Iranian woman becomes chess Grandmaster
Payvand – 05/18/09
TEHRAN, May 18 (Mehr News Agency) — Iranian chess player Atousa Pourkashiyan became Chess Grandmaster on Monday. Pourkashiyan earned the title in the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden after gaining eight points in 11 games. She competed with four Grandmasters and five International Masters in the event.
The title Grandmaster is awarded to excellent chess masters by the World Chess Federation FIDE. Apart from “World Champion”, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can achieve.
Pourkashiyan has played for Iran in the Women’s Asian Teams Chess Championships in 2003, 2005 and 2008.
Source: http://www.payvand.com
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Huh?
According to FIDE, she is already a WGM, and with a rating under 2300, she doesn’t seem strong enough to be a GM.
She earned the wgm title at Dresden. She played wgms and wims, NOT GMs and IMs. Why can’t we abolish these w-titles – women are perfectly capable of earning the real titles. This young lady would maybe aspire to IM and work harder!
“Why can’t we abolish these w-titles – women are perfectly capable of earning the real titles.”
I agree. There’s really no logic to these w-titles, or for that matter, w-tournaments. Distinction between genders should only be made in physical sports, where women are generally inferior. But giving separate titles to women in mental sports is an insult to the female gender, insinuating that they’re mentally inferior as well. Let women compete alongside men, and seek gender-free titles.
Kosteniuk started that BS by coming out her book How I Became a Grandmaster at 14 when she was just a WGM. Other girls started to follow that BS.