The International Chess Federation has created two titles specifically for women: Woman International Master and Woman Grandmaster. Do such titles help female players, or reinforce low expectations? louisahthomas explores the place of women in the game.
I asked Henrik recently what he would have done if it had been Ellen, not Magnus, who showed great promise. He said that he hoped he would have encouraged her the same way, but that it wasn’t really the right question. If anything, Ellen picked up the game more easily. But Magnus had a single-mindedness that his sister didn’t share. “At the age of four, he could sit for six hours, building Lego,” Henrik said. “And when he went to bed his eyes were still swimming with Legos.
In 2017, after Hou beat Caruana and drew Carlsen, the chess world began buzzing again about her prospects. It had been an up-and-down year. There was the match in Gibraltar that she’d thrown in protest; she’d also had a dismal showing at a tournament in Geneva. In August, she won the Biel International Chess Festival, in Switzerland, with a performance rating of 2810. She said that it “showed I could compete at the top.
Hou remained a popular invite for tournaments, including those featuring the world’s top players. Quiet, fashionably dressed, sometimes with a pot of tea nearby, she was often the only woman in the room. Last year, during the pandemic, Carlsen organized an online chess tour, with five events and a million dollars in total prize money. Now called the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, it expanded in 2021, this time with an accompanying challengers’ competition, designed to encourage gender equality.
Hou has been thinking lately about the impact that chess has had on her life—the chances it gave her to travel and to develop her mind. At Shenzhen University, along with helping with the school’s chess team, she is looking for other ways to use the game. She has begun commentating at tournaments, and is advising on a Chinese translation of “The Queen’s Gambit.” There is something to be said for using chess to enrich one’s life instead of using one’s life to master chess.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Boston woman trades homes with woman in EnglandIt all started with a simple question on TikTok inspired by “The Holiday” asking if anyone in England if they wanted to switch places.
Read more »
Man gets 35 years to life for killing Long Beach woman during argument over 2016 electionThe woman was holding her 2-year-old son on her lap when the shooting took place after a heated argument inside the woman's home, prosecutors said.
Read more »
Woman tests positive for COVID-19 on flight, isolates for 5 hours in bathroomA Michigan schoolteacher tested positive for COVID-19 in the middle of a flight to Iceland and spent five hours quarantining in the plane's cramped bathroom.
Read more »
Man sentenced for fatally shooting woman during argument over the 2016 electionA Southern California man who shot and killed a woman holding her 2-year-old son during an argument over the 2016 presidential election has been sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
Read more »
14-year-old arrested for Little Italy carjacking, shooting that injured womanCleveland police arrested a 14-year-old Wednesday in connection with a carjacking and shooting that happened in the heart of Little Italy Monday night.
Read more »