Suhana: Year of The Woman in Chess
“The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has crowned 2022 as the Year of The Woman in Chess. … with it came a series of steps that advance in the direction of creating a gender balanced community…”
BY SUHANA KUMAR
STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL
HER LEAGUE MEMBER & HER NEWS COLUMNIST
FIDE
The International Chess Federation has crowned 2022 as the Year of The Woman in Chess. This was a huge announcement in the chess community and, more specifically, for women and girls in the community. According to The Oracle, chess has been a predominantly male sport for the entirety of its existence. That is not to say that successful and recognizable female chess players are not prevalent around the world. Statistics, however, still show an extreme, and growing, imbalance between the percentage of women and the percentage of men in the chess population, with 85% being male and only 15% being female, according to The Oracle. (This statistic does not represent nonbinary chess players.) With this in mind, the announcement has had an even larger impact.
Let's begin by discussing what exactly FIDE is and what gives them the authority to make such a statement. Founded in Paris in 1924, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) is the “governing body of the sport of chess and it regulates all international competitions.” Essentially, it is the world organization of chess. Top rated players are registered with FIDE and use their systems and events to increase their ratings. The organization began overseeing the World Chess Championship in 1948 and continues to do so today. Because of the titles it has granted to chess players all around the world, many people follow the organization and listen to its opinions on chess related matters.
During the early days of January 2022, FIDE President Arkday Dvorkovich declared 2022 the year of the Women in Chess. But what does the statement actually mean? Well, with it came a series of steps that advance in the direction of creating a gender balanced community not only in the world of chess but also in society as a whole. FIDE has outlined several action steps, which include the following:
Present annual awards to highlight women and their achievements in various categories;
Increase communication between nations and the federation to stress the importance of having women in major government roles as well as creating programs that support women nominations in both chess and overall positions;
Organize a program where ideas and ways to implement the feedback received by the women in the chess environment can be shared and discussed;
Host the queens festival, a successful event in 2021 whose goal was to support the community of women in chess globally, in 2022, with FIDE’s support; and
Feature inspirational female role models in articles posted to FIDE’s social media and in digital campaigns.
Once this novel yet empowering idea was shared with the media, many news sources jumped to cover it. Though many celebrated the announcement, as to soon be discussed, FIDE also received backlash for specific steps they planned to take that, in actuality, were seen by many as misogynistic and inappropriate. The wide spectrum of feedback prompted coverage from publications such as the New York Times and websites such as Chess.com. After major chess federations and organizations heard of the news, they passed on the information to parents and guardians who told their kids, spreading the message throughout the community.
As a part of the announcement and in continuity to stand with the female community, FIDE made one of their largest sponsorship deals ever with a “Breast Enlargement'' sponsor. FIDE claims that they, “value Establishment Labs’ (the sponsor) commitment to women’s health and well-being.” and so took on the deal. Due to the rather risky path that they took with their choice of sponsor, multiple successful women chess players called it absolutely “gross” and completely inappropriate. A highly ranked female player said, “Shouldn’t chess – a game reliant on brains rather than breasts – be distancing itself from that kind of reductive and misogynistic line of thinking?” Like this, lots of backlash has been sent towards FIDE, questioning their reasoning and morality. Did they make such a decision to attract an audience for show or to actually support the female population?
With regard to 2022 being named the Year of The Woman in Chess, Benjamin Morden, Co-Founder of Her Move Next (HMN), stated that he and the HMN team were aware of the announcement and had retweeted it on Twitter. The team, Morden said, was excited by the idea. “It is fantastic that FIDE is now also pursuing the female-friendly program,” Morden said after briefly discussing efforts made by USCF and HMN. When asked if the announcement should have been made earlier, he said, “Absolutely, we should be doing more of these programs that encourage chess, as it is not just an activity but also a great way to be exposed to STEM-like areas.”
He mentioned that it is especially important because there is a huge drop off of girls in chess in middle school and that it is sad that it took a movie/TV show (Queen's Gambit) to bring awareness. Despite this, Morden said, “it is always better late than never.” He agreed with the steps outlined by FIDE and hopes to incorporate some of it into HMN events. Additionally, in response to how the announcement will affect him and HMN, he stated he is not sure “how much FIDE impacts US chess, so what he’s hoping it will help is the international component of HMN and make players feel more comfortable playing chess from around the world. I am hoping it will make the world feel smaller, something people just want to be a part of so they can make friends and know people.” As for the backlash received because of a controversial sponsor, Morden said, “I understand the problem and agree that it was not the right type of sponsor for this movement. I understand that breast implants help women who suffer from cancer. It wasn’t a good day to announce the deal. Had it been for medical use only it could’ve been good, but instead it came off as tone deaf.” Overall, however, Morden is thrilled with the announcement and hopes it continues down a progressive path.
Zara Shah is a 10th grader at The Spence School and has been playing chess since 2014. In an interview, Zara said that the announcement is “really important not just in chess but [for] women empowerment as a whole and will ultimately help with equality.”
Despite some controversy, FIDE’s announcement lays out a beneficial and positive plan and will continuously put emphasis on supporting women in chess.
FIDE