Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Stereotype threat: girls and chess

We've had some recent discussions about girls and chess. This just came across my desk in my news reader for work:

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2014/01/girls-underperform-when-they-play-chess.html

Interesting and frustrating. I observed at my DS's recent chess tournament that the # of girls got smaller and smaller as the kids got older, with only one or two girls in the K-12 section. My own DD is much better at chess than she generally lets on, though there is a complex situation here with it being her brother's "thing."

Nm

They clearly didn't include my eldest in this study. We cannot explain why she is good at chess. She took some after-school chess classes when she was young (maybe K & 1st). While she never entered a tournament, I don't think she ever lost to any kids in elementary.

She isn't very interested in playing, but will play when asked. Last year, as a senior in HS, two kids who are clearly bright (both NMFs, one is definitely PG) asked her to play, and she won against both. While she uses certain opening moves, she has no idea what they are called, so she hasn't really had any coaching.

The article is interesting. Do you have any articles on what makes a good chess player? She is not interested in math and is relieved that she has fulfilled her college math requirement. She has always been good at games where "looking ahead" and anticipating an opponent's moves (several turns in advance) are critical to success. She routinely beat adults at Connect Four in the school after-care when she was 5.

I suspect the study agrees with some other studies I have read about males versus females in competitive environments. There was a good article in Games magazine on this a few years back. Females are just as good (and in some cases better) at games as males, but few possess the strong desire to win and desire to practice in order to be a winner.

My older two (all three are girls) are competitive and have gone above and beyond what others expected of them in their sports given their athletic abilities (average natural ability). I think that girls with a competitive nature probably don't underperform, but you can't really make someone have a competitive nature.

FWIW, both of my girls belonged to our school's chess club at some point. Their coach couldn't understand their erratic performance. DD12, in particular, was the only kid who beat the kid who won the tournament but she would lose to less competant players. When I talked to DD about why she thought that she played better against some players than others. She told me that she played better against people she liked because she wanted to spend more time with them. Against the "annoying boys" and one of the girls that she didn't like, she lost as quickly as she could so she wouldn't have to be with them. DD14 then fessed up that she used to do the same thing.

I think the article is specifically making a point about girls playing BOYS, though. It's not that girls are not competitive--it's that when they play boys, they get it into their heads that they are going to lose (because "boys are better at chess"). So they do, even when favored to win.

I don't know exactly what makes someone good at chess, but judging by my own spectacular ineptitude, I'm pretty sure that spatial skills, and specifically spatial planning and rotation skills, are very important. This is an area where I am significantly below average and probably even LD. I actually think my DD is stronger in math than my DS, at least judging by comparing their math progress and interest at the age of 5/6, but DS is definitely the more gifted chess player.

Sorry, forgot to add that the two NMFs she played are male. She doesn't want to lose to anyone. I know that she and boyfriend senior year were trying to outdo each other on the SAT (and he did "win", but took him 4 tries to her 2 tries).

It's an interesting study. We are not into competitive chess, but there is a chess club at my children's school, and my 11 year old dd really likes to play chess, yet she dropped out of chess club. Most of the kids in the club were male, the teacher who led the club is male, and the thing that I noticed is there is a different dynamic in how the boys who are in the club act, how the teacher leads etc than the dynamic that is in place when my dd and her girlfriends are together. I think that ultimately, no matter how much fun the challenge of chess was for dd (and she's a fairly competitive personality) - that absence of the casual relaxed chit-chat fun that she enjoys when doing things with her girl friends simply bored her to tears and she quit.

It also brought back memories for me from middle school when I was very reluctant to answer a question for any of the other kids in math, and when I asked questions that I knew the answer to just so I could strike up a conversation with a boy. As an adult I *hate* that I acted that way and wish I'd just been *me*... but there's something about gender roles and math/chess/etc in our society, and I think girls in the early teens in particular are very susceptible to falling into those roles.

polarbear, who went on to become a scientist in spite of my early-teen self

Seven years ago, my then six year old dd, loved playing boys at chess tournaments. Her logic based on the discrepancy in numbers between boys and girls was that there were plenty of boys playing but if a girl was playing she must be really smart.

I have the usual Bostonian thoughts about girls, chess, and stereotype threat, but for now let me mention a story about the current under-8 girls' world chess champion, who is also a piano prodigy -- enjoy the videos.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-remarkably-talented-harmony-zhu
The remarkably talented Harmony Zhu
by Frederic Friedel
1/20/2014 – "Did you see the Canadian girl?" Garry Kasparov said to us. "Very impressive!". He was in Al Ain, paying a visit to the World Youth Championship, where a seven-year-old was dominating the under eight group. We check her out and found that Harmony Zhu is not just a great chess player. She is extremely talented in a completely different field – hint: nomen est omen... You will never guess!

Interesting. Chess is VERY popular in our area. DD8 gravitated to chess by K. School chess is dominated by the boys, who outnumber girls by at least 10-1. The chess teacher believes boys are naturally superior at chess (has never said this to ME, but has commented to others). In final class matches, girls compete against girls, and boys against boys. DD has never worked very hard at chess (didn't play much or do the chess puzzles), but has won the small "girls" division more than once. I've always felt she needed to try harder, and that she should be playing against the boys for trophies, too. DS5 recently started chess and won his first large trophy. DD was jealous!!! Now DD is trying at chess...I am letting the healthy competition with her brother work on DD...he he!!!