Mate check – women play worse against men
By Roger Dobson and Tom McTague
Published: 03 June 2007
The Independent
Women make up only 1 per cent of chess Grandmasters. Yet according to a new study their under-performance is not down to lack of ability, but an awareness that they are expected to do badly. Researchers have shown that when women are under the illusion their opponent is female, they performed as well as the men. However their performance dropped by 50 per cent when they were aware they were playing a man. The researchers said women face accusations of “inferior (‘girl’s’) play, but when they perform exceptionally well, their femininity is also often doubted”.
They say the findings also suggest that women tend to approach chess games more cautiously and with less self-confidence, which may explain their worldwide under-representation and under-performance. “Women seem disadvantaged not because they are lacking cognitive or spatial abilities” but because of their mental approach to tournaments.
But Susan Lalic, the first British-born woman in the UK to attain the International Master status believes that there are physical differences between men and women that help explain the performance gap. “Women just aren’t as obsessive about things in the same way as men,” citing her experience in schools where girls match boys up to the age of 11 before diversifying their interests.
…Houska offers an alternative to the nature versus nurture debate, as represented by Lalic and the Padova researchers. Houska argues that women’s under-performance is because it was “only very recently that women… began to play chess and it was only in the Eighties that women were allowed to play alongside men in competitions. It could be that we need simply more time and more role models to encourage young girls to take up the game competitively.”
Here is the full article.
An article that says women suffer from stereotype threat, that men obsess on their interests even if they’re impractical, and that women haven’t had equal opportunities for very long…How is this in any way controversial???
ELP
What kind of research has the author done? It seems that he only spoke to a few British female players. It’s odd to have a conclusion based on a few samples.
I think that comparing the genders is very devisive and unproductive for chess. It is pretty well known that the chess community could use some social assistance. No one does that as well as women! Whether you realize it or not, a chess tournament is a social experience. Chess has a huge advantage over football in that women can fully and easily participate. If you bring enough women into chess, the popularily and profile of the game will just explode. The internet burst will seem modest by comparison.
churchill40
Just to throw in some food for thought…I am a male, and when I am playing an online game (chess or otherwise) and my opponent has a female avatar, I have historically fared worse. I tend to get more nervous and my confidence goes out the window. So even if there is truth to the study, it works both ways.
I kind of agree with the above 12:08 anonymous comment. It seems like men also often do worse than expected when playing against women because, due to the stereotype of women not being as good at chess, or the man feeling like less of a man if they can’t beat a woman, they feel extra pressure to win the game.
I’m sure the male/female female/male playing intimidation/worry/motivation issue is very complex and varies from player to player and with match ups between different players, however the writer of the article offers experimental evidence conducted by researchers that women who are aware they are playing against a man play worse than they should.
As a man (who has both lost and won games against women) I would like to offer one example of player intimidation:
Knowing that you are playing against a computer. I’m pretty sure this is enough to cause even the strongest player to quake.
A quote:
” it was only in the Eighties that women were allowed to play alongside men in competitions.”
Strange that this always comes up in these discussions.
Totally untrue. There is not a single sport where women are not allowed to compete with the men.
Where there is a womens section, it’s to keep the men out. Not to discriminate against women. Women can compete in both sections, the general one and the women-only one.
I don’t know if women are worse than men in chess or not, but what I do think is this: Women should decline the use of woman chess titles, because basically the separate titles translate into FIDE saying this: “We know women are much worse than men, so they need their own category of competition and titles!” If I was a woman I’d find this insulting and degrading.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Mike
The article was poorly written at best and a bad attempt to generate some controversy. The authors didn’t provide a citation to the research they allegedly used to write their article and they made at least one mis-statement of fact when they said that Susan Lalic said women don’t play as well as men because of “physical” factors but then they only quoted her as saying that men are more “obsessive” when it comes to chess. Since when is “obsession” a physical characteristic? Bah, humbug! Those two authors need to go back to school to learn to write – and the publisher of such dreck should get 20 lashes! My guess is that they used the same research published a few months ago that I did when I published this article at Goddesschess: http://www.goddesschess.com/genderandchess/numbersgame.html
Susan Polgar also posted the article about the research when it first cropped up on the internet.
the day that happens will mean a loss to woman in general , less feminity to them and a killer to men.,
are u sure u want to be beasts like men are? its to think it seriously.
An enlightened master called ‘OSHO’ once said woman are more intelligent and loving
)natural,as they give birth) than man. But to satsify man’s ego, ladies have acted inferior from ages. This satisfied men as well as woman. SO,woman have continued this without awareness. I’m not sure how true this statement is..?! Man struggles to love others…while a woman loves children without effort. I wonder what is true..!!
An enlightened master called ‘OSHO’ once said woman are more intelligent and loving
)natural,as they give birth) than man. But to satsify man’s ego, ladies have acted inferior from ages. This satisfied men as well as woman. SO,woman have continued this without awareness. I’m not sure how true this statement is..?! Man struggles to love others…while a woman loves children without effort. I wonder what is true..!!
Oh harsha, your last phrase is telling. OSHO was known for years a Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Brilliant to say the least, his philosophical style was in the spirit of Tal AND Nimzovich. There seems to be a factor of unsoundness to his thinking. His “Bibles of the World” constantly discuss politics, which for me is not a reassuring spiritual sign.
While the Polgar sisters broke into the world’s male dominated chess, their spectacular example didn’t trigger a trend, leading to an equal number of high quality male-female ratio chess players. Which presents with an interesting dilemma: are male and female chess players equal or not? Obviously the only clear way to settle such question, to play against each other. Yet, the article in question introduces “other factors” than the ability of playing chess.
Fortunately today’s technology allows to settle this dispute more than one ways.
1. Pick the best 25 (or whatever reasonable number) top chess players, 25 male, 25 female, and have them play a championship. In one large room would sit 25 Player 1 in front of a computer/online connection with the other large room where the other 25 would be sitting. At any given time, nobody would know (other than the organizers) who is playing at the other end of each connection. In other words, it would be “blind chess”, but not blind to the pieces, but blind to the opponent’s person. While it is a disadvantage not knowing who you playing against, since everybody would have the same disadvantage, in the long run it would even out. The final result would tell whether men are better chess players, or not.
2. Yet an even better method than the previous.
Organize a championship, where both male and female participants would be playing against the best chess engines of our days. Perhaps not the best, but one which is good enough to compete on GM level, but still can be defeated (this could be of course set up on any level of chess). Therefore, both males and females would play against the same engines, not against each other.
Again, the result of such test-championship would reveal the truth. Surely, intimidation could not be an excuse.
3. A method I didn’t think of. Maybe the above two is not good for whatever reasons, but technology allows a true comparison…..if anyone really wants to know the truth. Sometimes people doesn’t.