Reflections

As I walked up the rather long aisle of 13 tables from Table 4 to Table 16, I noticed two teams with girl players on first board, at the head of the team.  I saw several other girls and began to form the hopeful impression that there may be more girls playing these days than a few years ago.  I hope there are. Chess is obviously unbalanced, with far more boys than girls.  I decided to count, to check my impression with data.  I walked the length of the aisle.  I counted 16 girls among the 13 tables, each of which seats two teams of eight. So, in this sample, where I was hoping to be impressed that there are more girls than a few years ago, the proportion was about 1 in 16.  Mmm...  I couldn't argue if anyone said they were unimpressed.

I have never heard anyone say that they like it this way.  All three teams who traveled on our bus have at least one or two girls on the team.  That is a little better than past years.  There are quite a few women coaches, although nowhere near gender parity there, either.  I would say that the atmosphere, while filled with nerdy boys (as well as plenty who aren't  nerdy - that's just a stereotype), is basically welcoming and supporting.