'The whole room is full of boys': Chess' gender disparity
By SBS News
Community Score: 50% | 2.4K views | 6d
0 community ratings: null thumbs up, null thumbs down
"Some of my friends say girls shouldn't play chess because they aren't smart enough," 2025 Australian under-8 girls' chess champion Eleanor Wu told SBS News. She says she gets frustrated when she hears chess described as a game for boys. "I just say 'only smart girls can play' because chess is really hard." Despite chess soaring in popularity in recent years, the number of women playing at an elite level remains low — of the world's almost 1,500 chess grandmasters, less than 50 are women. Among a Chess grandmaster David Smerdon, an associate professor in the school of economics at the University of Queensland, wrote the International Chess Federation's (FIDE) 2026 Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI) report, which ranked 119 countries based on female participation. Among the 119, Australia ranks 108th with female participation rates well below the global average. Smerdon believes women face additional barriers in competitive chess, contributing to many teenage girls dropping out
More from SBS News
- War in the Middle East escalates | Nearly 800 killed by US and Israeli strikes — Score: 50%
- US sinks Iranian ship in first torpedo attack since WWII — Score: 50%
- China lowers growth target | ACCC eyes airfares | ASX bounces back — Score: 50%
- US submarine sinks Iranian warship off Sri Lankan coast | NATO defences destroy missile over Turkiye — Score: 50%
- Albanese and Carney on war in the Middle East — Score: 50%
- Israeli politician Amit Halevi says Israel is approaching war in Iran with ‘same ideology’ as Gaza — Score: 50%