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From: arw@world.std.COM (Anthony R Wuersch)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: sexism (against women) [Chess]
Message-ID: <1991Mar21.005845.12514@world.std.com>
Date: 21 Mar 91 20:10:51 GMT
References: <561@clbull.cl.bull.fr> <13379@helios.TAMU.EDU>
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sharring@cs.tamu.EDU (Steven L Harrington) writes:

>In article <561@clbull.cl.bull.fr> rao@cl.bull.fr (Srinivasam Rao) writes:
>>Why don't the members of the "weaker" sex prove themselves by competing
>>with men in the World Chess Championship and becoming the world champion.

First they have to win in the Candidate's tournaments.

>Many more men play chess than women.

Perhaps more men than women *enjoy* chess.

>Why? Well, once again it is
>probably because of societal pressures which "say" that men are more
>fit for math, science, chess, etc. This serves to drive young girls
>away from such interests and pursuits.

Ah, young girls have no will of their own.  More likely, they know
that girls don't play chess.  That it's a social fact doesn't make
it less true.  Many cultures have fixed ideas of gender-"normal".

>Recent sucesses by the now famous (Hungarian) Polgar sisters have
>provided further evidence of the fallacy of this thinking.

For cultures where girls don't play chess, I perceive no fallacy.
The social fact remains.  Habits don't propagate from one culture
to another very easily.  How does Hungarian success affect the US,
or France, for instance?  Speculation: not much.

I think girls do play chess in Eastern Europe.  Don't Russian schools
encourage chess play even, and provide trainers for girls and boys?

The hypothesis of different brain development is not refuted.  One can
claim that significant brain development occurs after birth and is thus
influenced by social facts.  Language centers left unstimulated don't
develop.  Maybe so for other centers too.  The chess center.

>Judit Polgar, the youngest of the three, is on pace to break Bobby
>Fischer's record for the youngest *person* to receive the Grandmaster
>title. Even in the historical record, there is evidence that women
>had the capacity to be very strong chess players. For more information
>refer to the chess career in the early-mid 20th century of Vera Menchik.

Another Eastern European.  The Polgars are interesting in that they
were taught at home.  Their parents are psychologists, who obtained
a special waiver from the Hungarian government in order to use their
children as an educational experiment.

Since the Polgar father is a chess master, it could be claimed with
as much "evidence" that women can play chess, that children of chess
masters can play chess.  I'm sure their chess centers get developed.

>---Steve Harrington

Toni Wuersch
arw@world.std.com   {uunet,bu.edu,bloom-beacon}!world!arw