Why some chess tournaments are separated by gender?
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I'm not trying to be feminist or anything . It just doesn't make sense to me. I understand this kind of separation in contact sports because man are generally stronger and that would be a unffair advantage. But chess is a sport that you use your brain not your muscles. We have several women who are as strong in chess as men. For example Polgar who defeated the best players of all time like Kasparov, Carlsen, Anand, Spassky, Karpov and many other former champions. I just think everyone should compete against everyone regardless the gender. That would make things much more Interesting and Fair
sigh.
valdemirjunior wrote:
I'm not trying to be feminist or anything . It just doesn't make sense to me. I understand this kind of separation in contact sports because man are generally stronger and that would be a unffair advantage. But chess is a sport that you use your brain not your muscles. We have several women who are as strong in chess as men. For example Polgar who defeated the best players of all time like Kasparov, Carlsen, Anand, Spassky, Karpov and many other former champions. I just think everyone should compete against everyone regardless the gender. That would make things much more Interesting and Fair
No, you are not a feminist.
Please search the forum for some of the other 10,000 times this has been asked.
The title of this thread asks why there is a Women's World Championship. That's a fair question and it's been asked over and over. At one time there was Vera Menchik. While she competed with men, generally with only modest results, she stood a level above all other female competitors. In fact there were only a handful of women on the next level of ability who could even consider competeing against her. She was the first Women's World Champion.
Today, there are still hardly any women who can compete with men at the highest level. Today those few women have GM titles. However, the next lower level of ability boasts a much more impressive field of women players - not as many as there are men at that level, but tremendously more than 50-75 years ago. Something must be going right for the girls.
I rather doubt we'll ever see a woman World Champion - not for lack of talent or for any genetic limitation, but for a general reluctance for women to put that kind of commitment into chess and for the incredible difference in the gender pools sizes.
But I can't understand why that is important. Anyone of any ability can play successfully against others of similar ability. World Championships, or even ratings, are not the be-all and end-all of chess. I could even argue that they are relatively unimportant in the chessic scheme of things. Chess is about people - people playing, people learning, people enjoying themselves. If some women need women tournaments, and, therefore the logical result - women titles, including the championship title, then why would anyone begrudge them that which most completely facilitates their ability and desire to participate??
/ A golden oldie. https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-buzz/why-is-there-a-womens-world-championship
And what if someone identifies with a gender different than their biological DNA sex?
In this day of ridiculous political correctness, they should be allowed to play in that tournament. And pocket more prize money in the process.
So if Magnus or any other xy chromosone player says they identify as a female, they should be able to compete and win the woman's world championship as well.
