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From: rivero@dev8.mdcbbs.com
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Chess (Was: Sexism)
Message-ID: <1991Apr4.123252.1@dev8.mdcbbs.com>
Date: 5 Apr 91 00:03:39 GMT
References: <560@clbull.cl.bull.fr> <1991Mar16.023153.20594@agate.berkeley.edu> <1991Mar29.020740.2687@world.std.com> <1991Apr1.030506.16835@athena.mit.edu>
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In article <1991Apr1.030506.16835@athena.mit.edu>, sethg@athena.mit.EDU ("Seth A. Gordon") writes:
> 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.
>

It's not just chess. Men are sociallized to operate in packs ( football,
basketball, baseball, platoons), while women are basically conditioned
to operate as a single unit.