MUMBAI: The ‘Queen’ is the most powerful piece in the game of chess, a two-player strategy board game that once originated in India in the 6th century. And yet, those very ‘Queens’ still stand powerless and violated in 21st century India.

Therefore, in an attempt to shed light on how a society fails when it leaves its ‘Queens’ helpless and feeble, Project Nanhi Kali partnered with WATConsult, the digital and social media agency from Dentsu Aegis Network India, to launch an innovative campaign titled, ‘Powerless Queen’ on Women’s day. 

To spread awareness about the long neglected cause, a digital version of the chess game has been created wherein, the first player’s ‘Queen’ is designed to be ‘powerless’ and does not move at all while the second player's ‘Queen’ has all her powers, thus making the first player realise how difficult it is to win a game with the ‘Powerless Queen’. 

To support the campaign, Tania Sachdev, an Indian chess player who holds The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE, also known as World Chess Federation) titles of The International Master and The Woman Grandmaster also came on board.

The campaign has become viral on social media with renounced chess player Vishwanathan Anand and others retweeting about it and taking up the Powerless Queen Challenge.

WATConsult founder and CEO Rajiv Dingra says, “As an agency, we are very proud of this campaign. Chess is a game of power and we thought of utilising this game to let people realise how in the 6th century we made the queen the most powerful and yet in the 21st century we fail to empower women. It is an absolute challenge to win any battle with a ‘Powerless Queen’ and this campaign illustrates just that on Woman’s Day.”

Apart from spreading the message, Tania Sachdev is also challenging people to play the digital version of the chess game on the microsite by taking the Powerless Queen Challenge. The microsite enables people to accept the challenge, play the game and donate to Project Nanhi Kali to empower the women of tomorrow.

Project Nanhi Kali and KC Mahindra Education Trust trustee and executive director Sheetal Mehta adds, "We are happy to partner with WATConsult for this innovative campaign. We support campaigns that give out a message about the importance of ensuring equality for women and it is a win-win situation given our objective is to educate and empower girls.”