When I started playing chess in the 1970s there were very few women players. When you went to a tournament I always thought that the average grade of the few women players would be a lot higher than the average of the men players. The ones that there were were very determined characters and they had to be. Whilst you would get men who would sink a few pints and play a few bad games of chess you could not do that if you were a woman. A bad woman player would be an object of fun, it was a man's world.
Nowadays it is a different story, I do not know where they go to search for models for the cat-walks but they could do worse than come to chess tournaments. A particularly bad offender in this area is Alexandra Wilson. I was sitting next to her in the first two rounds when I played in the European Union Championship in Cork, if it is a large tournament you tend to sit next to people with similar ratings. I was hoping I would sit next to her in all of the rounds then if I had a bad tournament I could blame her. The gambit would be something along the lines of how can you be expected to play chess with her sitting next to you. I remember in that tournament she won in the last round to narrowly beat me to the 200 Euro grading prize, now there is a good reason why women should not be allowed to enter chess tournaments. Click here to see a picture of the person who deprived me of two hundred euros.
In the 4NCL or national league (click here for official website) as I call it they have positive discrimination, or each side must have at least one of either sex. Although I am in favour of more women playing, I cannot say I am a fan of positive discrimination in any walk of life. Sometimes the women's board is a default which is rather unsatisfactory when half a point can make all the difference but it has resulted in more women playing. Claire Summerscale has her Pride and Prejudice female team, click here for a list of players. It is really a team to promote women's chess, in the 2006-2007 they achieved promotion from division three. In the 2007-2008 there are almost as many men playing as women, Claire has got a few male grandmaster mates, they are pushing for a place in the first division.
Jovanka Houska England woman international was on the radio telling of when she played a top male grandmaster, and he could not beat her. Click here for her rather good website. I remember another time when a male player failed to beat a female player, I will not reveal the identity of the players but the male player said that she was just a young girl, you have got the sex discrimination and the age discrimination, two for the price of one. It seems to me that this type of thing favours the female player, if you do not show your opponent respect and think they are no good, the result can be that you do not win.
There does seem to be a bit of a history of the world champion being pregnant. Dave Dickson at Caergwrle said perhaps he could get pregnant, and I replied that it does seem to improve your play. Xu Yuhua was pregnant when she won the world title in 2006, click here for some information on the women's world championship. There is also a bit of a history of Chinese players winning the world title, perhaps with their history of communism women are more emancipated.
In 2008 Suzy Blackburn won the Welsh Women's title and also the under 21 title, I cannot imagine this has been done much worldwide. Click here for some news on that. In the Isle of Man tournament 2005 Katie Martin defeated Mark McKenzie in the last round to condemn the Australian to the wooden spoon. Perhaps some would say it is not a great achievement to beat the back marker, it is however better than losing, it is a sign of the times.
I thought I would write about some of them
as I have played quite a few.
Natasha Regan
is a clever player,
her moves do not look very good on first inspection
but there always seems to be some point.
Natasha has not played so much in recent years
because of family commitments.
Suzy Blackburn
has been playing top board for the Welsh ladies team.
Suzy has quite a few draws,
I think we need to teach her how to be nasty.
Alexandra Wilson
is a resourceful player,
she plays for Switzerland
but missed out on the Dresden olympiad
because of her studies.
Alexandra has been playing in internationally
rated tournaments for a few years
and is a determined competitor.
Olivia Smith
has been improving in recent times
and caused a bit of a stir in the 2009 Welsh championship.