The Reason I Quit: WIM Chevannes Speaks Against Sexual Assault, Misogyny

WIM Sabrina Chevannes is exposing sexual harassment and misogyny in the chess world and says it caused her to quit playing the game professionally.

A group of women players last week published a powerful message in an open letter where they say they are convinced that sexual violence and harassment towards women are the primary reason why many of them stop playing chess.

One of them is WIM Sabrina Chevannes, a two-time Olympiad player for England, a chess coach, and a best-selling author. In an emotional interview with The Times, the 36-year-old for the first time came forward with her own harrowing experience as a player in the chess world.

"It's the constant fear at tournaments you go to and you cannot relax. You consistently get hit on by men, you are propositioned to go back to their room. You are forced into situations you don't want to be in. Then you see even worse situations where people are promising that you will get XYZ, whether that is a selection for a team place, or whether it's coaching if you do other inappropriate behavior with them. This is just normal at all these events, which is absolutely terrifying. That's obviously on top of all other things that go on, which are just general everyday misogyny and sexism. It's atrocious."

“They don’t want to ruin the image that chess is a gentleman’s game.”

International chess master and world-renowned chess coach Sabrina Chevannes tells #TimesRadio why sexual violence and misogyny drove her away from competing.@SChevannes | @StigAbell | @AasmahMir pic.twitter.com/7tTK2BWG54

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) August 7, 2023

Chevannes says she is not surprised by recent stories of sexual harassment, such as The Wall Street Journal's story of how eight women, including two-time U.S. Women's Champion WGM Jennifer Shahade, claimed that GM Alejandro Ramirez used his status to make repeated, unwanted sexual advances toward them, some of them minors at the time of the alleged incidents.

"It's the reason I stopped playing chess. It's completely prevalent, it's something that has been sat on and suppressed on for many years. I guess they don't want to ruin the image that chess is a gentleman's game." 

Speaking to Chess.com, Chevannes says that she has wanted to come forward with her story for several years.

"Each time a story comes out, I get gaslit about the situation and I felt like people should know the truth," she says. "But I never had the confidence to do so. It’s only over the last couple of years that I’ve learned how to deal with this kind of behavior."

She wishes that women need to feel safe and that complaints to local bodies or the federation must be taken seriously.

"This behavior is seen as normal. It’s not just FIDE who needs to do something but all the local bodies."

"It seems that if someone is of stature, or is a titled player, they’re untouchable."

Chess.com previously wrote on Ellen Carlsen, sister of the former world champion, who said that WGM Jennifer Shahade's tweet about sexual assault led to her reporting an incident of harassment to the Norwegian Chess Federation. 

Chevannes says that she came forward in order to encourage others to speak out.

"I know there are tons of horrible stories, but women are scared to say something. But if I can just help one or two women, then it’s all worth it."

Today, the 36-year-old published a six-minute video addressing what she calls an "overwhelmingly negative response" over her coming forward in The Times.

"Unfortunately, all men have replied very negatively about it." she began. "The responses have been quite shocking."

It’s been about 48hours since my @TimesRadio interview about misogyny and sexism in chess dropped, and it’s been a tough couple of days.

I wanted to send a message to all the women out there who get what it’s like.

This video is for you xxhttps://t.co/u53sA8BLJ4

— Sabrina Chevannes (@SChevannes) August 9, 2023

The open letter published on August 3, was initially signed by 14 of France's top women players, but the list has now grown to more than 100 signatures from women in the chess world. One prominent name is former Women's World Champion GM Susan Polgar, who has regularly shared her own negative experiences with harassment during her years as a professional.

FM Yosha Iglesias, one of the co-writers of the letter, says that the attention has been massive in the last week, with coverage by French media. Chevannes' story was moving, she says.

"It's heartbreaking to see such a talented woman quit chess for this reason. Unfortunately there are so many. This is often a blind spot of the discussion, like when Chess.com did this round table for women history month. It was great, but to talk about sexist and sexual violence, we should also give voice to the many who quit chess because of that.

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