Chess star Divya Deshmukh alleges sexism from crowd in Netherlands

Teen chess star Divya Deshmukh has alleged that she endured sexist behaviour from spectators at the recently-held Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee in Netherlands. 

Deshmukh said that the audience "focused on irrelevant things like her hair, clothes and accent" during the tournament.

The 18-year-old International Master from Nagpur, 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, on social media.

She further wrote, "My 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."

The teen chess star further said while male players were getting their share of the spotlight because of 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 it is the sad truth that people when women play chess 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 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.

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