Females and chess: A little push back
25 May '17 14:033 editsI've been reading a few posts in the chess and debates sections of RHP concerning women and chess, and am going to have to push back a little here. Though the situations involving females being banned for not adhering to a dress code or head wear rules are unfortunate, they are also highly publicized and rare events. Some have gone so far as to suggest that females are somehow oppressed, or discouraged from chess. I would suggest in the vast majority of cases, thus is simply untrue. The REAL reason we find fewer female chess players is a well known, but little spoken of fact: Very few females care about chess! Back in the 80's and 90's I played a lot of OTB chess in Canada and the USA, chess clubs were constantly trying to encourage female participation. Women were given discounts (or free) memberships to chess clubs, but few females responded. Female victories over their male counterparts in tournaments were given lavish praise in the local chess publications. Sometimes a local master would give a lecture on endgames or tactics, while the male members paid rapt attention, only about half the female members did so, the rest simply wandered off to shop, or sat in the back of the room gossiping about their social life or their kids. To be fair, some female members did enjoy chess, spent time with it, and went on to become strong players, but they were few and far between. I would hope more ladies world wide participate in chess, the game has a great deal to offer, but as an old track coach once said: "You can't coach desire, you either have it, or you don't"
