Why are Women So Good?
What a puzzle solving competition in Brazil and a poker tournament in Vegas can teach us about gender and competition.
An argument I frequently run into is that women’s events in poker or in chess are an admission of inferiority. According to critics, females who play them, are acknowledging they’re worse than men and “need” a special space so they can win.
But what if the opposite were true?
Women’s poker events are often stronger than comparable buyins in mixed fields. I started noticing this a few years ago. Women have less wealth, and lower wages than men on average, and so perhaps I should not have been surprised that even highly skilled women often play $60-$350 live events—they’re practicing bankroll management.
But that’s not the only reason for this effect. Professional women players who might eschew lower buy ins may make exceptions for women’s tournaments.
Why?
Women’s poker events are prestigious, carrying strong bragging rights.
Women’s events are fun. So many friends are made. Happy hour is any level. OK, I get hot chocolate with whip cream1, but I am still the life of the party, at least until Hayley and Jules2 show up.
Everyone likes to win. Women’s events are small compared to most mixed events, so the chances of getting a tournament W are much higher. Likewise, the odds of making the final table skyrocket.
The challenge based on all the factors above.
This week, I’m headed to the first Women’s Winter Festival in London, which will be another testing ground for my theory. Stay tuned3!
Chess
The existence of women’s chess events4 is a perennial debate that I won’t dive into here, but have covered in my books, research, and videos. Haters hijack a valid conversation of the pros and cons of such tournaments into insults like “W” in woman stands for “weak.” Beyond being rude, what if the trolls were also “W” for WRONG? A recent mixed gender chess problem solving5 competition in Brazil shows us a case where W actually stands for “Wonderful.”
I first developed a theory that female players are over-performers in puzzles6 when coaching an advanced girls chess camp with my brother, IM Greg Shahade. We gave the girls a challenging task: they had to solve 20 tough problems before a 45 minute buzzer went off. If they did, they all got cupcakes. The girls used the first few minutes to survey the problems, after which they split up based on the perceived difficulties of the positions. They cooperated. And they got their sprinkles and red velvet. Boys of a similar level may have won the challenge too. But I’d bet on a different approach.
A natural experiment to test this theory arose at the 2024 World Youth Championships, just held in Florianópolis, Brazil. The World Youth are traditionally split into Girls and Open sections7, with a handful of female players participating in the Open.
There was a solving tournament on a rest day. That competition was fully mixed gender, NOT divided into Girls and Open sections. And despite lower average ratings, the youngest girls crushed the competition. In the Under 14 section, female solvers earned both gold and bronze, well ahead of male players, several of whom were much higher rated. Here’s the first problem from that set, White to Move and Mate in Two:
Find the details and solution8 in the footnotes, and all the Under 14 problems here.
Puzzle solving can be a way to compete against yourself9. One chess mom told me she never plays, but is addicted to online chess puzzles, having solved thousands. Several female poker pros have told me they do chess puzzles on their phones but don’t play full games. While puzzle skills doesn’t always translate to winning real chess games, there’s a clear correlation: they require you to unlock truth in the same way as unraveling the secrets of a critical position.
Could the female domination in the World Youth Under 14 solving competition just be statistical noise? Boys did earn gold in the Under 16 and Under 18 divisions. To test my theory that women overperform their ratings in puzzles, more data10 has to be analyzed11. If I’m right, men must over-perform in some other area (i.e- time scrambles or swindles.)
But this article isn’t about answers. It’s about questions.
“Why are women so good at X?” is a question I prefer to “Why not?”
Because sometimes, our questions shape not only our answers, but also the future.
Two More Favorites from Brazil’s Solving Competition:
White to Move and Mate in Two. Solution12 and details here.
White to Move and Mate in Two. Solution and details13.
I drink alcohol, but almost never at the poker table. It makes me dry eyed and glazed…wait, is that a spade or a heart?
There are so many options, I had to use a random name generator.
PokerStars ambassador and Women’s Winter Festival host KJ Craigie even devised a 50/50 event, where half the field will be women, and half men. Keep an eye on that one!
Women also play in Open events, open to all genders.
In a solving competition, players race to find checkmates, or other winning chess moves as quickly and accurately as possible.
Problems/Studies: Composed chess positions which never occurred in a real game, with a specific goal, like finding a checkmate in a specific number of moves.
Puzzles= positions, often from real games, in which there’s a clear best move.
Many years ago, the “Open” section was called the “Boys” section, and thus Judit Polgar has the distinction of winning the Boys Under 14 Championship in Wisconsin in 1990. This year’s World Youth saw Argentinian star, Candela Francisco play in the Under 18 Open section, where she finished in 19th out of 93 players.
Bf5! Vyacheslav Karlovich, 1997
There’s already a lot of such data on chess dot com or lichess puzzle ratings and scores.
See Checking Chess’s Gender Balance, a study I co-authored with NYU professors.
R4-e6! by Dimitrov, Nikolaj Hristov, Шахматна мисъл TT, 1963-1965
Ne5! by Feast, Frederic Bonner British Chess Magazine, 1898. I started this problem at night, gave up after several intervals, then found it the next morning immediately. The power of sleep & coffee!
Fun fact - I met my wife playing poker. Pssst she’s a better poker player than I am. Don’t tell her I said that.
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