What makes the Checkmate Betul programme stand out is that several of its eight trainers are themselves teenagers, coming from diverse places such as New York, the Cayman Islands and Gambia. The initiative, founded by Avika Shukla, is described by her as “girls teaching girls chess.”
On a Saturday evening, a Google Meet session buzzes with excitement as schoolgirls from Betul, a town in Madhya Pradesh, join from their homes using their mobile phones. Their screens light up with moving chess pieces as Iris Mou, a Woman International Master (WIM) based in New York, guides them, pausing at intervals to ask what their next move should be.
Over the last two months, nearly 75 girls have participated in these online sessions under the Checkmate Betul programme. The idea was conceived by 16-year-old Avika Shukla, a high-school student in New Jersey, who was deeply concerned about the wide gender gap in the game of chess and wanted to create change.
Avika shares that the inspiration came from her own experience. “When I played in chess tournaments, I noticed I hardly had any female friends who also played. It struck me as an issue. Whether in India or later in the US, I was surprised by how visible the gender divide in chess was, especially since it is a mental sport,” says Avika, who currently studies electrical engineering and computer science at Edison Academy Magnet School in New Jersey.
Her research confirmed what she had sensed—only one out of seven chess players are girls. “From my personal experience, in tournaments of about a hundred participants, there might be just four or five girls. That imbalance really made me want to act,” she explains.