Divya Deshmukh's HUGE claims over sexism in chess: "Women are taken for granted"
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Indian chess star Divya Deshmukh has called out "sexism" happening in the sport via a social media post. This came after the conclusion of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. She claimed that women are taken for granted in the sport and urged equal respect for women, too.
As soon as the event ended she spoke of the way women in the sport are treated by fans.
“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. 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,” the 18-year-old wrote in a social media post on Sunday.
"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. I feel women are under appreciated and 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," Divya Deshmukh said.
Soon after her social media post, Keti Tsatsalashvili, a Georgian chess player, came forward to support the Indian chess player. She tweeted, "Indian Divya Deshmukh 18 y.o speaks out her experience as a woman in the #chess world. This is extremely sad and painful, although kudos to Divya to bring it up"
The post was later captured and shared by popular chess creator and Twitch streamer Levy "GothamChess," who captioned the post stating, "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."
Some individuals even highlighted the misogynistic comments left in an interview.
In the comment section, there were several misogynistic comments made against Divya Deshmukh.
Competing in the Challengers section of the iconic event, the International Master, who has a standard rating of 2420, finished 12th with a score of 4.5 our of 13 while competing in a field that had players like Hans Niemann and Harika Dronavalli.
As soon as the event ended she spoke of the way women in the sport are treated by fans.
“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. 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,” the 18-year-old wrote in a social media post on Sunday.
"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. 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. 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."
Also Read: Praggnanandhaa defeats world champion Ding Liren, surpasses Viswanathan Anand to become India's No.1 chess player
"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. I feel women are under appreciated and 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," Divya Deshmukh said.
Soon after her social media post, Keti Tsatsalashvili, a Georgian chess player, came forward to support the Indian chess player. She tweeted, "Indian Divya Deshmukh 18 y.o speaks out her experience as a woman in the #chess world. This is extremely sad and painful, although kudos to Divya to bring it up"
Indian Divya Deshmukh 18 y.o speaks out her experience as a woman in the #chess world.
— Keti Tsatsalashvili (@keti_chess) January 29, 2024
This is extremely sad and painful, although kudos to Divya to bring it up 👏 pic.twitter.com/6iPj9H4Ebv
Also Read: Vaishali Rameshbabu becomes India's 3rd female chess grandmaster; creates history with her brother Praggnanandhaa
The post was later captured and shared by popular chess creator and Twitch streamer Levy "GothamChess," who captioned the post stating, "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."
Divya Deshmukh, one of the future stars of Indian chess, has shared her thoughts on how women are treated in the chess world.
— GothamChess (@GothamChess) January 28, 2024
This is extremely sad. pic.twitter.com/4sJfBRGZAx
Some individuals even highlighted the misogynistic comments left in an interview.
These are the people she is talking about and she is 100% right . pic.twitter.com/xPV5zpg43N
— Sanjan Kumar Neupane (@SanjanNeupane) January 29, 2024
In the comment section, there were several misogynistic comments made against Divya Deshmukh.