to those of us who have long assumed that there is no reliable cognitive differences between men and women.
So just why is there a women’s category at all? And why are the top women nowhere close to as highly-rated as the top men?
Readers who aren’t serious chess players may be surprised to learn that the game—in which the most demanding physical movements consist of lifting small pieces of carved wood—even reserved a separate category for women in the first place. What could be the justification? And given that such a category exists, some might ask, why wouldn’t transwomen be allowed to identify into it?
And yet here is one. And inarguably so. There are some attempts at other explanations, but as of yet they all horribly break down. And additionally, a very troubling thing is that competitive “Scrabble” displays much of the same thing.
Yet it goes against what many of us have believed for some time.
So here is the jackpot question: Why are there men’s and women’s categories in chess? Related question (or maybe the same question in different terms): Why are the best male players ALWAYS superior players when compared to top women players (and it’s not even close)?