special women s prizes. borderline stupidity ??

They aren't tax free of course.

Yes you do understand the term "Head of State"?  Why are there so many uneducated louts on this site?

Women make how many dollars an hour less than men? It's like 42.8K vs. 34.7K a year in the U.S. So that's not fair either. Incentives like this will bring more women to the game, too.

You're forgetting the most important part, though! WHY DO YOU CARE?? Are these prize winnings coming out of your wallet? No? Then quit whining! Let those funding and running these tournaments do what they want with their investments.

Heres the comment I was referring to

by zenpawn:

I don't understand why women deserve special prices and titles in chess. Because there are less of them? Do we need BGM (Black GrandMaster) and HGM (Handicapped GM) titles as well?

Nonsense like this just perpeptuates the myth that men and women need to be treated differently. I want them gone. Not as someone who oppreses woman, but as someone who TRULY believes in equality. Equality doesn't only mean that women should be paid the same as men for the same job. It means that a "ladies first" mentality and special treatment of women goes out the window too. Equal is equal, and that's what I support. Period.

There are two ways women differ from men. Anatomically, and the ability to bear a child. Unless one is a doctor / has a medical condition that is gender-specific, or one is pregnant, there is no difference. At all. Sure, the sexes differ in height, weight, income...but these are only on average across the population. On an individual level, if a woman has, say, physical strength 50 on a 1-100 scale, she is no different from a man who happens to have physical strength 50. The fact that fewer men are weaker doesn't matter. Some are.

If a woman wants a big chess prize, there's nothing stopping her from playing in the section that doesn't restrict half the population from playing, as any man would have to.

Gender roles should disappear from everywhere in society. We need to start viewing gender the same as skin color, eyebrow width, and fingernail coloration - as a (fairly meaningless) physical charachteristic, and nothing more.