It would be interesting to hear what WGM Natalia Pogonina, one of the strongest women chess players in the world, has to say on the controversial topic of why men are apparently better at the game than women. For the Caribbean's people, her views on this perennially debated issue must hold some fascination since the mentally taxing sport has been a male dominated activity from its beginnings in the region. And some misogynistic individuals, like the late World Champion Bobby Fischer, have cited the game as evidence to prove their case that women are a mentally inferior breed to men.
Listen to the eccentric chess genius, interviewed by Harper's Magazine in 1962: "They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess, you know. They lose every single game against a man. There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat." Such a declaration, however, is not to be taken seriously, coming from perhaps the most erratic and irascible GM in the game's long history. However, in Trinidad and Tobago even now, the vast majority of chess players are male and none of the handful of females who played the game has ever achieved the distinction of winning an open tournament or qualifying for the national championship finals. Indeed, while in most other countries girls are now catching up with boys in playing the Royal Game, in T&T the number of active female chess players can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Now Russian WGM Pogonina is producing a book on this absorbing subject together with her newly married husband and manager Peter Zhdanov, a successful IT specialist, debate expert and proficient chess player. They have intriguingly titled the volume Chess Kamasutra which, says Pogonina, contains ideas taken from the well-known Indian erotic classic. "Both chess and the Kamasutra originate in India," says the Russian WGM. In Chess Kamasutra I and my co-author will show that it is possible to apply sex principles to chess and vice versa. We will be reviewing the most interesting openings and middle game positions, and relating them to the Kamasutra. We surprise our readers by introducing the "love theory" which is extremely effective for developing your chess skills and becoming happy in personal life." "Chess Kamasutra," Pogonina assures, "is going to be a very entertaining and useful book covering many interesting subjects. We aren't revealing most of the secrets yet, but one day you'll be able to see it for yourself."
Will we now? As far as Double Rooks is concerned, the action depicted in the Kamasutra is as distant from the dynamics of chess as the Earth is from Jupiter. The conflict that takes place on the chessboard is a purely mental exercise, totally unrelated to sex. How this newly-wedded couple would interconnect the two, then, makes for the weirdest speculation. And how this conjunction can be used to deal with the traditional sexual disparities among players poses another mystery. But let us not rush to judgment; let us wait until this love-couple reveal their 'secrets'. Remember, stranger revelations have been made. In any case, Pogonina's achievements must earn our respect, if not our trust. She was three times European champion (U16 twice, U18), bronze prize winner at the Women's Championship, gold medallist at the first Mind Games in Beijing, co-winner of 2008 Student World championship and first at several prestigious international tournaments, including Bykova Memorial 2006, Rudenka Memorial 2007 and Moscow Open 2009.
Looking at the chess arena superficially, however, one may well be tempted to take the Fischeresque view, that women are just not as smart as men. But, according to multiple studies in other areas, this is just not the case. The findings are categorical. In terms of mental capacity; men as a different sex demonstrate no superiority whatever over women. What then is the problem? Observers over time have offered a range of explanations. One reason refers to the historical fact that women have started playing chess professionally long after men. Even now, while the number of women professional chess players has been growing, the proportion is still incomparable. And because they are a small minority, women have meagre chances of entering the world chess elite. Statistics tell part of this story: In the list of the world's top 300 chess players, women occupy only three places. According to the Fide Web site, there are 20 female players who hold the GM title compared to 1201 male grandmasters, 77 female IMs to 2854 male, seven female FMs to 5400 male.
Another reason concerns parents who deem chess, with its heavy training and study demands, a strange and even futile pastime for a girl and do not appreciate the fact that their daughters will be spending a lot of time with male adults or teenagers, especially when leaving home to play in tournaments. Also, it is a well known fact that women cannot make a decent living playing chess unless they reach the very top. That is also why parents are prone to discourage their daughters' interest in chess - what's the point in wasting so much time on a 'dubious' activity? In any case, it would have been interesting to match Fischer against either of the Polgar sisters, Judith or Susan, whose achievements among the world's top GMs are quite impressive and who provide a living refutation of the old sexist myth.