Chess was invented in India in the 6th Century with Queen being the most powerful piece on the board. However, today in the 21st century, the real queens i.e. a vast majority of Indian women are not even powerful enough to get access to the basic rights of education.

Infact 20 million girls are denied education in India each year due to the deep-rooted misogyny in Indian society.

Nanhi Kali is a not-for-profit organization with the aim of providing primary education to underprivileged girls in India. The core objective of the campaign was to drive donations towards the education of underprivileged girls and raise awareness about how educated

women help society.

In India 2 out of 3 girls are made to drop out of school before they even complete high school. As India is a patriachial society the general view is that women do not need to complete higher studies and should instead be a home maker and better at cooking and cleaning.

This gender bias is such a big problem that in 2015 the Government of India launched the Beti Bachao. Beti Padhao (educate the girls to save them) campaign.

To address this gender bias we introduced the world’s first chess game with a powerless queen where the players played with a powerless queen (no moves allowed) against the computer which had a powerful queen. This was rolled out as a #PowerlessQueen challenge online and offline across India, challenging the entire country. As people lost, we prompted them to share the message and also donate to the cause of girl child education so as to empower them.

The idea showcased how difficult it is to win in chess and as a metaphor in society as well when the queen (Women in society) is a powerless one. Hence proving how societies cannot win if its queens (women) are not empowered.

We introduced the world’s first chess game with a powerless queen where the visitors/players played with a powerless queen (no moves allowed) against the computer which had a powerful queen. This was rolled out as a #PowerlessQueen challenge online and offline

across India, challenging people to try and win. As people lost, we prompted them to share the message and also donate to the cause of girl child education so as to empower them.

The idea showcased how difficult it is to win in chess and as a metaphor in society as well when the queen (Women in society) is a powerless one. Hence proving how societies cannot win if its queens (women) are not empowered.

We changed the ancient game of chess with a shift in one simple rule, the most powerful piece ‘the queen’ was made powerless. This web and mobile-based game titled #PowerlessQueen was launched via a campaign website and a video featuring India's number 2 woman chess player and Grandmaster Tania Sachdev. She urged the audience and her fellow chess players to take up the challenge and try to win.

Global chess champions took the challenge and lost the game and came forward to support the #PowerlessQueen. People who lost could choose to take two actions - they could share their experience on Twitter & Facebook or Donate to the cause of the education of the girl

child.

The campaign was launched on social platforms (Facebook, YouTube) with a video where India’s #2 ranked chess player and Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev challenged users to play the Powerless Queen game on the website and donate to Nanhi Kali.

People who took the challenge shared their results on Twitter which led to international chess grandmasters getting interested and thus involved in the campaign organically. The campaign soon picked up on Facebook as well with social media users taking the challenge and sharing their experience over the course of a week.

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 were participated in by students from across schools.

52,000+ Game Plays on mobile website & 15000+ App downloads

Donations of 40,000 hours of education for underprivileged girls through the mobile app

Earned Media worth 118 Million INR

1.1 Million Views on video

300 Million Organic Impressions with India's national TV channel DD news covering it along with NDTV.

Organic endorsements by International Chess Grandmasters

World Rapid Chess Champion 'Vishwanathan 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'

School students participated in a Powerless Queen Challenge organized by The Chess School of India, The Coach Crew and chess club in France.

Powerless Queen will soon be rolled out as gender-equality teaching tool across schools in India.