Posted by hm. on October 18, 19100 at 07:02:18:
In Reply to: Women in chess, Women in Chess posted by Mark on February 01, 1998 at 10:58:35:
As a long time player, this is misinformed on several counts.
It is doubtful that chess is based with any exactitude on war, and it certainly did not originate in feudal Europe (although some of the official rules as they are known today were first introduced around the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Italy).
The point that as children girls and boys are encouraged, pressured, and expected to perform in different fields is very accurate, and largely accounts for the overwhelming gender bias in the game.
Polgar may be better than most men, as she has devoted her life to study and practice of the game since her father forced her to at a very young age. But it still remains that her play is an order of magnitude inferior to the best players in the world, all men; in the upper echelons the players are increasingly sparse, and near the top there still remain /no women/. I wish there were more; I think it is very likely that if more women played this would cease to be the case, and that women are capable of playing the game at its very best: but let us not misstate the present case, for right now they don't! Although as an ardent believer in the morals of equality I myself want to believe that women can play the game just as well as men, as a scientist I balk at the claim that there is any proof. There are far more men in the field and the highest levels are /purely male dominated/; this situation allows us to draw very few conclusions indeed, and "decisive proof" coming from this is outrageous.
As for The Psychology of a Chess Player by Reuben Fine, I must agree, it is a very interesting read.
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