I want to admit something a little bit ridiculous.
I’ve been a chess master for 20 years, and for most of my life I’ve never told anyone, nor friends, nor people I’ve dated, not colleagues.
It was basically this weird secret identity that only people in the chess world knew about.
But then in that world, no one really cared as they kind of all had the same identity, right?
And it’s really bizarre when you think about it, because becoming a chess master is something most people would proudly stick in their LinkedIn bio, put on their CV and tell everyone about.
But for me, it was something I hid.
And the reason why says a lot about identity, competence, and the strange ways society treats intelligence, especially when you’re a woman.
And I felt that it was finally time to talk openly about this in this personal interlude, and to let people get to know this side of me and what I’ve been sitting on well, for most of my life.
Hello and welcome to Sniffing Out the Bullshit, a podcast for ambitious entrepreneurs who want help wading their way through the bullshit jungle of entrepreneurship and then the tools, skills, and mindset that actually required for success.
I’m your host, Sabrina Chevannes, the no bullshit entrepreneur.
So I started playing chess when I was about 8 and I very quickly became in grace of the game after getting that beautiful taste of winning for the first time, because at my first ever chess tournament, I won a medal.
I remember it so clearly.
And then at my second tournament, I won a trophy.
And that’s how it gets to it.
Just started snowballing and I loved it.
I mean, at 8 years old, right?
You just do whatever you find exciting.
You learn, you play, you enjoy.
You don’t think about the future, you don’t think about what anyone else thinks about what you’re doing.
Because if you think something’s interesting or even cool, you take part in it, right?
You don’t question it based on what you worry other people might think.
We only do that as adults.
So I play chess a lot and I got addicted to that feeling when you win.
It was incredible.
But if you’ve ever played chess as a kid, or maybe perhaps you loved maths and weren’t afraid to say it, then, well, you’re forever known as a nerd, the dork of the class.
And let’s face it, no one wants that label.
I mean, I was the weird kid who spent their weekend moving some pieces around a board instead of doing something normal, and I was definitely mocked to that.
But on the other hand, I was also quite lucky because I just happened to be good at sport, too.
That was my absolute safety.
Gross.
So when the mocking came, I just kicked their butt on the race track, on the netball court or even the football pitch.
Yeah, I was that girl in the football team with the boys, but then I also capped in the netball team and I just happened to play a dorky ass board game on top of it all, so no one really knew what to think.
The thing is, I loved my primary school, right?
They were my peeps.
Everyone was super dance worth.
And yeah, I got totally ripped on for being a dog, but it wasn’t serious.
That’s just how we were with each other back then, right?
That’s I missed that life.
Beside, people are so sensitive now and it just was like that.
I mean, these same pricks who had given me a hard time even came to my wedding.
So you know, what do the kids say these days?
It just wasn’t that deep or whatever.



