Indian women in chess: From Miss Fatima’s 1933 win in Britain to Divya Deshmukh’s World Cup title

Although India has a strong line-up of chess players, women’s participation in the sport remains limited. Deshmukh, for example, is only the fourth Indian woman to become a grandmaster. Amid celebrations around Deshmukh’s victory, here’s a look at some of the pioneering Indian women in professional chess.

A traditional game, once played in rice fields

The earliest accounts of Indian women playing chess come from chess grandmaster Yuri Averbakh’s book, A History of Chess: From Chaturanga to the Present Day (2012). Averbakh mentions a game called Thaayam, played on an 8 x 8 board by women in the rice fields of South India. “When the rice is almost ripe, women and girls from the villages of South India spend all day in the field to scare the birds, and to pass the time, they play games; the most popular is Thaayam,” he writes.

Thaayam (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The ‘board’ for the game is drawn on the ground, with small sticks used for pieces, and tamarind seeds serving as dice. “I was struck by the resemblance of Thaayam to the game that we consider an ancestor of chess and call Chaturanga,” Averbakh adds, reckoning that Thaayam could be a “basic” or “degenerated” version of Chaturanga. “Indeed, it looks like Thaayam must be an ancient game, since rice was sown in India at least two thousand years before our era,” he notes.

The forgotten story of Miss Fatima

An early name in Indian chess is that of Sultan Khan. Born in 1905 into a poor Muslim family in the village of Mitha Tiwana, now in Pakistan, Khan learned the game from his father. His talent was recognised by Colonel Nawab Malik Sir Umar Hayat Khan, an avid chess player and a landowner in Mitha Tiwana village. The Nawab welcomed Khan into his household, supported him financially, and sponsored his journey to Europe.

Interestingly, Khan was not the only one sent to Europe by the nawab. Miss Fatima, a servant of Sir Umar, was the other. She won the British Ladies Championship in 1933 by a spectacular three-point margin, scoring 10 wins, one draw, and no losses. In The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1970), British chess champion Anne Sunnucks notes: “It has not been possible to trace either the first name or initials of Miss Fatima of India, who won the title in 1933”.

The English weekly, Hastings and St Leonards Observer, reported on August 12, 1933: “History was made at Hastings Chess Club this week when the British Chess Championship and the British Women’s Championship were each won by Indian competitors. Mir Sultan Khan secured the men’s championship…and the women’s championship was won by the young Indian lady player, Miss Fatima, who held an unbeaten record throughout the contest. This remarkable victory of East over West makes the first British championship contest to be held in Hastings since 1904”.

The same report described Miss Fatima as a “charming devotee of the game” who was “modest about her success.” Media reports of the time claimed that she was born between 1912-1914, and had been in England for about five years in the household of Sir Umar.

The Western Morning News, in an August, 1933, report titled ‘Indian Girl of 21-Winner of British Women’s Chess Championship’, described her as a woman with “faultless features” who had won nine of 10 games despite having far more experienced opponents. It ended, stating: “No such score has ever been made in a series of similar contests extending over nearly 30 years. Unfortunately this is likely to be her last tournament in England…she is returning to India shortly”.

The Hastings Observer similarly remarked, “She is the first of her countrywomen to win the women’s championship”.

The rise of Indian women in chess

In the next few decades, many aspiring players travelled to Britain to compete in international events. Among them were Manuel Aaron, Dibyendu Barua, Pravin Thipsay, Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Pentala Harikrishna, Viswanathan Anand, and others.

“Not until the Khadilkar sisters, who played in the 1970s and 1980s, did many know of women in chess,” says Indian grandmaster Ramachandran Ramesh, in an interview with indianexpress.com. Providing an extensive list, he names Bhagyashree Thipsay, Anupama Gokhale, Murali Reddy Saritha, Mrunalini Kunte, Saheli Dhar-Barua, Aarthie Ramaswamy, Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi and Subbaraman Meenakshi. “Most of them played in the late-twentieth century and belonged to Chennai or Tamil Nadu,” he says. “In the younger generation– Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Divya Deshmukh, and Vantika Agrawal are some names,” notes Ramesh.

President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam presenting Padma Shri to Humpy (Source: Wikipedia)

On Chennai becoming a hub of chess players, he says, “Traditionally, in India, irrespective of the gender, most chess players were from Chennai and Tamil Nadu. Chennai is kind of a chess capital for India. The first international master from India is Manuel Aaron from Chennai. Then we had the first grandmaster from India, also from Chennai, Anand. The Tamil Nadu Chess Association was headquartered in Chennai, and they were quite active.”

He also mentions the regularity of tournaments, the presence of chess academies and chess schools as factors fostering “an environment for chess”.

Money or weaker ambition, what is stopping women?

Professor Ceyda Mumcu, an expert in fan behaviour, sport marketing, and women’s sports marketing at the University of New Haven, Boston, tells indianexpress.com: “Whether it is a physical sport or a strategy game like chess— regardless of if there is a physical contact or not, women have been historically and currently being held back. And that stems from how society views women.”

Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan says participation gaps, weaker competition and lack of ambition dissuade many women. “I think if we take a sample size of 100, at least 90 would be men, which also results in more men reaching the top,” he says.

“So if you have more women in chess tournaments, then the younger girl says, oh, I want to be that. But that inspiration is missing,” says Mumcu.

Interestingly, many chess tournaments have a separate women’s category. But female players can also compete with men in the open category. While some experts believe that this is a disadvantage for men, others say it is a step towards making the game more accessible for women.

“But practically, of course, very few women end up playing in the open for various reasons. For one, it is just more lucrative for women to play in the women’s section. The financial conditions, the prize money, everything is much better if they play in the women’s section. Whereas in the open, the competition is completely different,” says Narayanan.

“In chess, a woman can easily beat a man. There is no physical component. It is not like we are going to play football or soccer. There is no muscle power, etc., those are not factors. So, essentially, it is an equal playing field. The only thing that impacts the equal playing field is access,” says Mumcu.

“Despite producing so many good players, we do not have tournaments of our own. So if someone is very aspirational, in the current setup, they have to go outside India and play at a huge expense—just one trip to Europe will cost Rs 1 lakh for travel; then there is visa, accommodation and food costs,” laments Ramesh.

Rohilla concurs. “Many women leave the sport just because it is quite expensive. If you are deciding to go full-time into chess, you have to invest at least Rs 2-3 lakh per month into the game– and that is the bare minimum. Coaching accounts for most of it, as we often require three different coaches based on their masteries,” she explains.

Narayanan asserts, “If someone from India, no matter how talented, exclusively plays only against other Indians, they can only improve to a certain level. They need the competition outside. They need the competition of stronger players to play with.”

Citing the example of China and Russia, Rohilla says, “Girls there are taught chess from a very young age.”

Yet, grandmaster Ramesh says, “It is very easy to look at everything cynically, but that hinders new initiatives. Things are changing for the better– we have a lot more women in chess today than a couple of years ago.”