Kazakh chess queens inspire new generation

Dinara Saduakassova, a 23-year-old Kazakh chess player and social activist, poses for a picture in the Chess Academy she founded in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan March 3, 2020. Saduakassova has opened a chain of chess schools in the country and has become a Goodwill Ambassador of the UNICEF. REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev

NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is going through a chess boom whose poster children - unusually for its patriarchal society - are young female players who have far outperformed men.

A cohort of local prodigies routinely make headlines by winning international tournaments and some players such as 23-year-old Dinara Saduakassova - the highest-ranked among Kazakh women - are gaining broader prominence outside of the game.