Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway
From: sethg@athena.mit.EDU ("Seth A. Gordon")
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Chess (Was: Sexism)
Message-ID: <1991Apr1.030506.16835@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 3 Apr 91 00:42:12 GMT
References: <560@clbull.cl.bull.fr> <1991Mar16.023153.20594@agate.berkeley.edu> <1991Mar29.020740.2687@world.std.com>
Organization: The Institute for Dangerous Research
Lines: 20
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: zola.ics.uci.edu

A friend of mine, who is a fairly good chess player, says that in
order to play chess at the international-master level, you need to be
aggressive; you have to treat the other player as an enemy to be
demolished, not just someone you're playing a game with.  He has made
a conscious choice to be a nice guy instead of a master chess player.

If he's right about chess and attitude, then when boys are socialized
to be more aggressive than girls, it helps male chess players win more
games than female players.

Furthermore, if chess-playing ability is distributed in a normal curve
(or something similar), a small difference in the ability of average
players implies a massive difference in the ability of
grandmaster-level players.

--
--
"Some people get results, I get consequences." --Jimmy Durante
: bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!sethg / standard disclaimer
: Seth Gordon / MIT Brnch., PO Box 53, Cambridge, MA 02139