It’s not a physical game, yet I have never seen any women playing against men. I remember once there was a charity game where men and women played but not official Fide tournaments.
Forgive me if they have, they r very rare at least.
Is there a proper reason ?
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Its because of farts. Male chess players are notorious farters and women cant handle the stink
I think the truth is, there are a variety of factors which explain the massive skill difference at the top level between men and women chess players.
Chess requires a large amount of training and teaching from a young age. Historically this was something that was only afforded to men throughout most cultures, hence there is some historical sociocultural advantages that men have.
Although nowadays this is less as any chess club that would refuse a girl based on sex would instantly be shut down, but these kinds of things can still permeate.
There is also the statistical mathematical factor which explains some proportion of the gap. Far more young boys for whatever reason play and learn chess than young girls. If there are less women participating overall, it would be natural to observe less women at the highest level, in similar ratios.
This is interesting because this itself is a gap that probably has a multitude of factors contributing to it e.g. sociocultural norms, inherent interest, etc.
There is also the argument that this works in reverse I.e. young boys are better than young girls for whatever reason, and attrition rates are lower in things you are good at.
There is also probably some biological component. Twin studies show intellectual capabilities are heavily biologically driven, up to 70% is genetic, and mens brains are biologically very different to women’s. In general they have been shown in some studies to be better at pattern recognition and memory based tasks, two skills probably very useful to have for a game like chess. Similarly to how’s its been shown that men are on average more competitive and are not driven to quit due to competition as often, another mental trait driven by biology to some degree.
The truth is the last point is often ignored or dismissed because it can be demeaning or contradictory to the idea that biology plays no part in the differing mental traits.
However statistically it probably does, and if we’re trying to be honest in finding the truth behind the gap in women’s vs men’s skill at the highest level, it wouldn’t be accurate to dismiss it, just like it wouldn’t be accurate to dismiss the other factors.
Just to clarify, at amateur and semi-pro level girls’ & boys’ pools are combined, and there’s only one single tourney, and yes, girls can and do win them. It’s mostly just the Masters level FIDE tournaments, what you’d call “Pro chess”, that run a separate Women’s category
Since you said ELI5, there are 4 major issues / reasons:
1. Simply put, chess is a male-heavy game. To be a pro 99.9% you’ve gotta start at the age of 3-4. It takes serious training and tutoring (≡ $$$). And due to gender biases, parents have a lower risk appetite for girls. So, fewer girls get the necessary support to pursue this passion in their formative years, leading to fewer Women Masters.
2. Since there are fewer female pros, if FIDE only conducted a single tournament, very few women would ever get the chance to compete at the top level, which would only further worsen the female player pool. By having a women’s category, yes the ELO floor is lowered, but at least a good number of women get a chance to play at top level tourneys.
3. Even if women enter the Open category (remember, the categories are Open and Women’s, not Men’s and Women’s) it is accused that in the lower rounds disproportionately more women are played against each other. Women cite a malicious intent of protecting male egos and having women eliminate each other. Others say it’s done so all women are not eliminated in the early rounds by the men. What’s the truth, is anyone’s guess.
4. Just as any other sport, tourneys pay big bucks for winning and being near the top of the table. That’s how athletes get their names in the news and attract sponsors. If you were Yifan, the only 2600+ active female player, what is more practical? To win the Women’s category, prize pool and a photo with the trophy, or be a no-name 17th in the Open category?
All of the above, a complicated mix of gender biases, practical realities and financial implications work together, ending up making pro chess gendered.
PS: There is possibly another factor. Male IQ bell curve is observably flatter than the Female IQ curve, meaning, there’s a higher chance of men being either geniuses or mentally retarded, as compared to women. And there is a significant correlation between IQ and chess prowess, so that would seem like a “natural” explanation of fewer female pros. However, there is seriously low quality and conflicting data on all this, so at the moment, it’s best ignored.
Men and women can equally play the game. There’s no reason why a woman couldn’t compete and beat a top level man in chess, unlike in say tennis or boxing where biological differences give men the advantage (woman have the advantage in ultramarathons though).
However there’s a lot more social aspects. A game that is dominated by men is going to be a hard place for a woman to feel as comfortable in and therefore as able to compete as a man. The same applies in several other sports, like say pool. There’s quite honestly poor sportsmanship expressed by certain champions against their male opponents, such poor sportsmanship will get even worse against female opponents.
Women chess leagues were therefore created to give more recognition to women. As the game is played by more women, and you see players dedicating themselves at equally young ages, then you could esoext eventually for women to appear more in the top lists.
It’s important to note theres an well noted phenomenon where teenage girls give up on hobbies etc as teens when faced with competition, especially when those things are not see as traditionally a place where women have been before. Despite women really being not really worse at STEM for example, many women stop applying themselves at such an age because of antagonism from male classmates, and dealing with identity issues while struggling with something. Sure some young men face similar difficulties, but fewer young men are trying to branch into female dominated spaces with few male role models.
Because men represent intelligence distribution more in the extremes. In other words, they are the smartest and the dumbest, which is why you see the best of chess players being men since it heavily relies on BRAIN.
It’s not like that, there is a women’s chess league that was made to promote chess amongst women and regular chess leagues where everyone competes. It’s people that hear that there is women’s chess so it must mean that there is men’s chess too
They can. There’s an open division and a women’s division. But if you don’t place good you don’t win money
No one has mentioned how misogynistic chess clubs/class/etc can be.
It’s the same reason you don’t see girls playing D&D or MtG. No because our brains are “different” lol but because it’s SUPER uncomfy to be in a room of desperate thirsty gatekeeping nerds while you’re just trying to have fun playing a game.
Men and women do compete against each other in chess, including in official FIDE (International Chess Federation) tournaments. The notion that they don’t is based on seeing fewer mixed matches at the top levels, which has historical reasons. Chess was long male-dominated, creating a larger pool of male players in high-level competitions and making women’s visibility in these ranks less common.
To encourage female participation, chess organizations made women-specific tournaments and titles. This doesn’t exclude women from competing with men – many participate in open tournaments without gender restrictions. The presence of women’s events is to support and increase the participation of women in chess, not to segregate competitions.
There are mostly 2 types of tournaments in chess- Open and Women-only. Women are welcome to play in the Open tournaments as well, which accepts both genders. But most of the time they prefer women-only as it gives them a greater chance at winning.
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