Posted by Alexander Moore on May 10, 19101 at 12:10:30:
In Reply to: Women in chess, Women in Chess posted by Mark on February 01, 1998 at 10:58:35:
I would say the reason women don't play chess as much as men is quite simply that they are inherently not good at it. The fact that in society they are not encouraged to play only proves and compounds this fundamental cause.
Several studies - surveys as well as anatomical comparisons - have decisively suggested that men generally have much better spatial abilities than women. This is why most women have to turn a map in the direction they're facing to read it, for instance. The same idea seems absolutely ridiculous to most men.
Likewise in chess, I hold that spatial perception is extremely important. There are a lot of dynamics involved on a chess board, most of which we learn to anticipate, or create, as we get better. I think that the brains of most women just aren't tuned to such uses. This doesn't exclude women from being good at chess. It just means that women players are a very rare breed, and a fortiori good ones too, as all will no doubt agree.
Post a Reply