New Delhi, India

Indian rising chess star Divya Deshmukh has taken a massive dig at the audience after the conclusion of her latest tournament in the Netherlands. Divya, 18, has alleged the crowd of making sexist and misogynist remarks during the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. She also claimed that women have been taken for granted by the spectators and that they focused on clothes, hair, accent and other irrelevant things.

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Divya lashes out at audience

"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," Divya wrote in an emotional post on her Instagram account on Sunday.

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"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," she further wrote in her statement. 

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According to Divya, the male players have been praised for their game while women players are still subject to sexual remarks despite going toe-to-toe. She further added that women players are judged excluding their ability on the chess board.

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Divya lost to Leon Luke Mendonca, also of India, after a score of 4.5 and finished 12th in the Challengers section.

Recently, women's sports have been under the spotlight for several reasons including clothing and appearance. In 2018, Alizé Cornet received an official warning for taking off her top on the court to turn it the right way around while female wrestlers have often been on the receiving end of sexual remarks from fans.