Chess originated in India in the 6th Century. In the game of chess, the queen is the most powerful piece. But today in Indian society the queens are the least powerful. They are not allowed their basic right to education which leads to them being powerless. Project Nanhi Kali is a non-profit organisation with a core objective to provide education to under-privileged girl children and they want to create mass awareness about the need and importance of educating women.
The core objective was to create awareness about the plight of women in our country today and generate donations for the education of underprivileged girls by Nanhi Kali.
To create awareness about the need of educating women, we launched 'Powerless Queen', an online chess game.
Being a one of its kind game, in this version of Chess one player had to play with a Powerless Queen, i.e. a queen who couldn't move while the other player would have a powerful queen. Queen being the most powerful piece on the chessboard, #PowerlessQueen was a metaphor for how real-life queens i.e. women in India are treated and rendered powerless.
This was rolled out as a '#PowerlessQueen' challenge and the game was launched via a campaign website and a campaign video with Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev. She shared the same via social platforms (Twitter, Facebook & YouTube) in which she challenged people and fellow chess players to play the game on the website. People who lost could take two actions - they could share their experience on Twitter & Facebook as well as donate to the cause of Nanhi Kali for the education of the girl child.
Along with the website, we also launched a mobile app. To take the concept of Powerless Queen into the physical world, The Chess School of India and The Coach Crew came together to organize chess tournaments which was participated in by school students from across schools.
#PowerlessQueen trending topic in India
Donations of 40,000 hours of education for underprivileged girls
1.1 Million Views on video
300 Million Organic Impressions with India's national TV channel DD news covering it along with NDTV.
52,000+ Game Plays
International Chess Grandmasters organically got involved and endorsed the campaign and they were:
- World Rapid Chess Champion 'Viswanathan Anand'
- Hungarian Woman Grandmaster ''Anna Rudolf'
- Hungarian Woman Grandmaster and Ambassador of Chess and Education & UN Planet 50-50 Champion 'Judit Polgar'
- Two-time United States Women's Champion 'Jennifer Shahade'
- Four-time Dutch Chess Champion 'Anish Giri'
- Five-time Danish Chess Champion and current coach to World number one Magnus Carlsen, 'Peter Heine Nielsen'
Impact:
School students from across schools participated in a Powerless Queen Challenge organized by The Chess School of India and The Coach Crew.
A chess club in France hosted a #PowerlessQueen challenge.
Powerless Queen will soon be rolled out as gender-equality teaching tool across schools in India.
