ask how you started in chess and
I always answered this question
very punctual as a chess player
but today I want to respond as like the
human being that I am and talk a little more
from my reality and opening a
little bit will explain that carapace that
Sometimes the sports suit makes me put
so I invite you to listen
this story that I have not had before
I counted a family
traditional
there is the center my dad my mom and
my brother and I am the girl I have dressed
Red
obviously I grew up with these
stereotypes that society puts on us
no girl pink child blue and in my
childhood discover the wonderful sport
Chess my parents me
they put in gymnastics but that world of
the roles of the bars was not not what
mine and in chess
I found a little place where girls
and children could train together and where
these towers bishops horses took
life and I could succeed and could and could not
he liked to do neither big nor veil nor in
the strongest and that’s how I won my
first rookie tournament and starts at
travel around the country and well I was a
student like and wild but
I trained every day after
classes two to three hours and also
I started to meet new friends and
travel and it was really fun
then in my adolescence it was more
notorious that she was not a girl
conventional as venezuela girl who
is there in the red arrow did in the
girl who does not want to wear skirts always
that are to my parents that because
I had to put on a dress because
I had to go to school with a skirt
because it had to be aoby clear not to
Sometimes we are born with these stereotypes
of how we have to go to school
as we have to cut hair like
we have to dress and I always
I am questioning why why why
and while this happens obviously that
that the people my companions
around and even my friends
dads same dads feel like what
What happens here does not and I also receive
these comments that will close that I am
different from that I do not see myself as
the traditional girl of 12 years and me
same and try in a certain way
invisibilizar me behind those trophies
or medals behind that cap behind
of long hair and chess for me is
in the tool for a certain way
to be able to have friends and communicate with
people because obviously I’m not going to
do neither my sympathy nor interest
much as I physically see also
what happens to everyone that is
that at that age to adolescence already
love you care starts to matter
many more things and I’m not not
just like that they do not happen to me
changes until much later
but society always pressures you
you have to behave of certain
way and I find in chess that
shelter for practically
survive I told myself my adolescence well
that you can not safely say that the
chess was my first love and always what
it will be despite that it has broken my heart
several times at 15 at the party
pink
once again society imposes that to
the girls have to present them as
little girls and me instead of wanting a
pink party
I ask my parents to let me out
from one of the best private schools
from the city to study from a distance and
dedicate myself to chess
my parents obviously between tenderness and
confusion
I think and I want that I want to
do what I want
that opinion
his parents never change always think
that children do what the
wins so it’s very difficult is very
difficult to fight that my parents
They speak with the priest with psychologist
friends and I think more for love than for
decision they give me the permission to dedicate myself
what I like to play chess but not
It was football chess and I start
train in the club and also many
hours on my own I draw great
goals between an Olympic team of
chess be one of the best players
of chess and at this time still not
He had won so many tournaments beyond
of national championships but I have
this great opportunity that my parents
he gives it and he took advantage in 2008 he happens
the world cup in russia where the 64 were
best players in the world and I’m
of my case on a computer watching in
the extreme thanks to technology
is this wonderful world of chess
in a world cup
awesome with ballet colon with the
better players with authorities
Russia
incredible I do not think you can compare
how maybe when the common of the
mortals of a football world so
that stays uaw and me like that in the room
from my house on my computer and I say
because not because maybe one day
I can get to play there no and and those
images remain in my mind and
no illusion and
That same year it was a tournament that
subzonal called and qualified for the zonal that
gives a place to the world cup of 2010
will be in turkey and and obviously for
this zone was not a favorite anymore
less but I start to visualize
participating had the great opportunity
of playing against the best players in
the region and and at that time I was
fashion the secret
and I start writing says do not write
in the future but the present
so instead of putting I want to be
Zonal champion put I am
national champion and he wrote and
I wrote several sheets to although I have
more lyrics but I wrote and and what happens
is that it is the power of visualization
it is not the same to project yourself as to live and
behave as if you were a change one
champion
then it is not just to write but
I also went to train trained
four hours a day I was going to run towards
everything that was supposed to have to
make someone who wants to make change
I am a champion and in this I learn a lot
I learn that they have chess is needed
a lot of discipline because you have to read
books
you have to reflect before the board and
finally I will compete in el salvador
I will be very very well in the tournament to
regret that you are not favorite more than winning
the tournament was my great opportunity to
play against these chess stars
and until the seventh round is going well and I
I face against one of the best
players from Cuba and achieved a draw and
I ‘m left with doors to classify for
the world cup in the last fire match
against a girl from mexico and it happens to me
something very strange
no I’m not you understand me something that in
It really happened I go to the bathroom to cool down
aa take my time I ‘m watching in
the mirror I put water
incredibly it goes through my mind
by the mirror
the images of the 2008 world cup well
I do not know if this has ever happened
more has happened to me but this time it happened to me
