“You Play Like a Girl” -- My Take on a Male-Dominated Sport

When I first sat down at a chess board in the fall of my fifth grade year, I had no idea the strong impact that the game would have on my life. Soon thereafter, I started playing the game more and more throughout the later part of my elementary school experience. Chess soon became an integral part of my daily life; I was taught by my former coach Dr. Bulington, who has paved the way for hundreds of public school kids to succeed in the game of chess. Coming from Memphis, Dr. B came to the miniscule mark on the map that is Franklin County, Mississippi, and transformed the small town into a community that has the best chess center and some of the best chess players in the state of Mississippi. Being coached by Dr. B meant having daily after-school practices that consisted of solving puzzles and other challenges and learning new openings for the game. His coaching also meant traveling as a team to national tournaments all across the country, from cities like Nashville to Indianapolis – places that neither I nor my fellow players had ever been before. During that time, my team consisted of about half boys and half girls. That gave me the false impression that all chess teams across the country were of the same boy:girl ratio. However as I traveled to more tournaments, I became keenly aware of the lack of girls who participate in higher-level tournaments. Frequently, my opponents were teenage boys, nearly all having the same opinions about playing a girl. In the case that I beat my male opponents (which I usually did), they were not too enthusiastic about having lost to a girl. Although the fragility of teen males’ egos is rather great (all jokes, of course), fifth grade me had no idea of the prejudices against female players. Their impression of my skill in playing the game before I had even

by Megan Tomlinson Chess Club President Class of 2023

played my first move was already predetermined. I had no room to mess up in my gameplay.

I was able to transform this tremendous pressure in the game to something that could be used to my advantage, becoming skillful at reading my opponent’s poker face and assessing as much as the next 10 moves of the game. While the meticulous strategy that I undertook as I combatted sexist opponents was strategic and helpful, it symbolized a response to a larger problem that female chess players all over the world experience.

As of March 2022, there are 134 women who hold the International Master title, and there are 39 female chess players who hold the title of Grandmaster. According to the International Chess Federation, only 15% of all the licensed players in the world are women. In terms of players online, the male distribution of players shows a peak rating of around 2016 points, while the female distribution shows a peak rating of around 1920 points. In short, there is a large difference between how female chess players are ranked versus how male chess players are ranked. This gives the public a perception that female players are not as good as male players, which is false.

Since the semi-recent success of the Netflix original series, The Queen’s Gambit, the public’s perception of the “idyllic” female chess player is one that seems to be a complete chess genius. While lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy portrayed an entertaining Beth Harmon, the show is an example of an extremely unrealistic chess prodigy. I have graciously been referred to as “Beth Harmon” in the past by some of my former chess opponents, but being referred to as a fictional character instead of some of the best (actual) female chess players shows another large problem. Some of the biggest names in the chess world, like the late Grandmaster Bobby Fischer or Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, are notably some of the biggest figures that the chess community has ever seen. Unfortunately, people do not immediately think of the amazing female players like the Polgár sisters or Hou Yifan when thinking about legendary players. Judit Polgár, a Hungarian chess Grandmaster, is the first, and to date, only woman to earn a 2700+ point rating. She ranked #8 overall in the world in 2005 – the highest ranking ever for a woman. Hou Yifan is ranked #106 in the world, and she is widely considered to be the second- strongest female chess player in history. Not only is the passive perception of female chess players offensive, the actual requirements for the female players are skewed in an extremely sexist manner. There are still, to this day, separate Girls State Championships and All-Girls National Chess Championships. There is a separate Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements than the generally male-dominated Grandmaster title. The idea that women deserve a separate championship from that of men’s is offensive. There is simply no need for separate gender-based chess championships, especially when there is no National Men’s Championship in the United States. It is no secret that gender barriers extend past a societal level, having long-permeated the economic and political institutions of our time. The game of chess has taught me patience and the importance of strategy. Dr. Smith, the former coach of the Jackson Prep chess team, helped me and my team immensely in our journeys as chess players, and being named captain of the team is something that is immeasurable in importance to me. Our team now greatly benefits from the coaching of a fellow Franklin County native Joshua Griffin, a student at Mississippi College and avid chess player. We also travel to different tournaments around the state together, with some team events taking place at the Rankin campus of the Hinds Community College and at Roosevelt State Park. Our daily practices have proved successful, with our team taking home more trophies every year. While our current team has fewer active girls than I would like, I am always striving to see more equality and inclusion in the game of chess. In order to promote this, it is important to start on a basic level. This comes in the form of getting more girls involved in day-to-day practices and having them commit to the game. That will, in time, bring more girls to higher-level tournaments. The worldwide chess community needs to work harder to promote the confidence of women in chess. In a modern world that nearly always promotes equality among the sexes, the culture of chess should be no exception.