In chess there has been for a long time the question of the genders. Generally there has been no bar to females from playing in any event, yet they have always been considered weaker than their male counterparts. I would say that this view could be referred to as “Unseparate & Unequal”.
Just as there was the flawed concept of ‘separate, but equal’ for school segregation in the 1950s, I think the concept of ‘unseparate & unequal’ is flawed. Over 50% of the US population is female, yet less than 15% of the US Chess members are female. Won’t growing interest in chess (& the USCF) in females help to grow the USCF?
To begin with since the majority of chess players are male, there is not as welcoming an atmosphere for female players. It is a somewhat rare (and likely good) coach/teacher who gives the same attention/emphasis to female and male players/students. Players themselves are not always as welcoming to female players as to males.
Then there are those who argue against the girls only events. The growth of the All-Girls event shows that there is a market (and maybe need) for girls only events. I would add that there is at least 1 study showing that girls do better at math [anyone not know about the correlation between math and chess?] in an all girl environment than in a mixed environment.
The following All-Female events exist: US Women’s Closed Championship, US Girls Junior Invitational [closed] championship, Kasparaov All-Girls Championship, US Women’s Open [in Las Vegas], & Girls HS Championship [held concurrently with the Denker at the US Open]. I think [please feel free to correct me] only 1 of these events has been run for more than 20 years.
You currently have no female only equivalent to a number of tournaments. There is no Female US Senior Open. There is no Female Barber tournament. There is no Female Junior Open. The first of these should exist and be used to establish & send a Female representative to the World Senior Open, as is done for men.
Respectfully, there are only 91 women 50 and older in US Chess. Iw would be extremely difficult to have enough players gather for a six round tournament.
Nothing wrong with a 5 round event. The 2000 US Senior Open was a 5 round event and had only 20 participants. I know I organized and ran it [otherwise it would not have occurred] kinda last minute. I see 16 ladies on the USCF list [50+] in NY & NJ, and 9 in MA/VT/ME.
Both ICC and Chess.com run US Chess rated events in real time on their sites. One of the issues for many in attending a national event is the cost of travel and lodging.
Why not consider holding men’s and women’s senior national tournaments on ICC in real time much like the US Chess league. One round per day would work well for most seniors. As to the possibility of cheating, make participation dependent on the participant being a member of a local US Chess affiliate club with the club providing a “monitor” to certify that play is “above board?” The participant could choose to play in their own home or at a club venue as a way to help promote the local club.
I’d certainly play in such an event and get the local club involved here in my area of VT. Disclaimer: I used the DGT eboard I gifted myself with for Christmas playing on ICC today and loved it. At present, Chess.com has no plug in for the DGT boards.
Interesting idea. For me, the reason I’m considering playing in next year’s senior is the prospect of seeing a few others of my generation who I haven’t seen for years; several indicated they might play. The social aspect of the event is a draw. I would have zero interest in an on-line tournament. I have no idea whether others would consider that a factor. I suspect the people who attend might think as I do, but that doesn’t speak for the larger crowd of those who don’t attend now. They may well like the idea.
For an online only event, however, I see zero reason to have the men and women play separately. I don’t see much of a reason for seniors anyway, but what few arguments exist are less sensible in an online event.
There is no reason why both can’t be done. It’s easy enough to have a computer link set up via FICS at the tournament site and have people at the event site play each other over the board when paired and then play an opponent via FICS when paired with a player not physically present.
The issue of honesty can be met by requiring the online player to play their games at a club or venue where a certified tournament TD is present. It worked for Fischer playing the tournament in Havana from the Marshall via telex. Technology today is so much better.
Many clubs are not open that long and at the right time to hold an online tournament. Not all clubs have online capability. Few, if any, would want to pay a TD to sit and babysit an online game.
Women who are eligible to play in a Senior Open might just be interested in seeing and playing against all of their colleagues, not just females.
First, I’m not convinced such a tournament is necessary. While I agree in the temporary addition of female events in order to grow female chess, I fundamentally believe that men and women should eventually be able to compete equally.
Second, if such an event is necessary, especially given the numbers involved and potential cost involved, its unclear to me that a SEPARATE event is necessary. Wouldn’t a women’s senior prize - especially given the numbers - likely serve the same purpose?
