Should Chess be gender segregated?

[Aiko_E_Lara]

Like other sports, men tend to be advantageous due to men's natural strength and speed which is why they're separated in the first place. But what about when it comes to sports like Chess?

Updates

1 y

I see a lot of you'll say no but this would shock you that there are actually female only chess competitions for whatever excuse they have.

Updates

1 y

It says there is a female only chess competition to highlight female chess players but that will just limit their skills if they only choose to compete with other female chess players.

[NamerOfStars]

No. The idea that women couldn't be expected to lift chess pieces is just ridiculous. I mean, a whopping three quarters of an ounce; what woman could possibly lift that? Unfortunately, FIDE is a political organization more than an athletic one. They still insist on the idea that women HAVE to have lower standards (200 ELO points lower than their male counterparts) or women won't be interested enough to play chess.

Because, you see, women are so utterly devoid of drive, self-respect, and regard for accomplishment that they'll only participate in things if they can win meaningless awards. See how sexist it sounds when you state it plainly?

They also banned the Muzychuk sisters (who are both actual grandmasters) for refusing to sign a letter calling for the banning of Russian and Belorussian players. I mean, okay, when you get chess and Russia together, politics are never far behind; Bobby Fischer was dead right. Well, in the area of the Soviets gaming the tournament system to ensure their continuous record of chess victories; not about the evil cabal of Jews running the world.

Actually, that brings up another point; many of the greats of the chess world are also kind of nuts; Fischer, Morphy, Torre, Rubinstein, Ilyumzhinov... even Ivanchuk's a little crazy, but it's more in the "Aspergian eccentric" category (or so I'm told). This is one area where women DO, statistically, have little ability to compete with men, but it's not actually a required part of the game.

[RavVid]

There is possibly a case for it. Somewhere around 40 female grandmasters versus 1,600+ male grandmasters.

Men have better spatial skills than women. Women navigate by landmarks and men by dead reckoning. Spatial skills are important to chess and maths.

But what would the point of segregation in chess? In running it would be boring watching all the guys lapping all the girls again. If it wasn't segregated no girl would bother turning up.

Chess is sort of segregated in that there are series of women only titles with a lower threshold. Women Grandmaster has a lower criteria to meet than a male Grandmaster and it wouldn't follow that a female grandmaster could beat a male grandmaster.

[adam6402]

I've had this argument before. There should be absolutely no gender segregation in chess and even sports like pool and darts etc. Any sport where physical strength isn't a main factor should be mixed gender. Now to be fair, I understand there is an argument to be had with pool and darts etc, because they do still require physical capabilities, but chess is absolutely out of the question.

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe competition should protect physical sensitivity but not mental sensitivity. Crises management is needed for physical injuries in sports while mental injuries from mental sports are less likely to happen. The idea that women should be given a lighter competitive framework should not extend to non contact sports since they are less invasive and less disproportionately favourable of any gender.

[MisterWack]

It is Chess, maybe male / female leagues should exist however shouldn’t stop them from competing with one another. I don't know.

[TopShelfMan]

There is only 1 woman in the top 100 chess players.

[Aiko_E_Lara]

So is that a yes or no?

[TopShelfMan]

No. It isn't physical so women and men can compete together, even though it will always be dominated by men due to the high intelligence men being more intelligent than the highest intelligence women.

[Red_Arrow]

Yes. The queen should always be kept separate from the king.

[JonCobretti]

I never cared about that sport but I was taken aback when I knew it had gender division

[Anonymous]

Chess is hardly a sport. Chess is gendered in the sense that there is "open", in which both sexes can play, and "women's". And that's how I think it should be.

[Anonymous]

No. Mental skills (for male and female) are different than physical skills, and are potentially equal

[Luopio27]

Chess, no segregation please!

[Anonymous]

No sports should be gender segregated