International women’s chess champion Sabrina Chevannes claimed that a player sexually assaulted her during a chess match, warning that the chess world is plagued by a “toxic culture” of misogyny and sexually predatory behavior.
The 36-year-old, who retired from competitive chess in January 2017, told The Independent that the incident took place while she was a teenager and intoxicated to the point of blackout.
“I woke up in the linen room of the hotel on a table. I was in so much pain. I didn’t quite understand what had happened,” She said. “While playing chess I was in so much pain I could barely sit down. Him and his friends were high-fiving about it.”
Chevannes claimed that every chess event she has ever attended has involved sexual harassment, sexual assault, or prejudice against women.
She noted that she had experienced racism from other chess players, who frequently believed she had cheated when she performed well in competitions. She also described a time when a chess master touched her inappropriately while they were competing in a tournament.
“I was 11 years old,” she recalled. “I wanted to have a picture with him because he was famous in this world. He posed for the picture but did this thing where he put his hand down my back touching my butt. Then he turned around and winked at me.”
When she was a teenager, she ran into him again at another chess tournament where he informed her that he had seen her on the cover of a chess magazine.
“He said ‘You are developing so well’. I said ‘I was at my best rating’, and he said ‘No, I don’t mean developing like that’,” Chevannes recalled. “He said he may need another copy of the magazine as he said he had worn his down with all the night time reading. He looked at me in a creepy, lecherous manner. When he met me when I was 18, he said ‘now you are legal in all countries’.”
The ex-player declared she would purposefully steer clear of competitions where he was participating. She recalled that he had asked her to return to his hotel room when he made a sexual advance on her a few years earlier.
Ms Chevannes said: “He used very racist misogynistic language to my face.”
She related another instance in which another chess player volunteered to let her stay in his hotel room because she was exhausted from her flight but couldn’t check into her room until mid-afternoon.
He wasn’t present when she was asleep, but when she awoke, she discovered one hand in her breast and one down her pants. “He did the same thing again when I was in the same house as him and lots of others in the chess community.”
Chevannes claimed she didn’t report any of the aforementioned instances to the police at the time because she was told she wouldn’t be believed by others.
She clarified, however, that the authorities are now investigating her claims after seeing social media posts she had published about her alleged incidents.
In recent weeks, female chess players have come forward with claims of sexual assault, violence, and harassment by male players. More than 100 female chess players signed an open letter written by 14 of France’s top female players earlier this month, “denouncing the sexist or sexual violence they have suffered” in the chess world. The letter was signed in just five days.
The chess society, according to Chevannes, is an “insular world” with a rigid hierarchy where people are evaluated solely on their chess skills and where women are consistently disparaged.
“Women are seen as inferior, they genuinely believe men are superior to women in every way – including intellectually,” she added. “If you beat someone, it’s described as you raped them.”
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