Why do women have their own World Chess?

The beginning in Shanghai of defending the title of Ju Wenjun towards Aleksandra Goryachkina reopens the controversy in regards to the very nature of this competitors.

The present world chess champion, Ju Wenjun, and the title contender, Aleksandra Goryachkina, start as we speak a duel that’s determined to the most effective of 12 video games. The match, whose first half is held in Shanghai and the second half in Vladivostok, has a prize pool of half 1,000,000 euros. At stake, as well as, is the delight of two of the most important nations on the planet: because the fall of the Soviet Union, of the 14 world champions that have been topped, 9 have been Chinese language, for a single Russian.

Nationalisms apart, this encounter additionally provokes the fiery confrontation between two different massive blocks: that of those that assume that feminine chess competitions ought to be fully abolished, in comparison with those that justify them and even demand extra help for them. The difficulty grew to become a subject of debate within the European Parliament, when in 1999 the Socialist MEP Maria Sornosa made the proposal that feminine chess tournaments had been eradicated.

There are feminine chess championships, however strictly talking, there are not any male championships. In 1986, Susan Polgar managed to qualify for the earlier part of the World Cup, which pressured to erase the masculine phrase of the regulation, to go on to name it open. Any girl can select if she chooses to play in a single or one other class, with out restrictions.

It was exactly one other Polgar, his little sister Judit, the primary girl – and for the second, distinctive – to succeed in the elite of chess, attending to be positioned on the planet high ten and reaping sound victories. Kasparov or Carlsen, for instance, know what it’s to chew the mud earlier than the aggressive Hungarian chess participant.

Withdrawn since 2014, Judit is now devoted to organizing youngsters's exams and selling chess as an academic software. And in their occasions there may be not solely no feminine class, however even the most effective participant shouldn’t be awarded prizes. For her, content material to compete for being the most effective amongst women imposes a self-limitation that forestalls preventing for greater targets. The well-known glass ceiling. However not all agree with Judith. “Most tournaments on the planet are open, open to folks of all ages, sexes, and nationalities,” explains Alexey Root, champion of the US in 1989.

Different segregated tournaments

“However there are additionally competitions segregated by age, geography, and even by career, such because the Armed Forces Championship. These segregated tournaments assist those that take part obtain additional consideration from the media, collect monetary help and set up relationships with different folks with whom they have one thing in widespread. In the identical manner, women's tournaments do not imply that they’re roughly in a position to play: they will merely assist make the sport extra engaging to younger gamers, for the monetary and social causes talked about above. In most world federations, the variety of gamers is estimated at roughly 15% of the whole. Nonetheless, in these nations the place feminine competitions had been experimentally suppressed, the participation of feminine gamers in blended occasions was additional decreased, whereas the federations that developed particular packages aimed toward younger feminine gamers, the outcomes improved. The talk is open.

In chess, a member of the Worldwide Olympic Committee since 1999, anti-doping exams have lengthy since ceased to be a novelty: a number of research recommend that substances comparable to methylphenidate can improve a participant's efficiency by as much as 13%.

The current sanctions imposed by the world anti-doping company (WADA) towards Russia, which embody a ban on organizing worldwide sports activities occasions in their territory for 4 years, pose a critical upset for FIDE, given the large recognition loved by the Chess on this nation.

The Chess Olympiad, scheduled for August in Moscow, might be the final sporting occasion that takes place on Russian soil in an extended season, and with a further affront: the Russian nationwide workforce, a agency candidate for victory, will in all probability have to play in his own Olympiad, and earlier than his viewers, beneath a impartial flag. Equally, if the winner of the following Candidate Event seems to be a Russian, Carlsen's challenger would have to play with out his nation's flag on the desk.