Yosha Iglesias, a French chess coach and player, is the second transgender woman to win a national chess championship. In addition, the 37-year-old is the first transgender athlete to win the coveted Woman International Master (WIM) title. Iglesias won her WIM title in April last year at a closed international women's tournament in Rouen, France.
Yosha's journey has been extremely difficult. In order to pursue chess, she relocated to Sochi, Russia, in 2004 at the age of 16. She had the chance to meet former world champion Boris Spassky there and learn from an International Master who had previously challenged the renowned Mikhail Tal.
Yosha started a new chapter in life as a chess coach after returning to France at the age of 18. Financial limitations prompted her to delay her intention to transition, even though she identified as a woman. Living on a meager €1,000 (about $1,080) a month made transferring unaffordable for many years.
Yosha didn't decide to start her transition and completely embrace who she was until 2020. She has since spent nearly €20,000 (about $21,600) on her transition process, which included €5,000 (roughly $5,400) for surgery to feminize her face. The helpful chess community's crowdfunding efforts raised a large portion of this sum.
Yosha's life has not been easy despite transitioning. She still receives taunts of being a transgender. Speaking to Times Of India she said, "When I became the first trans Woman International Master, when I won anything, I received hundreds of insults. Sometimes thousands. And I kept wondering, how so many people in the world have the time to insult me? I'm just a chess player."