Kevin may have a point. On the other hand I do not believe there currently is a Women’s prize offered at the US Senior Open. Please correct me if I am wrong. Also, other countries have official male & female representavies at the (FIDE) World Senior Open.
Very few clubs have a set place of their own like the Marshall when it hosted Fischer. Still, if a competitor wants to play by computer from their home or another venue, it would essentially be their responsibility to find, and if necessary, pay for a certified TD to proctor his/her games. That would probably be considerably less money that the cost of travel and lodging to the event venue.
Very intriguing thread. Many ideas worth consideration.
Several points:
A. Unseparate & Unequal - While the point you make is true, I have wondered for decades now WHY this
is true. I know that there tend to be some probable reasons from girls generally being less interested
in non-social games, to motherhood retarding professional careers, etc. Well, if true, then such
reasons would apply to the masses, but not necessarily individuals. I do scratch my head at the thought that there has only been one female in world history, Judit Polgar, to reach overall world championship level.
B. In regard to coaching, this is absolutely true. As the father of a gifted female on a college chess team,
I heard first hand about unnecessary disparaging comments frequently made to girls on the team from
what I now understand to be a “traditional” Eastern European attitude towards female players, even those accomplished. Many young girls do quit chess because they do not like the “bullying” style of many
young male opponents. A good degree of this falls under “boys will be boys, and girls will be girls”.
Both of my daughters exceeded 1500, which I have found out to be fairly rare. And both had to
endure much at a younger age, and learn how to cope. For a female to succeed, she must develop a
“tough skin”. Not the way I would like, to be sure, but the way it seems to be.
C. Girls only events - Hard to run on a local level due to the few females who quite often participate. I
failed utterly as an organizer in getting enough players to pay the bills until I ran a combined All Girls/
All Boys tournament, which for the two years we have run the event had over 100 players each year.
In one of these, 45 girls!!! Now, I assure you, there are very few scholastic events other than state
or nationals that I have seen this many girls present. It was great to see. Now at my local events, we
have separate playing halls and tournament staffs for our All Girls and All Boys sections, with blue
trophies for the boys, and pink for the girls. Also, trophies for girls wearing the most pink, and boys
wearing the most blue.
On a national level, I do think you forgot about the SPNIG (Susan Polgar National Invitational for Girls)
which is going on its 12th anniversary, this year I think at Webster College, in St. Louis, and before was
a quite successful annual event at Texas Tech.
There have been many studies which support a girls only educational environment as helping them
nurture specific learning skills such as math, science etc, at a higher rated than mixed gender
education. So, why not chess??
D. US Womens Senior Open – not a bad idea, but perhaps the age would need to be lowered to 30-40.
At one of the oldest chess clubs in the nation, the Dallas Chess Club, and in one of the quickest growing, the Plano Chess Club, in 12+ years as a tournament director, with over 600 open to all tournaments directed, I have seen only a small handful of female adult, non-collegiate play, and most of these were lower level intermediate, novice level players. It is extremely RARE to witness 1400+ level adult women play, much less adult female seniors. (the one exception, of course, was the US Women’s
Championship I helped with in Tulsa, Ok, many years ago.)
I would think, much as the US Women's HS championship is run today, at the Denker, that other
female events such as a women’s Barber, for example, would need to be held. Running these as stand alone events might be too much of a financial risk for most organizers.
Please don’t lower the age for Senior to 30 or 40. No one wants to be called a Senior at that age! As I approach 65, I am now ok with being called a Senior.
Brenda
Female player who once busted 1400, but is again in the minnow pool, sadly.
Senior TD
When talking with female players that were active as kids and continued to be active as adults, a majority have said that the intra-gender peer pressure was stronger than the inter-gender peer pressure, requiring even tougher skin than otherwise. It has often seemed that the inter-gender pressure was kind of like a volleyball set preparing for a devastating intra-gender pressure spike. The inter-gender chess club/chess tournament comments are the ones the chess community is most able to affect, so de-escalating those would probably be the “biggest bang for the buck” that could be tried (returning to volleyball, spiking is less effective without a good set).
Brenda, this was just a suggestion of how to get around the fact that you are one of the rare female “jewels” we have still
playing as a senior with USCF - and that if the idea of a Women’s Senior Championship is to be viable, more players would
be needed.
As I approach 65, I am now ok with being called a Senior.