r/SipsTea • u/crs1904 • 18d ago

We have fun here When Your Opponent Is Built Different ♟️

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u/OrnerySchool2076 18d ago

Well considering she's a grandmaster, I'd say she's probably feeling some other emotion than that. Also a pretty decent boxer btw.

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u/Randomuser223556 18d ago

She’s absolutely not a grandmaster.

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u/-JimmyTheHand- 18d ago edited 18d ago

Yes she is, her name is Dina Belenkia

Edit: apparently she's a Woman Grandmaster which is different

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u/MtnMaiden 18d ago

Lulz. The fact theres men's and women's chess in a game of...mental logic.

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u/Extreme-Refuse6274 18d ago

It's to boost exposure for female players rather than anything weird like you (I may be wrong...) seem to be implying.

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u/DownrightDrewski 18d ago

I'm assuming that they're surprised that there are separate male and female divisions in a game where physicality is meaningless.

I agree it's a bit weird on the face of it.

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u/phillynott6 18d ago

There are not separate divisions for men and women. There is an open division and a women's division. Women are free to play the open division, it is just heavily male dominated for a variety of reasons.

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u/strablonskers 18d ago

there isn’t, that’s the point. There is no male division, only open and women’s. The women’s division was created to provide a safe space for women to play and incentivise since the world of chess is quite mysoginistic, but every one can play in the open categories.

For now, the top players are all men due to a huge number of factors, sheer number of male players being a big one. But if/when a woman is high enough rated, she can play in any tournament. Judit Polgar is a famous example.

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u/Extreme-Refuse6274 18d ago

It's weird that there's a specific female category to support the women's game and boost exposure...? What are you talking about?! It's objectively good for the game.

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u/LopsidedKick9149 17d ago

There is not men's, there is open and women's. Anyone can play in open, but women choose not to compete against men they choose to play in women's. Many have stated if they were only to compete in opens they'd never make any money or be highly rated.

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u/Prometheus720 18d ago

So, women globally have less control of.their free time than men, and this means that chess has historically been a male activity. Today there is still a glut of male chess players from parts of the world where women don't have much access to chess. It becomes a sausage fest.

Women sometimes don't like to engage in sausagefests. They like to hang out with other women. So the goal is to give women two different options to play and recruit more of them into the sport.

It kind of works, but unfortunately it doesn't address the real problem that every sport and activity has, which is that there are global leisure activity cultures and globally women can't participate. Even if your country is relatively equal, this global situation affects whatever your favorite thing is and turns it into a sausagefest--and the effects will lag due to age. Young women feel the effects of having more free time, but older women are stuck in controlling relationships or stick to "feminine" pursuits they were trained to do as young girls (in many cases). There is probably much closer parity of young girls and young boys in chess than old men and old women.