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West Michigan Chess > Authors > Katy Ford > Categories
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3/21/2007
Garry Kasparov has said that men are better than women at chess because every single component of chess (sport, psychological warefare, science and art) belongs to areas of male domination. Judit Polgar is usually credited with disproving this theory, since she defeated him in 2002 match. Polgar achieved grandmaster status at an even younger age than then esteemed Bobby Fischer. At every level of chess, however, there are far more men than women. Why aren't women drawn to chess the way men are?
Susan Polgar writes a column for ChessCafe.com, and discussed this discrepency in a 2002 article. She cites many reasons that women don't compete in chess, such as their biological clocks, social expectations, and the fact that most women don't take chess as seriously as men do. Polgar writes that if women won't put the time and effort into becoming good at chess, then they can't expect to compete on the same level. In the following month's article, she discussed ways to entice more women into playing chess, such as encouraging girls to get into the game.
My very informal polling of friends and family shows that most women just have other interests besides chess. Indeed, a couple people didn't even know how the pieces moved, and told me that they had no interest in learning when I offered to teach them. "You spent a whole day playing a chess?!" one friend commented to me after I told her I played in a local chess tournament. "How do you stand it?" I told her I loved it - that it was at once grueling and rewarding, exciting and full of possibility, and that I enjoyed the company of the people I was with. I read somewhere that there are more possible combinations of pieces on a chessboard than electrons in the universe. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but explains in part why some of us are so drawn to the game: its seemingly infinite possibilities, and many opportunities for victory.
As a woman who loves the game, I often wonder why I have so few women sitting across from me at tournaments. I think one must possess a certain analytical aptitude and problem-solving abilities, as well as a competitve spirit, to enjoy the game and be motivated to reach their full potential with it. For social, cultural or biological reasons, women (the ones in my life, anyway) don't seem to be drawn to the game of chess.
To each his own, I suppose. Anyone want to play? |
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