If men have been better than women at the top of the chess world for decades, would abolishing gender-specific tournaments or rankings have a positive effect on women's performance or does this not show a mistake in the promotion of women in this marginal sport dominated by men?
I claim that the main problem in chess is that the sport has too little media and spectator interest in any case compared to new sports such as e-sport and this discussion does not help women any further. If there is a recognized deficit in the absolute participation of women in chess, the promotion of chess should begin among girls and boys in schools.
Well that's another reason. Chess is not a sport. Chess is not popular with the media or the public because it's a game, not a sport. Spectators dont care about chess because competitive chess is boring. Casual chess is fun, tournaments are not fun.
Chess is dominated by men, so if it's going to be fixed, it will be fixed by those that broke it. Which isn't likely to happen anytime soon. Getting rid of female divisions in chess is just a way to make sure it never gets fixed.
Oh, look at what is near the top of all of reddit today:
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/8t0wpb/are_you_gonna_play_the_victim_all_life_long_my/
A female board gamer gives her perspective on what it's like being a female in the board gaming world. Look no further than this when wondering why women don't play chess or even other board games very much.
Here's a quote from the end of her post:
"
I'm tired of being polite and non-accusatory. There is a problem with how women are treated in this hobby. It's not the Magic players. It's not a few random men. It's pervasive and it's frustrating and, since it doesn't impact the majority, it's not taken seriously. At the same time, men wonder why so few women are in the hobby. Often, I see a lack of interest in difficult games blamed. That's wrong. The reason women don't join the hobby is not the games, it's the men.
If you think that the problem isn't a big deal because lots of people are nice, you're wrong.
If you think that the problem is only at cons, you're wrong.
If you think the problem is only obvious creeps, you're wrong.
If you think that the problem is only blatant sexual assault, you're wrong.
If you think that there is no problem, you're very wrong."
You people that are ridiculing me for pointing it out and saying I must be a terrible teacher and shouldn't be around children for pointing this out are part of the problem. And yes, I fight it with these kids constantly. It's hard to do without patronizing the girls, but I do the best I can. It doesn't stop it, but it's better than it used to be.
And as you can see, it is absolutely not just the kids.
People keep telling me that because I have zero proof, I'm definitely wrong. Very few of these events took longer than five seconds. I don't wear a body cam to record all footage of how every single person at a tabletop event behaves.
. . .
It's not a few random men. It's pervasive
Ok, and I agree.
But still, if it's pervasive then someone, anyone, should put on a body cam and let us see. I think that would be great.