Why Does Chess Have Separate Men's and Women's Tournaments?

Chess is perhaps today's most popular game. In a game that goes back tens, even hundreds of years, a lot hasn't changed at all. No new rules have been added, every piece still moves the same way, and there are still plenty of players playing their first games who are busy just learning not to fall for a scholar's mate. :) One thing that hasn't changed either is that men play chess far more than women do. Looking back through history and at today, we see that the best players are generally men. There hasn't been a female World Champion yet — every champion to date has been a man. In fact, women's and "open" tournaments are even held separately. So what's the reason for this divide? Why is there a gender divide in chess? Who has been the best female chess player to date? You'll find the answers to these questions in our article!

Why Is There a Gender Divide in Chess?

This is a question that's still debated to this day, and one that a lot of people have offered various explanations for. We'll try to explain it to you as accurately as we can. First, we should mention that we have a lot of data on this. One piece of this data is that women play chess far less than men do. In fact, for roughly every 50 men interested in chess, there are only about 3 women. This holds true from Norway, the home country of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, all the way to Türkiye.

Women simply aren't present in this sport at the same numbers as men. So what could be the reasons for this? It's a fact that women face difficulties in many areas due to unequal opportunity. Many families support their sons in various physical or mental sports, while many women don't get the same encouragement. In addition, according to a study you can reach by clicking this link, the male brain and the female brain work differently in childhood not in terms of intelligence, but in terms of interest. Women can get bored of chess faster, while men don't get bored as easily. This is said to stem from men's "territory-claiming" instinct inherited from their hunter-gatherer past. In a sport where women aren't as active, aren't as interested, and aren't present in the same numbers as men, it's a very natural result that men are more successful. Perhaps, thanks to the influence of the show The Queen's Gambit, more women will take an interest in chess, get started, and we'll see the first female World Champion in history in the future!

Why Do Men and Women Play in Separate Chess Tournaments?

First, we should mention that there's no such concept as a "men's tournament" in chess. There are open tournaments and women's tournaments. Chess players of any gender can enter open tournaments, while only women can enter women's tournaments. The reason for this, as we just mentioned, is that there are fewer female chess players worldwide due to unequal opportunity or lack of interest. The World Chess Federation (FIDE) turned to this method to boost women's interest in chess. Women can compete among themselves in these tournaments and share in the prizes too. This way, they can earn money from the sport without having to compete against the men who play the game in much greater numbers worldwide. This, in turn, boosts women's interest in the game and in tournaments. So we could say separate tournaments exist to boost women's interest in the game.

Of course, it's possible to describe this as a kind of positive discrimination. In fact, some women find it sexist. We know that some female grandmasters have refused to play in the "women's" category and only play in open tournaments. Hou Yifan, the only woman in the world's top 100, withdrew from an "open" tournament she was competing in in Gibraltar in 2017. The reason was that, even though the tournament was mostly made up of men, she was paired against women in 7 of her first 10 matches. Seeing this as a kind of positive discrimination, Hou Yifan showed up 30 minutes late to her match, made 5 protest moves, and withdrew from the match. Judging the odds of 7 out of 10 pairings being against women as extremely low, the grandmaster withdrew from the tournament, citing sexism directed at women.

Who Is the Best Active Female Chess Player Today?

Today's best active female chess player is the Chinese player we just mentioned, Hou Yifan. Having won the Women's World Championship in 2010 at age 16 in Hatay here in our country, Hou Yifan currently sits at 83rd in the world rankings. Her ELO currently stands at 2658, having climbed as high as 55th in the world rankings at her peak. But she isn't the best female chess player in history.

Who Is the Best Female Chess Player in History?

The best chess player in history is Judit Polgar, and this isn't even up for debate. While plenty of people argue over Carlsen or Kasparov among the men, Polgar doesn't even have a rival. Having beaten both Carlsen and Kasparov, Polgar also managed to defeat many grandmasters, including Karpov, Anand, and Kramnik. The only woman to surpass a 2700 ELO rating, Polgar also became a grandmaster in 1991 at age 15, taking the title of youngest grandmaster ever away from Fischer. Sitting at the top of the women's rankings throughout history from age 12 until her retirement at 38, Polgar managed to climb as high as 8th in the overall world rankings during her career, reaching a 2735 ELO rating.

Having beaten Russian World Champion Garry Kasparov in Rapid (a 10-minute match) at the Russia vs. the World event in 2002, Polgar became the first woman in history to beat a world No. 1, and Kasparov quickly and shamefully left the match, then the arena. When asked about the match afterward, Polgar said, "It was one of the happiest and proudest moments of my life." You can view the match via this link!

We hope this article has answered a lot of your questions. For more chess content, you can check out plenty of other pages on our site through the articles below!