as possible.

"You try to analyze (your opponent's) weaknesses and create the situations where he or she will make more mistakes," she said.

While Kosintseva expects to prevail on most if not all of the boards, she won't take her competition lightly.

"Some players can be really advanced and fight hard, so it happens. You can lose," she said. "I will try my best. I'm not going (to Quincy) to lose. I'm going to fight."

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