by Marco Bonarrigo
German Annmarie Muetsch: «I don’t know any woman who hasn’t had experiences of sexism in chess». The complaints multiply: in the USA the great maestro Ramirez accused by a dozen players of harassment
She is Annmarie Muetsch, 21 years old, German, promise of international chess and former under 16 world champion. In the interview she granted to the German weekly Der Spiegel she does not mince words. «I hardly know any chess woman who hasn’t had any experience with sexism – she explained – and I have personally heard so many offensive comments towards me that I hardly notice it anymore. I have learned to deal with discomfort. But for teenage girls, for those who start playing, it’s really heavy».
The denunciation of sexism in chess
Muetsch also joined an open letter published last week by 14 French chess players and signed by more than 100 women denouncing the sexist behavior of fellow players. “Since I signed the letter – she added – I have thought more deeply about what happened to me. So many things happened to me that I wasn’t aware of before and I had to sit out some tournaments because I didn’t want to meet some people there. That’s why I didn’t play them.”
In the field of chess, the complaints are multiplying. In the United States, the Costa Rican grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been denounced by a dozen players, some of them minors, for sexual assaults and repeated harassment. In an open letter also supported in this case by the French federation, 64 male and female players from all over the world declared that they “have suffered sexist or sexual violence from other chess players, coaches, arbiters and managers and we are convinced that these harassments and these attacks are one of the main reasons why women and girls, especially in their teens, stop playing chess”.
August 11, 2023 (change August 11, 2023 | 12:13 am)
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