- Saturday, July 27, 2024
The 18-year-old, who won the Asian women’s chess championship last year, shared a lengthy social media post calling out the misogyny that women players face.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIAN chess player Divya Deshmukh has said that she met sexist treatment from spectators at the recently-concluded Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee in the Netherlands, saying they “focussed on irrelevant things such as her hair, clothes and accent” during the tournament.
The 18-year-old International Master from the city of 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.
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“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.
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“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 (28).
Divya Deshmukh, one of the future stars of Indian chess, has shared her thoughts on how women are treated in the chess world.
This is extremely sad. pic.twitter.com/4sJfBRGZAx
— GothamChess (@GothamChess) January 28, 2024
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.
“I was quite upset to hear this and I think is the sad truth that people when women play chess they often overlook how good they actually are, the games they play and their strength,” she said.
“I was quite disappointed to see how everything was discussed about in my interviews (by the audience) except my games, very few people paid attention to it and it is quite a sad thing. “I felt it was unfair in a way because if I go to any guy’s interview there would be way less judgement on a personal level, actual compliments about the game and the player,” she asserted.
Despite the progress made in women’s sports in terms of pay scale, female athletes are still subjected to sexist behaviour and are often asked about their outfits.
Deshmukh said women players are under-appreciated in general and often endure hatred.
“…every irrelevant thing is focused on and hated on while guys would probably get away with the same things. I think women face this on a daily basis and I’m barely 18. “I have faced so much judgement including hatred over the years for things that don’t even matter. I think women should start getting equal respect,” she added.
(With PTI inputs)
