Something made abundantly clear by my last blog, is that chess is dominated by men. This blog will serve as a short introduction and resource overview into the patriarchal history and present of chess. This blog will not cover the symbolic or literal interpretations of the physical pieces themselves. There are thousands of comment sections or posts on the internet where one can go and argue about why the queen is more powerful than the king, or why the white pieces get to move first, and while these inquires are interesting, those debates are often a little less than productive.

The patriarchy of chess is not entirely unique. Chess is something only a few people can make a living off of, the best of the best, so the rest of the rest have to have some sort of privileged background in order to commit enough time to improve. The socioeconomic factors separating men and women translate directly to chess.

How many famous female chess players can you name? Before I wrote this blog I couldn’t name one.

This article by Sports Illustrated describes the downfall of Lisa Lane, the First U.S. Women’s Chess Champion. One of the only widely known women in chess, she was largely praised because “she played “like a man” and trash-talked opponents” – DEC 17, 2018.

The general argument that you will find constantly online is one about affirmative action. This thread asks this question, with a great response from user itty53. However, in less open forums, the discussion is not as productive. Here we see a similar question being asked, but instead of hearing the various obstacles women face in chess that prevent them from playing, the discussion is one of discontent and anger, often hung up on supposed biological differences. It does not help that iconic world renown chess players like Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov have both in their lives discounted women’s chess as lesser, or state that women are incapable of performing at the same level as men.

Here Is a wonderfully segmented interview with two-time U.S Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Shahade, who also authored a foundational feminist chess book “Chess Bitch.” Shahade goes over the specifics of questions like “why do we need separate tournaments for women” and also talks about the frequent harassment and abuse women can face in the current culture.

The Queen’s Gambit

Not only is the queen’s gambit my go-to opening, It is also a new featured Netflix series following a female chess player. The release of this series actually inspired me to write this blog, so it’s effects on influencing chess culture and breaking down patriarchal norms are literally tangible right here.

The intersectionality of discrimination is not lost on me, and I am aware this blog only briefly covered patriarchal impact on women, not race, non-conforming genders, or most other marginalized communities. These areas obviously deserve research as well, and given that all the men I have mentioned in this blog and the ones before were of European descent, it is also certainly an area of exclusion.

While this blog is supposed to emphasis our learning journey through a specific task or skill, these social issues surrounding our learning are integral to the tasks themselves. If you’ve watched my Check Check Check ins you’ve seen that I am constantly correcting myself from defaulting my opponents as “he.” Obviously this is due to some of my own ingrained bias, but also the bias I have been unconsciously learning through engaging with the chess community (one of my favorite creators actually always refers to the other player as “my opponent” so maybe I will try that out). On a larger scale, knowing what I know now I can work to undue the social disparity in any way I can, and call out inappropriate behavior that might be accepted otherwise.

Check Check Check in!