Chess at Ainaloa long house

[birdmove]

Ok, I know very little about chess, but I have a question. They separate gender? That seems odd to me...

Generally chess tournaments are open to all.  A female-only tournament is rare.  The reasoning for holding such an event is below.

The reason for a gender split in chess is to encourage more women to compete as men greatly outweigh women at all levels of competitive chess. Sometimes a woman playing in an absolute tournament can easily feel out of place if there is a lack of female presence. 

Similarly, the WSOP (World Series of Poker), a festival comprised of scores of tournaments has a Ladies-only event.   For some reason, they will allow a man to play in this event but he must pay 10X the entry fee ($10,000 vs. $1000).  Very few men have tried it.

        I remember my daughter played in an all girl chess tournament in the castle like Stadium High School years ago. Women's Grand Master Elena Donaldson was there for the girls to support female chess, and she handed out the prizes. She passed away some year back. The chess playing three Polgar  sisters were coached by the father. His attitude was, you are not going to be world class players by playing other women. They fought their way to lofty chess status by playing tournaments against male players, and it darned sure paid off.