Chess power from the campus

University member Elena Koldunov qualifies for the female candidate tournament

Chess and STEM degree programmes have one thing in common: they tend to be male-dominated. Only around ten per cent of chess players are women. Elena Koldunov has ventured into both domains. She is studying biotechnology of marine resources in her sixth semester at Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences and enjoys playing chess in her free time. She has now qualified for the 2025 German Women's Individual Championship Candidates Tournament in Munich.

It was not Elena Koldunov's goal to take part in a major chess tournament one day. She initially played online for a long time and eventually came up with the idea of competing with other players in an analogue format. ‘To take part in tournaments, you have to be in a club. So I did some research and eventually came across two chess clubs in Bremerhaven,’ she says. She joined the Schachfreunde Leherheide - and quickly realised that she was the only woman in the Bremerhaven chess clubs. ‘I think that's a shame. Women and men play against each other, but the atmosphere is much nicer at tournaments where only women take part,’ she says, referring to her previous tournament experiences. 

For Elena Koldunov, chess is a part of her leisure time that is very exciting. As a budding biotechnologist, she also finds the biochemical processes behind the joy of the game interesting. ‘To win a chess tournament, you have to train for months. Success is then rewarded with the slow and steady release of dopamine. That's better than the short-term kick you get from a computer game, for example. And chess can be just as much fun,’ she says. In general, science has a few things in common with sport: ‘It's about attention to detail, high concentration and staying power.’ 

Elena Koldunov qualified for the 2025 German Women's Individual Championship Candidates Tournament by taking part in the Bremen Open Women's Individual Championship. Thirty-six female chess players from seven regional associations took part. 

The German Chess Championships will take place in Munich from 16 to 24 May 2025. Further information can be found at www.schachbund.de/deutsche-meisterschaften-2025.html