Indian Chess Player Divya Deshmukh Alleges Sexism By Spectators In Tournament

Indian chess player Divya Deshmukh has alleged that she endured sexist behaviour from spectators at the recently-concluded Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands, saying they “focussed on irrelevant things like her hair, clothes and accent” during the tournament. The 18-year-old International Master from Nagpur, who won the Asian women’s chess championship last year, shared a lengthy social media post calling out the misogyny that women players face routinely while elaborating on her unpleasant experience in Wijk Aan Zee.

“I have been wanting to address this for a while but was waiting for my tournament to be over. I got told and also myself noticed how women in chess are often just taken for granted by spectators,” Deshmukh said.

Most recent example of this on a personal level would be in this tournament, I played a few games which I felt were quite good and I was proud of them.

“I got told by people how the audience was not even bothered with the game but instead focused on every single possible thing in the world: my clothes, hair, accent and every other irrelevant thing,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday.

Deshmukh finished 12th in the Challengers section with a score of 4.5 at the Tata Steel Masters.

The teenager said while male players were getting their share of spotlight purely for their game, the women were judged for aspects which had nothing to do with their ability on the chess board.