and they were the images of the of the
opening ceremony of that
worldwide and I realize that I am at
point to fulfill the dream that I had
when I was in the living room of my house
watching a computer and no one
it mattered to me yes I’m going back to the
game and he won and he fulfilled one the
greatest achievements of my life that was to be the
first equatorial to classify a
global g
3 thanks
in that in that world that was developed
in turkey
were was by by elimination by ko and
the first round I play puncog someone
which was already among the best
plays of the world is currently the
best player in the world the yifan china
hou yy I get ready for the world
same with great enthusiasm and loses the
first round lose my two games
but more than losing was the
experience until you get there the
sit down with what is currently the
best player in the world, and there was no
to carve hours of hours in one of the
biggest pillars of my sports career
and more so what else can I win
I ‘m completely happy and I know
gives the opportunity to go to India to a
chess tournament itself to me always
I like to do a little tourism and
he got where he is there on google maps
it’s called dance lab is north of the
India where are the refugees from
Tibet
there lives the dalai lama and company
and it’s just as they see it there is a
small town in the mountains and I arrived
I’m 14 days in those fourteen days
I put in a Buddhist retreat
I’m not a Buddhist but I got a retirement
seen towards this we do crazy things
young people sometimes and he retired there
there was internet there was no cell phone
there was way to communicate outside by
true here are my parents are
terrified do not be like me in my daughter
so long and how we will know my
parents are the typical ones that always
wants to know about me then for the first
they will know me again in many
days and he retired only food
vegetarian meditation much silence and
a lot of loneliness and in those fourteen days
I learn perhaps the more lessons
valuable of my life and today came with the
Good idea how I will improve my
chess my career and I go out with another
world chess perspective
I do long walks in the mornings and
they start to put the little bug of the
passion we are not all connected and I
I begin to rephrase what success is
it’s the money is the going out in the
newspapers is the one that is
then we talk about the ego the ego exists or
simply again a construction
social and all this starts to haunt in
my head and I also realize that
we are not only human beings
there are also animals that deserve their
space your respect that we are all
connected and greet and as with other
visions is another carla and from there
also a little my records of my
vision towards life and I realize
several lessons not only in that retreat
but in the people it is that it teaches me the
chess in the gdc potentially to
anyone and in my case I
taught to think before acting to
make decisions when playing chess
I have to think what my rival does
then yes it is generated as a
little bit off the board empathy
not think the other wants to
you need the other in the xerez not only will you
allowed to travel the world but then
of 2012 helps me fulfill another dream
which is the desire of a great teacher for that
then there was only one great teacher and
I will become the second great
teacher of the country and currently in
South America there are around eight
great teachers and to put in
Brazilian context and Chile still not
has great teachers until the time and
our country has two but that great
triumph not only gives me a newspaper or
something makes me have a little voice or
a little voice that currently the
used for things beyond 64
boxes
I wonder what I can do with the
chess I start to give simultaneous that
is to play against many children
or young people are adults and always
which game is simultaneous
I start talking about respect over
equality over these values that I
move in the university where he studies
in the United States he starts teaching
of chess to a school only two girls
to use chess
as a tool to empower them to
that those same things that we learn in
the board can do them in your life
the final the most important game does not
is in those 64 boxes but in the
life when we think about our actions
when we have to question ourselves
analyze and make important decisions
when chess gives us this self-esteem
for how the pawn become the piece
that we want to be in society
then in 2016 something happens that there was
here a case of two girls who were
in Montañita and the rape are killed
and I am the university and decided
write him a public official who
he said that it was practically his
blame for being alone while clear
such as single women means that
they were together but it is said alone
because they are women
again the patriarchy in action
then I write this letter to you
it goes viral and is shared by many people
outraged and and I realize that I have
that little voice that people listen to me
beyond of whether I win something in the
generals also taught me that no
there are big rivals until they too
I ended up writing advocating for
women’s rights in Iran
also more more prominent mind
also written to the former president
of the republic and that is one starting
to give check to machismo the father has
entered the violence
We are currently doing a workshop
that is called check the violence that
brings together activists from different causes
as groups lg vete and trans groups in the
people is a space that helps us
share
six out of ten women suffer some
type of gender violence one of each
ten women before reaching 18
years have suffered some kind of
sexual violence
two out of five teenagers in the
community that they have wanted
be bullying and everyone like that to me
I care I know that you are leaving and not
they remember that I classified world and
what was my name but if any of
these figures that I gave them interest me
mission at this time has been fulfilled
now there is the little bug for you
have let you that violence and
homophobia to discrimination
that ‘s important I think in chess
I have learned that it can accumulate
advantages and that each piece plays a role
in society we can all create a
month a better world that leaves you to the
violence
my name is khan heredia and thanks for
for listening
[Applause]
”
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