this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2025
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meh.
if they really cared, there would not be any official 'gendered' tournaments. but there are, because they want that for some reason.
Gendered chess tournaments make a certain amount of sense. The main issues are that women are less likely to play chess due to societal and cultural factors and without their own division would have even more societal and cultural roadblocks to joining the game. This isn't touching on how getting certain titles requires winning specific events that would prove even more difficult for those same reasons.
Basically without gendered tournaments there would be even less women in chess and it would be even more of a "boys club" than it already is.
The system only functions the way it does because the people prop it up. Any system.
So instead of having a welcoming space for a historically and actively marginalized group while allowing them to still complete in every other tournament we should just what? Close women's divisions, revoke all their titles, and tell them to play "real chess" instead?
Like getting rid of women's tournaments is only a bad thing that would make the game stagnant even further to being the "boys club" game a lot of people already think it is when chess should be for everybody.
I'm not fond of self-marginalizing. So maybe some of us are uncomfortable. Some men will be, too. Maybe individuals are capable of self-regulating if empowered to do that. I'm sure some chuds will throw a tantrum. Block and parry, so to speak.
Then play in an open tournament?
Sure
I'm being genially serious, find a local club and give it a try, you might find you enjoy it. Or you could try playing on chess.com for an even easier entry they also have computer opponents of various skill levels if you feel intimidated by having a human opponent to begin