"Despite the documented evidence of chess historian H.J.R. Murray, I have always thought that chess was invented by a goddess." George Koltanowski, from Women in Chess, Players of the Modern Game
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Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Chess Life to Female Chessplayers – You’re Invisible
The June, 2007 Chess Life has a nicely-written article by Macauley Peterson about up and coming young chessplayers, among whom Nakamura (born 1987, ELO 2663), Robson (born 1994, ELO 2293), Carlsen (born 1990, ELO 2693) and others are profiled – all males. Now I realize that females make up only a small percentage of chessplayers in this country, but really - are you actually implying (by omission) that there wasn’t one – NOT ONE? – female chessplayer good enough to consider profiling as the "next generation?" I have a few candidates – (hint: I looked up the "Girls Top 20" List at the FIDE website):
1 Koneru, Humpy g IND 2575 8 1987
2 Hou, Yifan wg CHN 2513 22 1994
3 Harika, Dronavalli wg IND 2476 42 1991
Koneru is 20; Hou just turned 13; Harika is 16. I’d say these girls qualify as up and coming young chessplayers, irrespective of their gender.
Hey, Chess Life, way to go to appeal to the female chessplayers out here - highlighting ONLY male players. Geez! Female chessplayers DO exist, even if our numbers are small relative to male chessplayers. Can’t you be just a little more aware of us, too? We play in tournaments and support chessclubs and institutions just like you do with our entry fees and dues. We volunteer at local events to do whatever needs to be done and teach kids how to play chess just like you do. Some of us are (and have been) great players, and can kick male chess butt OTB just about any time. Are you just totally oblivious to the fact that there ARE up and coming female chessplayers, or are you deliberately blind to their existence out of sexism - or chicken-heartedness? Who runs the marketing department at USCF? Ha, what am I saying? USCF doesn’t HAVE a marketing department listed in Chess Life! Geez!
Chess Goddess: My instinctive feeling is that Peterson had access to only these guys, and he didn't go out of his way to make a scientific decision about whom to profile. he probably just profiles whomever was available and around his orbit of players over there in Europe. Now, I'm just saying this because I haven't gotten my June CL yet -- hell, I haven't even gotten my May issue (something is wrong at the PO).
ReplyDeleteBTW, doesn't Jen Shahade have a say in the matter? She probably has some editorial say, too. No? Why didn't she notice the lack of females?
Hi Anon June 7 at 3:31 p.m.,
ReplyDeleteYou may be right (I may be crazy :)) - okay, I couldn't resist throwing in that opening lyric from the old Billy Joel Song!!!
I don't know, one way or the other, about what information and/or players the author may have had access to. But it's easy enough to check information about top players online without having to interview anyone. It's a question that was raised in my mind, though, as a re-newed reader of Chess Life magazine - where are the women? I just think it's good business to try and appeal to adult female as well as adult male chessplayers. I haven't checked out the magazine geared toward the scholastic players, perhaps that has a more balanced view. I just would like to see female chessplayers get their due. The really good ones deserve just as much publicity as the really good male players. I would like to see Chess Life lead the charge - and not by way of publishing "sexy" model-type photographs of the latest chess "babe"!
Regarding Jen Shahade, I don't know that she has any input at all into Chess Life magazine; my understanding of her job is that she is in charge, totally, of content for the new USCF website. She may not have seen the galley rushes before they were sent to print - or have any access to them. (That may be old terminology, it's been many many years since I was involved in the production of a magazine!)
I hope you get your June Chess Life soon - it's got the ballot wrapped as an outside cover. If you don't get it soon, you must request prior to June 15 that USCF send out a replacement ballot, so I imagine you would have to have your membership number and ID available to provide to USCF.
Ole' Jan Xena! I love your way with words.
ReplyDeleteDear CG,
ReplyDeleteSince I wrote the article, this seems worthy of a response. I sympathize with the sentiment, but I think the sexism charge is unwarranted. To say that Chess Life, or this particular story is sexist requires that there be prejudice or discrimination based on sex. I can assure you that, in this case at least, there was not.
The four players featured (not counting Robson who was added later at the request of my editor, to have a more American focus) are/were the top 4 junior players in the world by rating (Radjabov had a birthday recently so he's now too old to be considered a "junior"). That is why they were featured. Their sex was irrelevant.
Radjabov and Karjakin were playing in the Corus tournament, where I interviewed them. Humpy Koneru was not playing this year, and I've not met her yet. Hou Yifan was at Corus, in the C group, and I spoke to her a bit, but aside from the fact that she really doesn't speak English, it didn't make sense to interview her for this piece simply because, despite being highly rated for her age, she's ranked 607 in the world (as of today) and far from competing with the world's best.
Carlsen finished second in Linares in March, where I interviewed him. As you may know, there were no women playing this year, although Judit Polgar has been invited several times in the past.
The article was about how different countries foster and promote super-strong grandmasters. Period. Gender was not, in any way, a factor. (You may say, "well that's the problem!" But if you think I ought to have singled out a player ranked 500-something for special mention simply BECAUSE she's a woman, well, I think there's a word for that...) Pick your battles.
It's worth noting a few other points about the article and the magazine:
*I interviewed a number of people over the 2 months that I spent writing the piece, including current US Women's Champion Anna Zatonskih, who is quoted at some length -- although simply because she studied at the Kramatorsk chess school with Karjakin, not because she's a woman.
*Jen Shahade is my editor at Chess Life Online, but is not involved with editing the magazine to speak of. However, I've written 10 CLO pieces in the past year, and while I won't speak for her, I'm quite sure she's not fond of working with sexist writers. ;)
*If you become a regular reader of the magazine, I think you will be hard pressed not to notice the regular contributions and features about women chess players.
If you're still not convinced, you can write a letter to the editor at letters@uschess.org. They love feedback, and regularly publish criticism.
But tagging this entry "USCF Ignores Women Players," without any serious justification strikes me as rash, at best.
Regards,
Macauley Peterson
If you're a USCF member, you can read the full cover story (for the next few weeks at least) here:
ReplyDeletehttp://beta.uschess.org/frontend/section_124.php
Thanks for your comments macauley.
ReplyDelete