Irish Womens Chess Championships

Sparks

sinbad68 wrote: »

Let me explain it to you,

Little bit less breaking of the "Don't be a dick" rule might be nice there sinbad.

katydid

Retd.LoyolaCpt wrote: »

Could be argued that way but every sport I can think of is split by gender at the highest level (Golf, Tennis, Soccer, Rugby, Athletics etc etc). As with these other sports, women can compete in the men's section if they desire to do so.

Chess isn't a sport. It's not about physical but mental ability. All the activities you mention have separate sections because of women's different physical abilities.

No need for differentiation, surely, when it comes to mental activity?

reunion

katydid wrote: »

Chess isn't a sport. It's not about physical but mental ability. All the activities you mention have separate sections because of women's different physical abilities.

No need for differentiation, surely, when it comes to mental activity?

You are wrong there. Not everything has separate sections because of physical abilities.

Chess for instance has a gender-less tournament (men and women can enter) and a female tournament.

The purpose of the female tournament is to promote female players. If female players approached the same levels of male players, I imagine this tournament would cease to exist.

Mod note: You opinion on what is/is not a sport is irrelevant here. Stay on topic. Also stop attempting to troll posters here.

katydid

reunion wrote: »

You are wrong there. Not everything has separate sections because of physical abilities.

Chess for instance has a gender-less tournament (men and women can enter) and a female tournament.

The purpose of the female tournament is to promote female players. If female players approached the same levels of male players, I imagine this tournament would cease to exist.

Mod note: You opinion on what is/is not a sport is irrelevant here. Stay on topic. Also stop attempting to troll posters here.

You're right, physical abilities don't always mean separate events. But that's not the point. When there is no need for separation for physical ability, why is there separation? THAT is my point.

Surely female players will play if they want and won't play if they don't want? The competitions are open to all. Is it not patronising, providing special events and competitions for them?

Why on earth are you accusing me of trolling? I am not a chess player, but the discussion about male and female chess is interesting, and I'm asking a valid question about why it is even an issue. There's no need to be so touchy.

Lecale

Female only events and Female only titles are there because fewer women play chess. I don't think they are really there because women are sometimes weaker than men, we can probably safely say on average that they are weaker now. It's kind of like why we have Junior Tournaments (under 18, under 16, under 14, as many under-N categories as the budget makes possible so we can have more prizes). They're just there to pamper existing players and to tempt more in.

Simple really.

Chessrookie

Can somebody remind me what impact the changes at this years EGM will have on selection for the ladies team at next years Olympiad?
Does the Irish Ladies champion automatically qualify?
Looking at the rating site it looks as though we have a strong pool of players who will push for selection, with over a dozen active players circa 1300 and above.
Would it make sense to have two sections in the Irish Ladies Championship with maybe a cut off point at either 1200 or 1400?
Players such as Diana, Alice and Gearoidin are way too strong for some of the junior players, but it could be good to have a competitive ladies section for the next wave of players

cdeb

I don't think there's ever been enough players in the competition to justify two sections.

Chessrookie

Cdeb,
Do you think the standard of the top players is a deterrent to weaker players entering the competition, or are the low numbers down to a smaller playing pool, and difficulty getting the players to pitch up?
Normally the larger weekenders such as Bunratty and Kilkenny have plenty of female entrants, yet we have never managed to get the numbers to participate in the Irish women's?
I counted at least 9 females in the challengers section in Kilkenny yet none of these would probably play in the Irish women's.
I would wager that you will have far more females when you host the Irish Juniors next year, compared to a standard/recent Irish women's championship.
It's definitely a challenge for the women's officer to continue bringing through more female players.

cdeb

Hard question for me personally to answer seeing as I'm not eligible to compete!

Bunratty and Kilkenny aren't really comparable though; they're more than just tournaments. They're social occasions as well.

Though where you say the standard of the top players is a deterrent to the weaker players - I'd say it might be the opposite; the standard of the weaker players is a deterrent to the top players. Is there really a point in a 1700 giving up a weekend for a couple of games against 800s?

sinbad68

cdeb wrote: »

I'd say it might be the opposite; the standard of the weaker players is a deterrent to the top players. Is there really a point in a 1700 giving up a weekend for a couple of games against 800s?

cdeb,You are Right !, other factors include -->1.There is not a big pool of players to start with 2. Big girls don't like losing to little girls 3. sparse numbers in this competition also makes higher rated ladies feel that taking part or winning the tournament does not have the prestige it should have. 4. players have other commitments.

When ICU wakes up from hibernation and sets a date, I would say Monika Gedvilaite would be the hot favorite.She is a popular coach on chess.com and having the title of Irish women champion will definitely help with that venture. *snip*

Chess_Coach

Elizabeth Shaugnessy of course and Chess is a Sport in 24/28 EU States . It could be that those 4 knew better .
For those playing competitive chess this is clear as day . http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/16/chess-extreme-sport

sinbad68

Irish women championship is on the weekend 6-7 Feb, short notice with No details ! , ICU hasn't announced it yet on homepage or put it on event calendar on ICU homepage even though it precedes Bunratty!.There is No rush now that we are in 2016 , choosing Dublin chess club as venue was good idea , as to keep the money in the family.

historian

Details now up on the ICU website: http://www.icu.ie/events/772

It is short notice but at least (as the flyer explains) this is for the 2015 Championship (originally scheduled for December) and the 2016 event will be held during the main Irish Championship Congress in July.

I'm sure I'm failing to grasp some nuance in "choosing Dublin chess club as venue was good idea , as to keep the money in the family" but at short notice a Dublin venue does seem best numbers-wise. 11am start on the Saturday does also give time to get up from the country on the day and only have to find accommodation for one night.

Let's hope there is a decent entry, despite the other attractions in January/February.

cdeb

Entry open now through the ICU shop.

L1m1tless

Great result for Mercedes in the first round, getting a draw with black against Monika