Perhaps in other sports, if you rank together, there was a wide gap between male and female players, but not so much gap between male and female in chess.
The female are mentally equally challenging in the present environment. Will they able to replicate in physically challenging sports. I'm not referring to one or two individual, but as whole community. Only time will tell
Ratings are mixed in that anyone male or female can achieve open titles. There are just seperate titles in addition to that exclusively for women. The reasoning behind this, as far as I can tell, is to account for the fact that far fewer women play and to give those that do a better chance to have some title and to encourage more women to play.
One would think that with the science on the male vs. female brain.. things like patience, analytical skill, and ego would all be in favor of women being the better players... player population numbers not withstanding, it seems that the "best" women should be as good as the best men, or better. Anyway, thanks.
Ok, I don't want to start a heated debate or anything, but I'm just curious... it's obvious why we have male and female rankings in sports, be it Golf, Baseball, or even Pool... but why Chess? Seems like a completely mental "hobby" or "sport" and yet why are rankings not single gender?