Women Better Chessplayers than Men?

My blog claiming that women are better chess players than men: CLICK HERE!

What do you think? Is women really better? And why/why not?

Women'll love you now, won't they?

And isn't it "sexist" to post something like this?

I'm sure it was said quite frivolously. The timing, to me, makes it funny because he said it so plainly even though it's obvious that it's the fundamental comment regarding sexism that is condemned.

The reason for the flawed number is that you're only surveying (presumably the best) 75 women, and comparing that to the average of the best 4000+ men.

If numbers 2 through 75 died right this instant, would it be appropriate to claim women are better because 100% of them are masters? Hardly. This is a ridiculous claim supported with an underlying fundamental lack of understanding of statistics.

its because most women will only play chess if they are really good at it so they will not have a large number of lower rated players to bring down their average.

I know! And it's horrible!! These people have to, in desperation, attack poor men like me just to impress them! I'm sorry I need a moment...

There's not nearly enough women who play professionally for statisically significant comparisions to men.

I wouldn't even be able to give you five strong chessplaying women

Kosteniuk

Hou Yifan

Judit Polgar

Kohai

....??

Polgar had two sisters, Polgar sister 1 and Polgar sister 2.  That brings your numbers up.

I wonder how many chess playing sisters Kohai has?

Oh yes, Kosteniuk has a little sister as well. Not sure about hou many sisters Yifan has.

I imagine that with enough data, the numbers would be very similar between the sexes.  Speed of improvement, average rating, high end and low end ratings, etc.

+1

I agree. Timing is everything in comedy. I got a good chuckle out of post #2.

@lisav you're on the internet so you're probably a guy with a hairy beer belly like me

How many male players are better than 4-15 against Anand? Sure, *I* don't have a losing record against Anand, and with my limited travel budget I don't foresee giving him chances to improve on it ... sorry, I'm off-topic.

Polgar has won spectacularly against numerous top-100 players, played #2 on her nation's top-flight Olympiad team, and has contributed novelties to opening theory.

You may be tired of hearing about her, but just think, when she comes back to chess full-time? Maybe you'll be even more annoyed.

That may be true.

The J. Polgar case I think does deserve attention though because she's the strongest chess playing woman chess has seen by far.  Instead of guessing that some women could possibly be elite players, we've seen it happen.  Also the nature vs nurture side of the story it is interesting.

And the other half of that analysis? The ones who scored worse? How long is that list?

Not trying to be sexist, but there is only 1 female in the top 100 active chess players.

The other 99 are men.

Also, "elite" is classified as 2700+ rating, so there are 38 elite chess players, all 38 of which are male and 0 of which are female.

(1) Judit Polgar became a GM at a younger age than Fischer.

(2) Her peak rating is 2735, and that predates a period of significant rating inflation. For example, she was in the world's top-10 when she was rated in the high 2600's (where does that put a player today?). She has been as high as 8th.

(3) She has taken time away from the game for family reasons. She's not a full-time chess player.

All considered, few male players are in the same class.

It doesn't really matter if you're a full time player or not, or don't "have enough time" -- if you say "ok, I may not be the best in the world, but I would be if I studied 24 hours a day and only sleep and eat while playing," even if that is true, you can't say you're the best in the world until you actually become it. She may have her excuses, but either way she is not the #1 player.

You act as if people imply that by failing to be world champ she is inferior, or dumb, or incapable or something -- not at all! Nobody knows if she would be the top player if she put in even more time in the game, but we have to go by what is reality, not "what could be," because one could speculate just about anything, like what I said in my example. I certainly don't think anyone is arguing against the respectability of her accomplishments, if that's what you're upset about.

But the fact that no female player has made it to the top (meaning: World Champion) means they seem to struggle -- there are many possible reasons, but whatever reasons they are, the fact remains true, and again -- it need not imply anything at all about the sex as a whole, since chess is ultimately a very trivial, though rewarding for some, skill.