Forums

Do woman Enjoy Chess

Sort:
stuntmanxxx

I know people are reading this and thinking "what the heck is this loser talking about" i know... but it just hit me... the strange fact that 99% of all my chess games were against males... is there a hatred of chess somewhere that females are not as fond as men... im saying this all wrong... maybe i should just shut up... i cant help but wonder why mostly I go up against male opponents

Stinkbug22

I don't know, maybe women have better things to do with their lives?

joking...but really, I've noticed that too!

_IronButterfly_

Stunt, I'm not sure how many women are here but I see alot!  Perhaps you should challenge about 10, and see what the odds are that they are here to play chess. :) 

Every woman I have spoken to, or have crossed paths with here on chess.com love the game!   

Kageri

there are more male than female chess players for reasons already discussed in this forum. but the women who play do enjoy it the same way men do. I enjoy it very much. I'm even pretty addicted :)

CrystalBeth

I am a girl, I LOVE chess, and in a casual chess camp last week, there was a tournament, and I won every game. My opponent in the final round was getting pwnd, and he was like, "You'll still get first if you accept this draw!" every other move, and I'm like, "NO!"

msjenned

Short answer is yes. I enjoy it.  

Shippen

Women players in my experience tend to be more aggressive attackers.

PLAVIN81

MEN= WOMEN=WHAT DIFERENCE DOES IT MAKE= LETS GET ON WITH OUR GAMESSmile

ChessisGood

Well, grammatically speaking, the post should say "Do Women Enjoy Chess?" And that's all I have to say about that.

Here_Is_Plenty

Do women enjoy chess?  More than they enjoy stupid questions.

corrijean
Here_Is_Plenty wrote:

Do women enjoy chess?  More than they enjoy stupid questions.

I concur.

lollolbuddha

How many women do you find in the top 100? hardly 10 

e4nf3

Look, I learned in kindergarten that girls tend to prefer some things and boys others. Girls would skip a rope or play hopscotch. Boys would shoot at each other with a water pistol or do something with hitting a ball.

This is just, of course, a generality. Some women are better at the things men like than most men. And, the opposite is true, too.

Think about this, while you are at it. Most men don't have an interest in chess...just as most women don't. We are a niche...no more than a very small niche, in the cosmic scheme of things.

But, that's OK...all the more chess for the rest of us. lol

Shippen
-kenpo- wrote:
PLAVIN79 wrote:

MEN= WOMEN=WHAT DIFERENCE DOES IT MAKE= LETS GET ON WITH OUR GAMES

it doesn't make a difference if you is playing. 

however. people shouldn't be discouraged from engaging in chessic banter about various topics within these here forums,

I think its an interesting question actually, because the more I think about it, I think in general men really do enjoy chess more than women. I think they actually are more attracted to it than are women. just as women seem to take more careful note of aesthetics and emotions than men do, again in general. as in if you took a tally, begininng from I don't know 1950 onwards I bet you would find more celebrated female writers, poets and singers than male, just as you find more male chess players than female (before 1950 doesn't really count because women weren't allowed to do practically anything as a profession, they were few and far between that actually had a professional career of any sort). 

also in case anyone becomes confused, this is not a "can, can't" be as good as men at chess thread. more asking the question of whether chess has a stronger pull, attraction, resonance, with men than it does with women.

Not convinced that's really true. I work in an office mostly women (lucky me) and I am struck how similar to Men the desire to be professional, winners and the whole spectrum of drives that men have. In my opinion the only differences are anatomical. However there is a brain structure that is Female and Male that is fact (though not necessarily by gender). Lets not forget people like Yelena Dembo, Natalia Pogonina or Susan Polgar or even Kimberly (aka Augustkim a fantastic chess attacker).

madhacker
Shippen wrote:

Women players in my experience tend to be more aggressive attackers.

This is because they all try to copy Judit Polgar's playing style.

Although I've also noticed that they play less aggressively against other women. So perhaps chess is an outlet for a suppressed desire to destroy and punish men Laughing

_IronButterfly_
madhacker wrote:
Shippen wrote:

Women players in my experience tend to be more aggressive attackers.

This is because they all try to copy Judit Polgar's playing style.

Although I've also noticed that they play less aggressively against other women. So perhaps chess is an outlet for a suppressed desire to destroy and punish men 

Speaking as a woman, I do feel more aggressive playing  a man than a woman.  Perhaps I tend to be at ease more, playing against a woman. 

Let me ask you, mad, are you more aggressive playing against another man, compared to a woman?

Charlotte

walofs

Elubas

You can't generalize every woman, or every man -- it's like asking what a woman wants out of a man -- if they want looks, kindness, humor, or if they want a bad boy... some women will want one thing, others something completely different. It absolutely depends on the person.

Admittedly I sometimes feel some extra nervousness when I play a woman -- it has this distinct feel to it, probably because I'm just not used to it because it's so much more usual to play a male and I get used to that general demeanor. It has nothing to do with any sort of supremacy of one of the genders. In other words, it's natural for something that is unusual (me playing a woman in chess) to feel unusual.

Why it's unusual is always a hard question to answer. For one thing, psychologists seem to believe women activate the emotional areas of their brain more than men do on average, giving them less of a tendency to focus their concentration on one narrow hobby and more of a tendency to want to share themselves in conversation with others; again, it still depends on the specific person. Moreover, a woman is probably less likely to be encouraged to play games like chess as much simply because of our societal gender roles. Many people believe this justifies female titles; I am actually not of that opinion, because gender stereotypes are clearly not applicable to the women that do play the game.

madhacker

Firstly, I was joking...

To answer your surprisingly serious question, I'm naturally an aggressive player but sometimes you do have to defend or play more patiently, as the position on the board in front of you demands. I don't think I play any differently depending on the gender of my opponent, at least not consciously.

Shippen

It's interesting to note though that Judit Polgár is the only woman to have won a game from a current world number one player, and has defeated several current or former world champions in either rapid or classical chess: Karpov, Kasparov, Spassky, Anand, Topalov...