many girls and women appreciate what this category offers, FIDE is correct to take the steps necessary to protect its integrity.
It's a strange pursuit, perhaps: pushing pieces round a board to defeat – to crush – your opponent. Despite the formal observation of decent manners – the cold hand-shake at the end – there's always the hint of humiliation dished out to the loser. To be really good you need to be obsessive, and very competitive – standard male characteristics. One woman commenter noted that the reason she gave up chess at college was because the mens' reaction when she beat them was so off-putting.
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