I just found the article today. Read it first and read my comments on the bottom of this page.

Chess is Unfair to Women
By Bruce Walker on Jul 06, 07

Chess is unfair to women. That, at least, is the only conclusion anyone can reach after perusing the latest rankings of the top one hundred chess players in the world. This is my fourth article on the topic that I typically call “Womenism and Chess Fairness.” Back in January 2003, it appeared I noted that there was only one woman in the top one hundred chess players in the world, Judith Polgar.

It is absolutely undeniable that Judith is a fantastic chess player and she has admirably declined to play in the “women’s only” section of the international chess world. At one time, Polgar was among the top ten chess players in the world, much higher than any woman has ever reached in chess rankings.

But as I noted in my last three articles, Judith has either stayed at the same level or dropped (which does not necessarily mean that she has lost games, but rather than other more active players have won games which moved them ahead of her.) The July 2007 chess rankings show that Judith, who had been the 13th ranked player in the world in April, had dropped to the 19th best player in the world.

Why has this happened? Men and women are different types of creatures. Womenists – those who pretend to carry the banner of equality of the sexes, but who actually are nothing more than a sordid special interest group that always advocates the case of women over men – have demanded, as a political matter, that men and women are equal in every way (except in those ways in which women are better than men.)

The very best woman chess player in the world is not competing against men who have had more advantages than her: quite the opposite. Judith’s parents are both outstanding chess players (1), her sister is an outstanding chess player (2), her father quit his job and pulled Judith out of school so that she could study chess fulltime (3). Judith Polgar had more advantages, more special help, better environmental conditions to be a great chess player than any of the ninety-nine men she competes against (4). Moreover, Judith has grown up in a generation that insists at every level of society that men are not better than women in any area of intellectual achievement.

Reality is very different. On average, men score higher on intelligence tests than women. This applies not only to mathematical and spatial reasoning, but also to language skills. The most gifted humans in history have almost always been men, even when they were men who rose from the most desperate conditions. Women, even when they grew up in privileged conditions (like Polgar) have almost never risen to the top in most intellectual fields (5).

The rest can be read here.

Facts:

1. My mother did not know how to play chess at all. My father was at best a hobby player at 1000-1300 when he taught me chess.

2. She has 2 outstanding chess playing sisters, not one. Let’s not forget that even when Sofia did not take chess as serious as Judit, she is still a multiple time Olympic Champion, has the best open tournament performance in history in Rome, and she was ranked as the #6 woman player in the world.

3. Judit was never pulled out of school. She was homeschooled all along.

4. ???

5. I am sure the people who attended the Polgar Chess, Education and Cultural Tour a few weeks ago will disagree. They saw the house we grew up in. We may have been middle class / a tad below in Hungarian standard. However, if you compare that to America, it would be considered poverty.

The article is actually interesting for discussion. However, there are a number of factual problems. This is a standard problem in chess. Many people come to conclusions without knowing the true facts. It is like thinking about your own moves without looking at what the opponents are doing.

This is similar to what I read all the time at various newsgroup and even in the USCF forums. Why not bother finding out the facts? Why not ask? People like to boast “Susan said this, Susan said that” when I said nothing and most of the things discussed have no basis.

Unfortunately, too many people like to make assumptions based on non-factual information and this is one of the reasons why animosity, hatred and political wars exist in chess among many chess leaders.

Leaving the factual information aside, what is your take on the article?

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