Gender and Chess - The Ever-Changing, Never-Ending Question...

The Women's Candidates Final
From The Scotsman, Chess Articles, August 8, 1998

by John Henderson

CHAOS and confusion reigns again in the world championship, this time for women. The International Chess Association of China, responsible for the organisation of the Women's Candidates final, has declared WGM Xie Jun, of China, the former women's world champion, the winner due to the non-appearance of the Russian WGM, Alisa Galliamova.

The match between the two was scheduled to start on August 15 in Shenyang, China. However, Galliamova appears to be aggrieved because she wanted to split the match between China and her home city of Kazan in Tartarstan, but was unable to find the required sponsorship of $120,00(US). It's understood that Galliamova considered that the match conditions would be unfair to her in China so therefore didn't appear - though is expected to appeal to FIDE against the default.

If the appeal fails, Xie Jun will face the holder who defeated her in the previous Women's World Championship, Zsuzsa Polgar, of Hungary, in a title contest early in 1999.

Whilst Zsuzsa Polgar awaits to see who her official challenger will be, the youngest of the Polgar brood, 22 year old Judit - the strongest female player in the history of the game - continues to shun women only events in preference with holding her own in the men's world.

Recently she became the first female player to defeat a reigning World Champion when she defeated Anatoly Karpov 5-3 in a rapidplay match (30 min. each), in Budapest. Now she's just become the first female player to earn the title of US Open champion in the 99th annual US Open Chess Championship, just finished in Hawaii. Ms Polgar shared first place on 8/9 with the former Soviet champion and dissident, GM Boris Gulko, but took the title on tie-break.

G Kacheishvili - vs - J Polgar US Open (8)

King's Indian Def: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2 0-0 6 Nf3 e5 7 0-0 Na6 8 Re1 exd4 9 Nxd4 Re8 10 Bf1 Ng4 11 f3 Ne5 12 Be3 Nc5 13 Qd2 Ne6 14 Nc2 Qh4 15 Rad1 f5 16 exf5 gxf5 17 b3 Kh8 18 Nd5 Rg8 19 Kh1 Bd7 20 f4 Ng4 21 Bg1 Rae8 22 g3 Qh5 23 Bg2 Nc5 24 Nxc7 Ne4 25 Bxe4 Rxe4 26 Rxe4 fxe4 27 Nd5 Ne5 28 Bd4 Nf3 29 Qe2 Bc6 30 Bxg7+ Rxg7 31 Nf6 Qf7 32 Rxd6 Qe7 33 Qd1 Rg6 34 Qa1 Qxd6 35 Ne8+ Kg8 36 Nxd6 Rxd6 37 Ne3 Rd2 38 Nf1 Rf2 39 Qd1 Kf7 40 Qb1 0-1

From http://www.bcf.ndirect.co.uk/articles/scotsman/980821.html.