Women in the Chess World

A few months ago, I posted for the first time in a forum a joke about how men and women play chess together and accidentally offended a few guys. It was a steep learning curve for me to be careful about what I post online "in a room full" of male chess players. And now I dare dip a toe in the same water to talk about women in chess, but only this time in blog form.

I have only been playing chess with any serious interest since the fall of 2019. Since the beginning, I have been delving deep into the biographies of famous chess players from the past. It is fascinating to me to learn about what motivated each player and why they became so good at this very competitive game. While there are some documentaries and movies about a few female players, it is far easier to find stories about male players because there are so many more male grandmasters. So I asked the obvious rookie question, "Why are there so few women playing chess?"... and thus I learned that the male-to-female chess player ratio can be a heated topic to discuss. I took my time and studied the reasons people presented. For example, chess is designed for the male brain; men are more aggressive; women lose interest as they get older and have kids; women are not as supported in chess... and the list goes on. I thought about all these theories and then some. I agree with some points and disagree with others. After awhile, I started to wonder if perhaps I was asking the wrong question. Does it really matter if there are many more men who play chess than women? Does it need to be 50/50? Or any other "acceptable" ratio? There are hobbies that more men naturally gravitate towards and activities that women typically enjoy more. I think the ratio of men to women in chess really doesn't matter AS LONG as women are given the same opportunities to TRY to play if they want to. In this day and age, I think we are seeing more kids, both girls and boys, being encouraged to play chess at a young age. This is awesome! In recent years, we have seen the rise of more female chess players. That's exciting to me, not because I think the numbers need to be balanced out in the chess world, but because I see it as a sign that women around the world are being given more opportunities than they had a couple of generations ago. And THAT, I think, is a step in the right direction.

In my community, if I go to a chess club where I am unknown, I still get strange looks at first as to why I am there. Some people assume I am there just to watch my guy friends play. It doesn't offend me in any way. It makes sense. The ODDS are that this big-haired lady does not play chess. But when I sit down to play with some of the guys, it's always a funny surprise to them when they see I know an opening or two. Why would I mind enjoying such a laugh? :-)