Grumpy old men - the reason for the gender gap in chess?

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  • Grumpy old men - the reason for the gender gap in chess?

    We're in a bit of a transition with the Riverside library hours changing and the children's chess club closing for the summer. In effect the adult chess club moved from Tuesday to Wednesday when we used to have the children's chess club. We told the kids that they could keep coming to the adult chess club if they behaved. Tonight there were four kids at the adult chess club. Three girls and one boy. Mostly they were well behaved until one moment where two of the girls tried to build a pyramid out of chess pieces with the predictable collapse of the tower leading to some sharp words from a few of the grumpy old men.

    I had a flashback to my own chess youth when one of tonight's grumpy old men was a gatekeeper at the Windsor Chess Club. Of course it was a long time ago and he was not so old back then though he did seem that way to a 13 year old. Maybe boys are more comfortable with the idea of the heroic journey that is part and parcel of chess and our popular culture and so are more prepared to deal with these threshold guardians and get past them to continue on their journey down the glory road of chess improvement.

    Maybe boys are just conditioned to overcome the fathers that these grumpy old men represent.
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