Chess legend Judit Polgar has suggested that women’s titles should be done away with in order to ensure that the “environment and the life of girls and women in chess could change”.
One of the strongest female chess players of all time, Judit Polgar is the youngest of the three Polgar sisters (Susan and Sofia being the other two).
Judit Polgar was talking about her views on what’s holding back women in chess in a podcast for the New in Chess magazine, hosted by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.
In 1991, Judit Polgar became a grandmaster at the young age of 15 years and four months, thus breaking the record of the legendary Bobby Fischer, which the American had held since 1958. Judit Polgar then went on to become the first and only woman to ever break into the world’s top 10.
There are four specific titles that a female chess player can achieve: Woman Grandmaster (WGM), Woman International Master (WIM), Woman FIDE Master (WFM), Woman Candidate Master (WCM). This is besides the four other titles that are common for male as well as female players: Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FM), Candidate Master (CM).
As Chess dot com pointed out, it is easier to obtain a Women’s Grandmaster title than an International Master title: three norms of a 2400+ performance rating and a FIDE rating of 2300 are enough for WGM, while three norms of 2450+ and a FIDE rating of 2400 are needed for IM.
Judit Polgar’s recommendations
Judit Polgar’s recommendation was that instead of title for women, there should be titles based on rating milestones.
“Lately, I was thinking that is there something, let’s say one thing that we could change and then maybe the environment and the life of girls and women in chess would change… I thought that maybe it would be possible and it would be just a very good try to test it at least, to delete the women titles. I mean, why do we have women titles? Why don’t you have a title for 2000 (ELO rating), for 2200, for 2300, for 2400, for 2500, for 2600, for 2700? Isn’t it much better to have the rating titles and not that it’s women or men?” Judit Polgar told Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.
Judit Polgar went on to add: “Sometimes, with a very simple thing, very big changes can happen, because suddenly the mindset of ladies would also say: ‘Okay, it does not matter whether I play in an open tournament or a women’s tournament, I’m aiming to get this title. This title belongs to my rating, not to the gender. It’s my strength, it’s my knowledge, it’s what I can perform, right?’
“So I think that would be kind of a first step which could be an extremely simple solution, and it would not hurt at all, neither women nor men.”
