[nilkn]

The major titles, tournaments, and ratings aren't gendered and haven't been for a long time. That said, it is still the case that today's active male players tend to be overwhelmingly better than active female players at chess, so separate tournaments and titles were specifically created just for women. No women are restricted from the "main" tournaments or the "main" titles, though. It is entirely possible for a woman to dethrone Magnus Carlsen as World Chess Champion -- it's just never happened before.

As for why this discrepancy exists, that's really a very different question, and it's one that I don't know the answer to. There are potentially many factors at play. It could be as innocent as there are many more male players than female, so the odds are much higher for super-high-skill players to emerge in the male population than the female population.

[bcg1]

The first chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers has a plausible explanation... he gives an example of how successful hockey players are disproportionately born in the months of January, February, and March. To poorly summarize the explanation, it is that the kids who started out with a slight advantage (i.e., being slightly older and bigger than the other kids) have their advantages multiplied over time because they are singled out for extra training and opportunities for growth (all-star games, travel teams, etc). In the case of chess, it is possible that the initial slight advantage (being a boy) does not even exist, but is only perceived, but if boys receive more encouragement, training, and opportunities than girls, the end result could be the same.

[winfred]

>As for why this discrepancy exists, that's really a very different question, and it's one that I don't know the answer to.

That's caused by IQ distribution differences between males and females. On average men and women have an IQ of 100, but there are more men that are both smarter and dumber than women.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_intelligenc...

[hyperbovine]

According to the article you linked, research findings, including those on variability between sexes, are all over the map. This does not at all seem like a convincing explanation to me.

[hamandcheese]

It's generally accepted [0] that there's more variability in male IQ than in women (with the averages still being about the same). So the effect is that there are more extremely intelligent men in the world than women (and, conversely, there are more extremely dumb men than there are women).

Assuming IQ and chess ability are correlated, this would explain the lack of women at the top tiers of chess playing.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_differences_in_intellige...

[paulddraper]

This is the same reason virtually all gendered rankings exist, e.g. for swimming.

[crooked-v]

Physical sports have the added factor that men usually have a much easier time building and maintaining muscle mass than women, as well as usually being taller and so benefiting from more leverage with longer limbs.

[paulddraper]

Are you suggesting there are no mental equivalents to your statements?