MARK RUBERY CHESS

The following excerpt came from a hard-hitting article published in the Wall Street Journal some while ago that proposed the abolition of Women’s chess titles.

‘In 1991, Hungarian chess player Susan Polgar made headlines as the first woman to earn the coveted rank of grandmaster by meeting established performance standards. While competitive chess remains primarily a male activity, women have made impressive progress since then. According to David Jarrett, executive director of the World Chess Federation, women make up about 10% of the organization’s estimated one million members, 7.6% of 100,456 rated players, and 2% of the top 1,000 players world-wide. More significantly, the calibre of the top female players is rising. In July 2005, grandmaster Judit Polgar, Susan’s youngest sister, was the eighth-ranked player worldwide.

Yet the federation, known colloquially as FIDE, persists in the anachronistic and demeaning practice of awarding separate titles for women at lower levels of accomplishment. For example, to qualify as a grandmaster (GM) today, men and women must earn two or more “norms” at a performance rating of 2600 and achieve a published overall rating of 2500. But female players attain the woman grandmaster (WGM) title by earning two or more norms at a performance rating of 2400 and achieving published ratings of 2300. Thus it’s easier to attain the WGM title than to become an international master (IM), which requires two or more norms at 2450 and an overall rating of 2400.

WGM Irina Krush observed: ‘Girls may not naturally possess the “killer instincts” that some boys exhibit, but they can be trained to be more attack-oriented if they compete from childhood. My feeling is that women overall are not as fanatical about it as men and tend to believe there are other things in life.’

A sparkling victory from the queen of chess…