Hou Yifan

Hou Yifan, a twelve year old girl from China, won again today in the Corus C group. She is one of four in second place behind leader Ian Nepomniachtchi.

I noticed her a few months ago (and got called a sexist moronic pig for my trouble ): http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=54834

Here's a picture of her:
http://www.chessbase.com/ESPANOLA/images/2006/Olimpiada%20Turin/1/095.jpg

Her & that other girly who's doing well make me wonder if the 'internet age of chess' will create much stronger female players - as a result of removing them from the unattractive environment of young boys wetting themselves etc I mean. So they stick with the game longer, ie, as a result of being less repulsed by all the BO and Star Trek t-shirts.

What does everyone else reckon?

Originally posted by TommyC
Her & that other girly who's doing well make me wonder if the 'internet age of chess' will create much stronger female players - as a result of removing them from the unattractive environment of young boys wetting themselves etc I mean. So they stick with the game longer, ie, as a result of being less repulsed by all the BO and Star Trek t-shirts.

What does everyone else reckon?

I think online chess is a whole another gear for the whole chess world, on every level. and women are taking their place all around in previously male dominated diciplines. it'll only take one successful female super GM to shatter the condescending mindset of the old male dinosaurs. one barbara fischer, carol kasparov or michaela tal. so far, the numbers have been against it, there's simply too few female players. but sooner or later, there will come someone who will beat all the men at that point. that will have a huge boost on the number of female players. and the more female players there will be, the more chance of such a genius occurring. it's only a question of time.

maybe it'll even be hou yifan, who knows?

The odds were against the US to produce a talent that was capable of dominating the Russian chess machine after ww2. But from out of the blue came Fischer. After he came and went the US hasn't been able to produce another like him.

I'm hoping a female chess marvel will pop out of the blue in the same manner. Of course, so long as the media keeps producing and encouraging horrible role models like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton (who show that being ditzy can bring you success), it may take quite a while for Roberta Fischer to appear.

Originally posted by wormwood
I think online chess is a whole another gear for the whole chess world, on every level. and women are taking their place all around in previously male dominated diciplines. it'll only take one successful female super GM to shatter the condescending mindset of the old male dinosaurs. one barbara fischer, carol kasparov or michaela tal. so far, the numbers ha genius occurring. it's only a question of time.

maybe it'll even be hou yifan, who knows?

There already is a female Super GM. Judit Polgar is currently rated 2727 and has been over 2700 for the last 4 years. She's ranked 13th in the World - ahead of great players such as Ponomariov, Navara, Grischuk, Shirov, Kamsky, Short...

So the breakthrough in women's chess has already occurred.

For it to be a breakthrough of the magnitude that would say, revolutionize women playing chess, she would have to do what Fischer did, outplay everyone in the world by a dramatic degree.

The Beatles wouldn't have had quite the impact on music history if they managed to be #1 in Britain, yet only #6 in America. Yes, that would be considered a breakthrough, since no British band would have charted so high in US shores previously. But it wouldn't have been THE breakthrough that would influence musicians for the next decade or so.