Originally posted by ChronicLeakyI was just musing about the abuse of interpretations in statistics. Call it professional defect. It just pains me to see people call X as evidence for Y against Z, when it is not.
What question are you trying to answer?
If you want me to explicitly answer your question, then I would say: Can representation be used as evidence for or against the existence of biological differences?
My answer would be: No, because the presence of cultural factors creates a problem of identification.
Originally posted by Nordlys.... and nearly became worldchampion (women) in the same year!
Right now, the youngest GM in the world is a girl: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5062
Go, Hou Yifan, go!
She is the youngest right now, and the youngest female ever, but she wasn't the youngest ever to get that title. Karjakin was only 12, Carlsen 13.
Originally posted by Mephisto2She is good enough for me. There is some girl power in chess too. It comforts me.
.... and nearly became worldchampion (women) in the same year!
She is the youngest right now, and the youngest female ever, but she wasn't the youngest ever to get that title. Karjakin was only 12, Carlsen 13.
In my club there are some girl powers too. They kick a$$es. And I love them for it. Some boys, even if they are beyond 18, need to be kicked in their a$$es.
Originally posted by vipiuIt's not just inflation, though...it's computers [databases + very strong training partners + no day job = uber-strong child prodigies].
anyway with this inflation these records will be every year lower and lower...
in this way at some point I hope to get my FM title without the need of improving my strength 🙂
Some of the knee-jerk responses to the OP's original question surprised me. Isn't it possible that brains may be wired differently between genders, which affects aptitude at chess in a subtle manner? Or hormones may influence chess playing in an indirect fashion? Perhaps women tend to be less apt at visualisation, while men would have a tendency to play more aggressive lines?
There will always be individual variation within genders, but that doesn't mean that trends and predispositions don't exist across an entire gender.
There are two things:
- facts: undoubtedly, less women play chess.
- their interpretation: nothing allows us to say that this is due to biological differences (hierarchies).
this is much more likely the result of the attribution of specific roles to men and women. Chess has to do with struggle, fight, logic, etc; so many things traditionnally (and arbitrarily) attributed to men.
Macpo:
There are two things:
- facts: undoubtedly, less women play chess.
Less women play chess, which means there is a smaller pool of talent to draw from. I understand this argument, but I don't see why it's relevant. The question isn't "Why do all the current chess players tend to be men", but "Do you think that women can make as good chess players as men?"
It's a good question, and I don't see why people need to act all offended. Is political correctness so rife that we can't engage in genuine enquiry?
- their interpretation: nothing allows us to say that this is due to biological differences (hierarchies).
Interpret this fact:
http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/40/3/201
Men typically excel in spatially oriented tasks, whereas women usually have a better episodic memory (Yonker et al., 2003). Although social and cultural explanations for the observed sex differences have been postulated, evidence also suggests that fluctuating sex hormone levels could have an impact (Yonker et al., 2003).
in the context of playing chess. Does chess involve spatial orientation? Does it involve episodic memory? I would say it does, although I'm just an amateur, so who knows? But hell, that's just two trends of behavioural difference between men and women.