<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body> ravi wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid44595DF3.9060609@exitleft.org"> <pre wrap="">I bet you could beat me at chess with just your king and all my pieces ;-). Talking of Kasparov: a while back he said something to the effect that women cannot (ever) play as well as men, which he has reversed recently. He also cheated young Judit Polgar (17?) of a victory, many years ago, though IIRC she recently beat him at speed chess. Another Larry Summers like genius Bobby Fisher made similar statements about women's abilities in chess. Funny that she became the youngest GM in history, beating old Bobby's record ;-).</pre> </blockquote> There are certain areas that men like to claim for themselves. When I was a State Park ranger, I had to have firearms training and I found, much to everyone's surprise, that I was a crack shot. When I took my qualifying exams, I got a nearly perfect score -- 198 out of 200. Since I was female, they figured it was a fluke and made me take it again ...and I got exactly the same score. (They didn't make any of the men take it again no matter what their score was.) That was one of the most enjoyable days of my life. I suspect that the more that women get the message that it's OK to be good at chess, mountain climbing, math, etc., the better they will get at those things. And it will be a wonderful thing. My daughter is having a pretty good time in first year algebra -- she just came home with an A+. She's twelve so that's pretty good going. She's ahead of where I was when I was her age, and it's a wonderful thing. Joanna <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid44595DF3.9060609@exitleft.org"> <pre wrap=""> </pre> </blockquote> </body> </html>