Checkmate Against Sexism

What does it say about the society we live in when chess, the ultimate intellectual pursuit in the 21st century, is still a male-dominated sport? I was 5 years old when I started playing chess. At the age of 14 when I didn’t make the chess team, my chess coach told me that it’s proven that boys are better than girls at chess anyway. This was heartbreaking to hear and made me feel incredibly small and helpless. My best was never enough and never could be. My own teacher didn’t believe I could succeed because I was a girl. This pain is too real for numerous girls around the world.  

What is intelligence? Intelligence is the ability to retain knowledge, our capacity for logic, emotional knowledge, and critical thinking. Intelligence is related to who you are and who you aspire to be. It has no relation to your gender or your appearance. It is your tool to nurture and grow and is not fixed. Chess is a game of great intelligence and strategic thinking. It does not matter what gender you are, or how beautiful you are, and is not influenced by extrinsic factors. According to The Guardian, women are not biologically worse than men at chess. Furthermore, according to biologist Emma Hilton, “chess has an extremely skewed starting pool.” This highlights societal values and how there is no fair comparison to begin with. If research proves otherwise, why is there still sexism prevalent in chess? 

Society’s ideals and stereotypes are set in stone. They don’t change. Mindsets don’t change. There is countless proof of this. So many female players have faced harassment when playing chess. They are all constantly battling discouragement and skepticism. Doubt that is sowed into the very fabric of the ideals of the world. Doubt is buried under all our talks of equity. With a weak foundation, the base is unchanged, then everything built on it will be unstable. The honest reality is that even in this day and age, chess is still considered to be a men’s sport. The women who play it are faced with society’s lack of acceptance and doubt of their capabilities. It’s like the world is setting us up for failure. How are girls supposed to shine under these barriers? The barriers are like a vice around the heart, around the mind. They grip you, they pull you down. Expectations. Disappointment. Ideals. So many standards. 

Through this, we are held against men. Our every move is watched as it determines the fate of gender equality. The pressure mounts. We cope. Yet we are still not good enough. We are never good enough. There is always an innate comparison to men which always puts us down. Why, though? Read every study imaginable. Not one shows any biological difference between males and females that would lead to a difference in chess playing ability. It is all a function of society. Society is the cage for women. Until we as a society first understand the cages and limitations we put around women playing chess, there will always be inequality. 

There are currently 1742 chess grandmasters in the world. Out of this, only 356 grandmasters are women. Furthermore, this year the chess tournament is being held in Singapore. There are 39 grandmasters, only 6 of which are women. How can one judge whether men or women are more capable when the numbers aren’t even equal? This doesn’t reflect their capability levels. It reflects societal structures. Women are judged on aspects that go beyond their abilities. They are judged on appearances, ideals. On preconceived notions of stereotypical viewers. 

An experience from a female chess player in India highlights her pain at being viewed as per her appearance. She was defamed online because she was supposedly not pretty and this caused them to perceive her as less capable at chess (BBC). Women are harassed and judged

through a sense of external beauty. It is no longer a game of skill and ability with women. Countless female players have faced harassment when playing chess. This causes so many of them to drop out. 

I was ten years old, at my first major chess competition and I was one of the very few girls there. The stress was mounting and I was struggling greatly. Then my first chess coach in Singapore spoke to me and his words were greatly inspiring. He was amazingly supportive of girls in chess, despite the fact that he was a guy. He never doubted us because of our gender and gave all of us equal rights. This shows that mindsets are not necessarily fixed and that as a community they can be changed. 

A trap disguised as a wonderful opportunity. That is the world of chess for women. It feels like a wonderful opportunity because it’s a new landscape of maneuvers and strategies with the promise of tournaments and medals. Yet, the foundation for this game is the idea that women can’t play chess and can’t do the same things as men. They are lured into the game and then faced with immense pressure and harassment. If the playing field was truly even, there would be a proportionate number of men and women playing chess. They are playing a game that is rigged in a sense. The world is already setting women up for failure because they don’t believe they can succeed. Moreover, women are judged not only on their individual abilities but they are then reflected onto the female sex as a whole, creating an even greater pressure. 

People's ideals, people’s expectations,they matter. They influence one’s thoughts. Hence, women will continue to face inequality and lack of acceptance in chess because of society’s built-in cage. Our world will never be equal if there is a lack of gender equality within the 64 squares of a chess board. Women will continue to be undervalued unless we change as a society. Mindsets don’t change easily but we still need to change ours.