Why are there so less female chess-players?

I think you wrote very empathical. I like your comment.

Chess is a kind of "Little Kids' Play War" --- it's great for those of us, male Or female, who learned early on that we had below average physical skills and above average brain skills!

(I look forward to your (!) letters...! --!

In the hunter gatherer days, the men were strong and they went out to do the hunt. The women stayed home to do the domestic things which needed to be done. 

The men had to compete with each other to bag the best deer or other animal and this competition was also over other things such as who will be allowed mating priviledges.  So even now, the men are good at mates.

Methinks chess is a girrrrrrly game, I don't know why its mostly boys who play it. We boys are supposed to like to do physical stuff like bite and play sports and kill each other instead.

You are quite right. Why am I playing chess? 

Oh my, here's another reason I keep playing chess on this site:  Those last 3 comments were hilarious!

1)  ponz111:  I love really bad puns, and "men are good at mates" is truly awful.....

2)  WeisseSchlacklade:  "physical stuff like bite (!) and play sports" --- That says it all!

3)  Mandy711:  such a "thoughtful" response -- it made me giggle -- out loud!

P.S.  Mandy, do you think the "others" on this site Know that We know that They believe women are Not supposed to "play chess well" OR "be funny?" 

It's not within the average females interest to play board games. 
My question is rather why females are not equally good to men. 

OK, Rasparov --- let's think it through!  We're all drawn to activities for multiple reasons.  To paraphrase the serious part of ponz111's comment above, men compete for "mates" by demonstrating superior strength and problem-solving skills, suggesting "I'll be a good provider and protector for you and your future children."  Women compete for "mates" by appearing young and healthy, thus signaling "I'll be a good breeder and I'll take good care of Your children, so they'll reach adulthood, at which point they can pass on Your genes."

Thus, young females focus more on appearance and seductive skills while young males work on "thinking" and "strength" skills.  

It's also true that male and female brains Are different, (***on Average!) (evolution being what it is).  And our brains Are influenced by testosterone, estrogen,etc. 

But here's the big point:  We all choose to spend our "free" time in activities we're reasonably Good at, And which we know, at some level, will help us reach our life goals.  (No need to ask me why I didn't become a prima ballerina, , though my estrogen levels and my internal "look healthy and attractive!" imperative said "GO for it!")

When gender imperatives align with natural skills and access to training, what's left is available time:  the more time practicing, the better the skills.  Voilá!

I did made you giggle . I never thought women can't play chess good. For some reasons, only a minority is interested. Especially the pretty ones. They can't stand male opponents staring at them.

I think females are underrepresented on the chess board.   There is only the queen and she is often to arrive at the battle late.  What are we to make of this?  My younger cousin refers to the queen as the "chainsaw dude" b/c of the ridges in the queen's crown.

I don't know why slight differences in concentrations of chemical messengers correlates to the current incidence of male and female chess players.    I find a lot of research here (and in general) to be based on speculative inferences.  Maybe it pushes the paycheck though.

Look at an MRI scan for further information about chess:  It uses the left hemisphere predominantly.  Think about this, most women use both hemispheres through the corpus callosum, and this may effect their perception of the game, in addition to the fact that chess does not for the most part allow you to ignore moves of the opponent, and hence is very reactive.  Some women may like the tactics and play very aggressive, but most I have seen dislike this.  And perhaps women are more intuitive than most men and see through what the game itself teaches:  Win at any cost.  This presents a problem in representing life accurately, unless you are in a war, and perhaps some women dont like the stress.  

I fail to see your point. 

WTF?

Perhaps that's why she won't play, but you can't stereotype an entire gender, race, short people, etc. because not everybody in said groups are alike.

kavanam wrote:

Perhaps the deep psychological reason is:

It is a game against the King, the King being a Father figure.

Much more men hate their Father.

Very much less women hate their Father.

I like your idea with the father-symbol.

        Haven't every possible angle and argument on this subject been exhausted yet? I could have sworn they had.

Here in the US, elementary school chess clubs have close to equal participation between boys and girls. But once puberty hits, girls quickly learn to stop playing chess.

There are many good explanations for this phenomenon. One explanation is that girls learn that boys don't like competitive females. Boys tend to bully them.