This is an issue that has probably been discussed here before, but I must have missed it so here is my question: what justifies the division of sexes in chess tournament? Aren't men and women gifted with the same mental capabilities?

No, apparently

The male and female brain are quite different.  There is actually a condition* of a person born with a male body but female brain and vice versa - this is very stressful for the individual because they don't identify themselves with the gender they are.  This is going on a slight tangent.

The point I was going to aim at making is the male and female brain are different, and have different strengths and weaknesses, much like our bodies.

After remembering what others had to say on the topic, it is because men and women think differently, not because they believe that one gender is ultimately smarter than the other. I have mixed feelings on the issue: it might make the game more fair by seperating the two genders, but then high-ranking women never get the chance to play their male counterparts to see if they are better. Thus, it is harder to know who is really the best player in the world at the time. Also, something I think that is unfair to the women is the fact that the winner of the male-dominated world championship is given the title of World Champion, not World Male Champion. 

It's tradition...

But I hate tradition.

Why don't we make a gender based vote chess game? I understand there would be nothing to stop people from going on the side that they aren't, but it would make for an interesting game.

well, I'd like to hear from a female pro player on this issue.

laurentnicolas wrote:

This is an issue that has probably been discussed here before,

It certianly has been. Several times. *sigh* ;)

but I must have missed it so here is my question: what justifies the division of sexes in chess tournament? Aren't men and women gifted with the same mental capabilities?

There is a separate women's tournament for the same reason there is a separate junior tournament: to encourage more people to participate. Something like 95% of FIDE members are men, so getting more women to play chess would be a good thing. Holding a women's tournament may encourage more women to play.

Also, women are not prevented from playing in "men's" tournaments. Actually, there is no such thing as a "men's" chess tournament. Judit Polgar played in "regular" chess tournaments all the time - and was at one point ranked #5 in the world!

Chess tournaments aren't divided betwen sexes in general. Most tournaments are open for all. Additionally there are some female only tournaments. I havn't seen any male only tournament (although I'm sure there have been one held somewhere).

The reasoning behind holding women only tournaments is to encourage women to play since there are much more males than females in the chess world. A good idea perhaps but I think it's pretty short sighted so I don't really think it's a good idea in the long run but that might just be me.