Why are women so bad at chess? It's due to less evolved brains, isn't it?

Answer 1

Your generality (or poorly worded question) is incorrect.

Women are not inherently "bad at chess". I teach chess to elementary school students and see players develop from a young age. Being male or female makes no difference in their ability to play and improve at the game.

What often happens is that competition appeals more to the boys that the girls. Society (here in the US) tends to push boys towards competitions and achievements more than it does girls. As such it's the boys who are more attached to chess and are willing to spend more time trying to improve at it. It's a choice for them to stick with the game. It's not that the girls can't achieve the same as the boys, it's that they have other things they'd rather do.

To me it is understandable that many females consider the game "boring". I would expect the same from males that have played the game as much. It is also understandable that females who have played it as much as the males who find it "intellectually strategic" would have similar thoughts on the game as well.

You may have looked at top players in the world, saw only a few women and assume that being a woman makes them bad at chess. To quote the first answer, "you are wrong". Being male does not make you good, and being female does not make you bad. Chess is a game that does not care who's playing. ANYONE that wants to play and improve at the game can do so.

- EJ

Answer 2

I think it is a dual issue. First, men are more driven to that type of competition. If it involved a competition against other women where men were the prize, then you would see a different response. That is why women compete so heavily in hair, make-up and clothing. Men never get excited over a woman's Queen's Indian Defense. Women on the other hand, do like "geeks," as they are great providers. Chess, played at the high school competition level, shifts the participants IQ by 10 points over a one year period. Males become better providers, girls get no prettier.

Second, IQ tests forcibly make males and females average out at 100. Gender biased questions are removed. But, and this is very important, the standard deviation among women and men is different. Males have a much higher variance. In simple terms, as a percentage of the population, there are far more male geniuses and far more males who are mentally retarded than females. So, it is also true that the smartest men tend to be more intelligent, as measured by IQ scores, than women.

Finally, women's brains are different, but the data out now on pay shows that women either make the same pay as men, or slightly more than men. It is true the average woman makes less than the average man, but when controlled for behavior, women make equal or greater pay than men. In fact, in 98 fields women make statistically more money than men. For example, the average female software engineer makes 40% more than the average male software engineer. So I would be very careful about discussions of brains.

One other note, a woman has never been the FIDE world champion, the list above is not the FIDE champion also women do in fact rank lower in their ratings both on average and in the extremes.

Answer 3

You don't see them demanding the "rights" to play chess and compete, even though it is supposedly a "man's game", do you ?? And you still see women indulging in gaming even though MMORPGs are more pointless than chess.
Chess is NOT boring, it's only boring to the feeble-minded who don't like engaging in intellectual activity, or simply don't have the capacity to be any good at it.
It requires strategic thinking, the ability to think several steps ahead, and to a certain extent, the ability to read what the opponenet has in mind.

That said, there's a big difference between being less evolved and differently evolved.

"Unless you have played against every chess-playing woman in the world, you don't have the right to ask your question"
right...... lol. I guess I have to compete against every woman athelete to see if they are physically weaker in comparison to men.

My 10 year old male cousin would kick any adult chess player's butt, he's that good.
;-)
Anyway the question is a general observation, not a personal one.

Answer 4

Not all women are bad at chess. I know plenty of women who are very good at it. I think the reason why most women don't learn how to play chess is because it is seen as a mans game. From the begining of time men are the only people to play chess. Slowly women started playing, but weren't nearly as interested.

Answer 5

I don't know of any women that are interested in chess, so I don't know if they're bad at it or not.

Too bad your brain hasn't evolved a bit more, so you could come up with a better gender stereotype. Someone says women are stupid every day--you're just one in a sea of dozens of people (usually men) who hate women.

Answer 6

Personally, I am not interested in the sport, but my 24 year old daughter loves it and has been very good at it.

There have been women who are champions in chess. A few examples?

Akhmilovskaya, Elena - Russia (1957)
Alexandria, Nana - Georgia (1949)
Bikova, Elizaveta - Russia (1913)
Chiburdanidze, Maia - Georgia (1961)
Galliamova, Alisa - Russia (1972)
Gaprindashvili, Nona - Georgia (1941)
Graf-Stevenson, Sonja - Germany/USA (1914)
Ioseliani, Nana - Georgia (1962)
Kosteniuk, Alexandra - Russia (1984)
Kushnir, Alla Russia - (1941)
Levitina, Irina - Russia (1954)
Menchik, Vera - Russia (1906)
Polgar, Judit - Hungary (1976)
Qin Kanying - China (1974)
Rubtsova, Olga - Russia (1909)
Rudenko, Liudmila - Russia (1904)
Xie Jun - China (1970)
Zhu Chen - China (1976)
Zvorikina, Kira - Russia (1919)

So I guess that proves you wrong, eh?

Answer 7

My oldest daughter use to play a very good game of chess. But a woman's mind is more hardwired for feelings and nurturing verses the male's mind which is more hardwired for mechanical thinking and staging war games. The female mind is not preoccupied with strategy, but more so for problem solving at a social level.
But woman do not have less brain capacity then males.
What tends to go against the males is when they switch brains in the presence of a female. wink, wink.

Answer 8

My 12-year-old chess-loving girl cousin would kick the CRAP out of you in a game. She's that good.

Answer 9

Unless you have played against every chess-playing woman in the world, you don't have the right to ask your question.

Answer 10

Perhaps because, in general, strategic war simulations do not hold our interest. So we don't spend much time learning to play the game, therefore we don't excel at it.
It's not less evolved, it's DIFFERENTLY evolved.