From One Chess Lesson to Hundreds of Girls: The Story of Checkmate Betul

by Jyotsna Bhushan - 22/07/2026

A few years ago, Checkmate Betul was a small idea with a simple goal: get more girls in Betul in front of a chessboard. It has not stayed small. What began as a handful of local lessons has turned into a network of online classes reaching girls across Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and now Nagaland, a state where opportunities for girls to learn and compete in chess have historically been hard to come by.
That kind of growth is worth celebrating on its own. But it has also brought the organisation to a familiar crossroads for any group doing good work at scale: how do you keep every student feeling seen when there are simply more students than hands to teach them? (Photos: Checkmate Betul)

Where It All Began

For readers meeting Checkmate Betul for the first time, the origin story is worth a quick rewind. The organisation traces back to a summer visit Avika Shukla, then a 16-year-old high schooler, made to her family in Betul, a small town in Madhya Pradesh. She ended up playing chess with her housekeeper's children, who were curious about the game and asked her to teach them. The catch was that she was headed back to the United States, and distance seemed like it should have ended the idea before it started. Instead, she realised technology could close that gap, since chess does not actually require being in the same room to teach it. That workaround became Checkmate Betul.

The reason the program works with girls specifically is not incidental. Shukla has pointed to the fact that only about 11 out of every 100 FIDE-rated players are girls, and she wanted to build a space where girls could learn without the added pressure of proving themselves in a male-dominated environment. By the time ChessBase India first featured the program earlier this year, it had already grown to reach around 100 girls across six schools and learning centers in Betul, running sessions three times a week outside of exam season.

The story of Checkmate Betul was inspired by Avika Shukla's own journey.

Growing Past What One Team Can Hold

Success, it turns out, creates its own kind of problem. As more girls signed up for lessons, the organisation's small circle of mentors found themselves stretched thinner with every new batch. Founder Avika Shukla and the team wanted every student to get the same thing the first ones got: consistent guidance, someone who noticed when they were stuck, someone who celebrated when they weren't.

So Checkmate Betul is opening its doors to volunteer mentors, around 20 of them for now, though the team is quick to point out there's no real ceiling. "Our larger mission is to bring more girls into chess," is how they put it, and that mission doesn't come with a headcount.

A mentoring session led by Avika Shukla herself !

The role itself is fairly simple to describe and, mentors will tell you, harder to fully capture: weekly online lessons, help working through games move by move, encouragement to enter tournaments, and, quietly underneath all of it, being someone a young player can look up to. Students range from eight years old and up; most of them are complete beginners when they arrive. Mentors need to be at least 14. No coaching background required; the existing mentors and board are there to help anyone find their footing. Everything currently runs online, which is precisely what lets a mentor in another country connect with a student in MP, UP, Telangana, or Nagaland in the first place, though the team hopes to organise in-person events as opportunities allow.

What's Changed Since Last Time

A lot, actually. Beyond the reach into Nagaland, the organisation has begun welcoming girls with disabilities into its classes, a step the team describes as central to their belief that chess should have no barriers to entry: not geography, not ability, not experience. Students have also started stepping into tournaments, trading the safety of practice games for the nerves and thrill of real competition.

A recent lesson with Joy Secondary School, Jabalpur

Recent classes have been led by mentors like Eesha Gorantla, Iris Mou, and Zara Majid, working alongside Avika Shukla, including a session at Joy Secondary School in Jabalpur. One recent tournament reportedly drew interest from players well beyond India's borders, a small sign, maybe, of how far this project has already travelled from its original classroom. For students, stepping into that tournament was its own kind of milestone: a chance to apply what they had learned, build confidence, and feel like part of a wider chess community rather than just a classroom of their own. The team sees each new student, mentor, and community they reach as one more step toward making chess more inclusive across India.

Why It Matters, In Their Own Words

Ask anyone who's mentored with Checkmate Betul what the job actually involves, and the answer tends to drift past chess notation pretty quickly. As one mentor put it, mentoring here is about more than teaching the game. It's about creating opportunities, building confidence, and showing a young girl she belongs at the board. Watching a student's progress, they say, is what keeps them coming back.

A session led by Avika Shukla and Iris Mou.

That's the part that doesn't show up in a role description. You can list the responsibilities: lesson plans, game analysis, tournament prep. But the reason mentors stay tends to be smaller and harder to bottle, the moment a student who once wouldn't speak up starts explaining her own strategy out loud.

A Word of Thanks

None of this happens without the people who showed up before there was anything to show up for. The team is quick to credit every volunteer, parent, and partner who has carried Checkmate Betul this far, and they see the next phase, new communities, new mentors, more girls learning the game, as a continuation of that same support rather than a departure from it. The hope, plainly put, is that every girl who wants to learn chess gets the chance to do so.

If You've Got an Hour a Week

Checkmate Betul isn't asking just for chess masters. They're asking for people willing to show up, week after week, for a kid who's just starting to believe she's good at something. If that sounds like you, or someone you know, the team would love to hear from you.

Mentor Application form: https://forms.gle/PqCFUFP8kmRbcm3G7

Prospective Mentors can also reach them by email: checkmatebetul@gmail.com