I'm always skeptical of people who claim that women can't play chess because they don't have the right sort of temperament, because as far as I can tell the elite men players (those above 2700, say) have many different temperaments and chess styles.
I liked this quote though:
"Chess programs are our enemies, they destroy the romance of chess. They take away the beauty of the game."
Originally posted by Fat LadyIt´s total nonsense - I´m surprised that he didn´t start saying that women´s brains will overheat. The dominating factor, I´d imagine is that after being subjected to this kind of patronizing sexism women don´t want to play chess to avoid having to put up with comments like that.
I'm always skeptical of people who claim that women can't play chess because they don't have the right sort of temperament, because as far as I can tell the elite men players (those above 2700, say) have many different temperaments and chess styles.
I liked this quote though:
"Chess programs are our enemies, they destroy the romance of chess. They take away the beauty of the game."
btw. - I´m impressed you got the anti-engine bit in - are you going for a reference in every thread no matter what the basic subject?
Originally posted by Jie"Women cannot play chess". I think this is incorrect, there have been too many examples of talented female chess players to say this. A more accurate statement is: Women REFUSE to play chess. One can debate the usefullness of female only events, regardless, unless more women take a sincere interest in chess, and start participating and studying, there total number of players will remain very small, and because of this, will have little chance of being on equal footing with men.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5025
[b]Women cannot play chess.
But that is no explanation. Wasn’t it your sister who taught you chess?[/b]
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Originally posted by bill718The quote “women cannot play chess” seems to be taken out of context; Aronian infers that it is against a woman’s nature to become completely immersed in a trivial pursuit such as chess implicitly on the basis of minute biological and chemical differences. Thus I do not think that he means to say that women are less intellectually capable of chess success but that it is less likely that women would avidly devote themselves to such a pursuit.
"Women cannot play chess". I think this is incorrect, there have been too many examples of talented female chess players to say this. A more accurate statement is: Women REFUSE to play chess. One can debate the usefullness of female only events, regardless, unless more women take a sincere interest in chess, and start participating and studying, there total ...[text shortened]... y small, and because of this, will have little chance of being on equal footing with men.
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There is no scientific or neurological basis to indicate that women cannot attain the highest ranks in chess or in many other fields; additionally there have been various historical precedents in which women have attained great success in fields that require high cognition and great expertise. Moreover, cultural contexts and socioeconomics should be considered when attempting to gauge women’s chess prowess throughout history.
Notably, the Polgars and Vera Menchik historically have beaten top players; additionally possibly Hou Yifan and Koneru are potential top-tier chess players of the future.
And a woman (Eva Moser) beat David Tebb at the recent Euro championships. 😛
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1507436
Naturally, males can be quite emotionally charged; the top male chess players are passionate about their chess and heterosexual males do not always easily repress their feelings regarding women. And why should they? 😉
Scientifically, it is known that increased passion may correspond with increased memory.
Below are some pictures of photogenic women who played the 2006 Olympiad.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3178
I recall one possible "explanation", namely that the natural bell curves of intellectual ability are slightly different between men and women. Specifically, that the curve for men is slightly wider. Statistical differences, to the extent they exist, would be most apparent at the extreme ends. It's not proved by any means, but at least it's consistent with things like the percentages on the FIDE top 100 list and among those in prison.
Even if this is true, it doesn't account for many other factors, such as the amount of effort people make to become proficient. There are social factors as well - I don't pretend to have any kind of complete explanation.
Statistical analysis is that it has nothing to do with the level of a given individual's achievement, nor does it limit what's possible.