Can women be as good at chess as men?

Without picking on the female race, let me stick with the facts. There is 1 women in the history of the game who has matched wits with the best of the men full time. Judith Polgar didn't compete in events reserved to women only, she brought her game to the big boys, and had quite a bit of success. She stayed in the top 10 without a problem throughout her prime.

We all know who Judith Polgar is, as well as Alexandria Konstaniuk (did I spell that right?) and even the young Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy, just to mention a few... But the question is, since we don't see too many matches of them playing players like Anand, Kramnik, Topelov, Carlsen... how would they compare? And could it be possible for them to at least draw the match that would be played?

My bottom line? Are the women chess players as good as men chess players?

First off, no, you didn't spell it right. Alexandra Kosteniuk, if I'm not mistaken. Furthermore, none of these people would draw against Anand, Kramnik, Topalov (whose name you also misspelled), or Carlsen. This has nothing to do with them being women; they just aren't as good players as those guys. Neither are Onischuk or Shulman or Negi or Short or Bacrot or any number of other men. I don't believe that men are inherently better than women at chess, but I do believe that there are a LOT more male chess players than women, and the men are generally given much more encouragement than the women, probably largely for cultural reasons.

Yah, well i personally dont understand why there is an entire class only for woman at all.  If a chick came up to me and said: "Im a WGM!" i would reply: wow good for you, but why not just say you are an IM or FM which is roughly the equivalent. IM just has a better ring to it.  Once you say im the best but in a lower league, the other person immediately thinks:oh, well there are still tons of ppl better than you. 

Anyone can understand why physical sports are gender-segregated, but chess......nah its pretty sad.  I agree with Wandering Winder in that a LOT more men play chess though.

Also at the beginning of the game, there is no advantage other than white moves first.  You are free to make whatever move you want, a 90 year old can play against a 5 year old.  So what difference would it make if you are a man or a woman.  Id say woman almost have an advantage in some ways ie: Say your waiting at your board and a SMOKIN hot chick sits oposite you and gives you the cold stare down before starting the clock.....i think she would have an advantage that a guy wouldn't. Forget lighting, THATS a distraction!

JUDIT POLGAR NOT JUDITH.

WGM is like halfway in between GM and IM

anyways, i agree, the reason less top players are women is b/c there is just a lower number of women that play overrall

The alternate question should be:   Will people ever stop starting this thread topic?

agreed.  I keep seeing the same forum topics being recycled.

It depends. Is this chess game being played in a kitchen?

If we are expected to go over every topic so as to ensure we are not covering ground addressed previously we will have to do do a lot of reading before we do any writing.

With regard to the point of the thread, I have always supposed that there are more top men players because the game is played by more men than women. Are there reliable statistics to support or dispute this supposition ?.

The actual answer is no.

Or maybe: "Will batgirl ever stop responding to these threads with some lame comment she thinks is clever?"

Don't post if you don't like it.

I'm not talking about every topic but about this topic, one of several that crops up almost every other week.  It doesn't take near as much energy to find this topic as it does to miss it.

Actually, studies show that females have weaker spatial abilities and are less adept at mental rotation than males. That is, we, for the most part, suck at imagining how an object will look after it has been moved in space, while ignoring irrelevant information.  There's actually a recessive X chromosome that promotes these spatial abilities, so it's much easier for a guy to inherit it because he only needs to get the chromosome from one parent; a female has to inherit it from both parents. 

It's the same reason I screw my friends over when I try playing Nazi Zombies and can't park for the life of me.

However, some women do have these abilities and many can develop them by devoting themselves to activities that foster them.  So yes, women can be as good, scientifically. There are just fewer who are innately and naturally talented because of these geneological/genetic (both?) disadvantages.

I, personally, suck at chess so I'm not a great example, but I'm just starting out so that might change. 

As for Samantha's theory based on the ratio of men to women who play chess, it's definitely something worth looking into, but that only scratches the surface.  One should also take into consideration the reasons there are fewer women participating in the game.  Again, I pin it back to genetics.  It's more difficult for the majority of females to excel at chess, or even keep up with our male counterparts, so most either lose or fail to develop an interest in it. 

It's all relative anyways. If you've got skills, you've got skills- no matter the gender. or

Firstly i would beg to differ with wanderingwinder   -  Nigel Short is a top flight player who can compete with anand etc. He has done so regularly and successfully.

Also, WGM is about FM-IM strength as one poster has already mentioned.

This topic has been discussed ad nauseum. weekly. I agree with batgirl on this.

Er......Yes!

although i agree talking about these types of things doesn't do much by way of making anyone's life any better, this subject will never go away in the world of chess.

i too do not understand why this question continues to resurface...  but alas, it does.  this is eternal.

OK, what's better: The bishop or the woman?

(not permitted: the words "open position" when answering this question)

YES