Her Coaches | Simone

CHESS : COMMUNITY : COMPETITION

Coach Simone | simone.hermovenext@gmail.com

Simone Morden is fourteen years old, is rated 1680 USCF (but has been as high as 1780), and qualified to attend the World Cadet Chess Championship in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 2018 as part of the US Chess Federation Team. She also was invited to attend the World Cadet Chess Championship in Weifang, Shandong province, China (2019).

Simone went to New York’s Salk School of Science for middle school and will be attending Stuyvesant High School beginning in September 2022. For elementary school, she attended the Chelsea Prep (PS33) Gifted and Talented Program, where her love of chess blossomed. She was taught by Coach Angel Lopez and quickly climbed the ranks in her school. Because of PS33's impressive girl’s chess team, filmmaker Ian Phillips was eager to direct the award winning short documentary called Her Move Next, which has now evolved into a nonprofit organization uplifting girl chess players.

Simone enjoys engaging in Her Move Next activities as a coach, writer, and player. She wrote the character Grace, in the book We Are Unbeatable: Tales From a Chess Tournament and has written articles for Her News, such as “Get to Know Bernice Wambui in 10 Questions,” “WGM Jennifer Shahade Visits Her League 2,” “Her Team (not yet published),” and “What it Means to be a Leader (not yet published).”

Not only does she have experience as a coach for Her Move Next’s Her League tournaments, but she also coached her cousins and their friends/teammates from The Henderson School. Simone enjoys streaming chess on Her Live Twitch with fellow coach and friend, Indira Raparthi. Some of her other hobbies include writing fantasy, reading, singing, and practicing Taekwondo.