I got really interested in chess awhile back, to the point of playing almost every day and reading books about the pirc defense opening and getting my ass whupped miserably by the old men with the chess clocks in Harvard Square.
I watch all the masters in the park when I can, they all hang out and smoke cigars and and talk about various chess opening and move the chess pieces so fast that they slam together audibly when they make a capture. It’s mesmerizing.
It took me awhile to notice that I was the only female to hang around this chessland, and in most of my chessbooks they outline the plays of World Champions, and they are always men.
The tobacco shop in Harvard Square sells cigars and chessboards, and there are never any women in the store.
So what’s the deal with that? I didn’t know that chess was a manly thing but apparently it is.
I’m not bitching about this, I am just wondering-
How did this become a Boys Club? Are men better at spatial relations or whatever mental functioning is needed for chess briliance, or is it just tradition, like cigars?
Would chess-men feel invaded if I were to participate or would they think I’m a cool tomboyish chess-chick?
Has anyone been to a tournament? Are there more males?
I think I like it, to a degree. It makes me feel unique to be good enough to beat most of my male friends.
Check out this website.
Yes competitive chess is a fairly male dominated arena, but this is slowly changing. There is a woman’s world champion and several large women’s tournaments check out the US chess federation site here for more information and how to get in touch with your local chapter.
There are also several god on-line chess sites that run online competitions if you are interested. If you need more information drop us a line and I’ll shoot you my complete list of chess bookmarks.
Just a word of caution the politics in the Chess world at present is a little murky and a number of people are becoming disaffected with the way things are being run so be prepared for some interesting times.
Check out this website.
Yes competitive chess is a fairly male dominated arena, but this is slowly changing. There is a woman’s world champion and several large women’s tournaments check out the US chess federation site here for more information and how to get in touch with your local chapter.
There are also several good on-line chess sites that run online competitions if you are interested. If you need more information drop us a line and I’ll shoot you my complete list of chess bookmarks.
Just a word of caution the politics in the Chess world at present is a little murky and a number of people are becoming disaffected with the way things are being run so be prepared for some interesting times.
The last serious game I played was when I was dating a college professor who was somewhat full of himself, close to thirteen years ago. I hadn’t played in years, and he was going to help me brush up on my game. I accidentally fool’s-mated him, and he never played with me again (chess, that is). I couldn’t even tell you how I did it; I am only a mediocre player at best.
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I played my uncle this weekend at the family get together. He beat me but we both had just three or four pieces left on the board, so I don’t feel too bad considering he got his doctorate from Yale.
I started out with a “Stonewall” defense in white(diagonal line of pawns), which I maintained up until my death. I had considered using Archimedes(both center pawns straight forward, bishops behind them then the knights behind them) and may have had better luck but the guy(my uncle) is pretty diabolical when it comes to chess.
Not a female chess player myself, but I was once a member of a team my school entered in a statewide chess tournament (I was on the loser team of merely interested players, not the team that was there to do well… I think we came second last while the other team came second :)), and there were quite a few females there. I didn’t think about it at the time and it was a while ago, so I couldn’t give you an idea of how many though.
Hey, I just had a thought: anyone interested in starting a dopers chess club? I (or preferably someone with more web skils) could whip up a website for us to get in contact and and arrange matches, and we could play either email games or at sites like yahoo. Idea?
I LOVE chess, although I’m absolutely atrocious at it - I’ve literally won TWO games since I started playing it about ten years ago. My problem is that I just learned it from a neighbor who only taught me the allowed moves, and I’ve never bothered to learn strategy. I like to say that my main strategy goes something like, “Oh, I haven’t moved the horsey for a while, I think I’ll move him now.”
The only strategy I know is: try to control the four center squares, and DON’T lose your queen. What’s a good book for beginners I could peruse???
(… And a lot of guys won’t admit it, but they LOVE it when a chick will play chess with them. Lets them hone their horrific conversational skills while they let you win.)
Ahhh…I too, will someday be a chess goddess. I feel so much better about myself now that I have a goal.
Cumber- I don’t know about anyone else, but I think that a doper chess club is a great idea! Unfortunately I don’t have the web skills necessary to start one and I’m not popular enough here to have enough people listen to me if I started a thread about forming a chess club. Is there somebody we can ask who has more resonance here?
tsarina- I highly recommend Winning Chess Play by Yasser Seirawan, from Microsoft Press. It’s easy to read and I learned enough from it to be able to beat all my friends. The guys don’t have to let me win anymore
You can always play on Yahoo. There are a few good players hanging around there. I think I’m still rated there even.
I like chess… I suck at it. Really really badly… The last time I played a couple of weeks ago I lost to a good friend of mine who showed me a cool new opening based on the Greco Piano.
I’m a Woodcutter at best.
Chess club eh? Let me see what I can do. I think I still have a forum liscense laying around somewhere. Or I could always use a free one… as long as you guys don’t mind pop-ups.
For quite some time I was heavily into chess, winning money at tournaments, attending a weekly club, even amassing a chess library of over 40 books. Unfortunately there’s just not enough time in my day nowadays to pursue it as seriously as I once did.
I teach chess full-time at my school. There are about 40 keen boys and precisely 2 girls*. I think this imbalance may have similar reasons to why more boys do computing than girls (but I don’t know what the reasons are…).
When I started playing competitive chess, here in England about 30 years ago, there would be 1 female in a tournament of 100 players. Nowadays it’s more like 10.
Junior organisers tell me that there is a high drop-out rate of girls as they become teenagers. I don’t know if perhaps they feel there are more interesting things to do, or whether teenage boys start judging them on their looks.
You can play chess games at various places on the Web. I use:
if you have a drop of russian blood you’ve gotta play chess. one year at russian school we all got chess sets at yolka. i’m not that good, i tend toward the “where did you find that move!?! mars?!?” cat. if you can’t beat them out right, freak them out.
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and my sister plays too.
