“This is extremely sad” - GothamChess and community reacts as Divya Deshmukh opens up about misogyny in the Chess sphere

Divya Deshmukh, also known as DivyaChess in the online community, is an 18-year-old International Master (IM). She has recently shed light on the prevalent inequality experienced by women in the chess industry. Deshmukh recently competed in the Tata Steel Challengers section and shared her experience of significant neglect and discrimination on her Instagram platform.

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."

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"Audience was not even bothered with the game" - Divya Deshmukh opens up about misogyny in Chess

Despite being open to everyone regardless of gender, chess remains predominantly male-dominated. Divya Deshmukh, the young Indian International Master, has highlighted the additional challenges women often encounter in chess. She wrote:

"I played a few games which I felt were quite good and I was proud of them and 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 streamer specifically referred to a couple of interviews she did during the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. She further wrote in her post:

"I felt it was quite 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 added:

"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."

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What did the community say?

GothamChess sharing the post meant that Divya Deshmukh's petition received a lot of reactions, with some individuals even highlighting the misogynistic comments left in the interview:

Fans share the remarks made against her during the interview (Image via X/GothamChess)

Chess player faces misogynistic comments as highlighted by fans (Image via X/GothamChess)

Here are some more reactions made on the X post:

Fans react to GothamChess' post on Deshmukh (Image via X/GothamChess)

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Some fans also pointed out that despite a new format, the upcoming Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge event had no female participants. For those unaware, the tournament will follow a Fischer Random setup.