Looks at Books
Play Like A Girl? Yes!
Is there value in acknowledging differences between the sexes when teaching chess?
By IM Irina Krush
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to provide them with some strong role models at the same time as you’re building the actual skills they’ll need to be successful in the game? That, in one sentence, is the
Jennifer Shahade, Play Like a Girl: Tactics by 9 Queens, 2010, Mongoose Press, 100 pp., $14.95 from
uscfsales.com (catalog number B0064EU)
Play like a Girl!, the new book by my friend (and editor of Chess Life Online) Jennifer Sha- hade, is a primer on tactics, replete with familiar themes such as double attack, pin, and back-rank mate. However, it’s clear from the very first pages, indeed, from the title, that this is no ordinary tactics book: no matter how universal the chess positions inside may be, the audience at which they’re directed is a very particular one: girls starting out in chess. Quite honestly, it never
occurred to me that the chess world could use an instruc- tional book aimed specifically at girls. After all, didn’t I learn my tactics from the same man- uals as everyone else, and weren’t they sufficient? Well, of course they were for me and for the small percentage of women players out there, but what about all the girls that chess initially attracts but loses in the long (or short) run?
uschess.org
premise of Play Like a Girl! It’s a celebration of women in chess, a showcase of their cre- ative efforts, a clear and vivid demonstration of their ability to play strong moves. I can imag- ine that it’d be a source of confidence when you walk into a tournament hall for the first time and find that you’re one of the only girls there, because after all you’ve trained on the puzzles of Judit Polgar, Humpy Koneru, Hou Yifan and others, and so you know, even though they’re not in the room with you, that women can be good at chess! I actually had a perfect tester
for the book, someone who fit right into its target demo- graphic: my eight-year-old sister, Jenny, who’s had a lit- tle experience with chess and solving puzzles, but who’s still firmly in the beginner category. The only chess player she knows is me. Would the book manage to inspire her? When I presented it to her,
she was pleased, of course, as she always is whenever I bring her a gift, but upon reading the title, she looked up at me sheepishly and said, “But does- n’t that mean ... playing badly?” She clearly didn’t want to offend me or the gift, but she couldn’t help asking. It was a somewhat sad and dis- concerting moment for me to see to what extent my little sis- ter had imbibed this way of looking at things. Playing like a girl is bad. From there, it’s a
short step to a general theory of female inferiority. I hurried to dispel this notion from her mind; in fact, it was surpris- ingly easy to do. I just asked her “Why?” Why do you think that playing chess like a girl means playing badly? I play chess, and I’m a girl, and I don’t do it badly (forgive me for taking the liberty to make that claim). Kids are resource- ful and great at rationalizing things, but ... she couldn’t explain why playing or doing something like a girl meant doing it badly. Intuitively, it wasn’t obvious to her. I think that’s a good thing. Don’t get me wrong. In this
little exchange with my sis- ter, I wasn’t trying to argue a position on gender differ- ences, or come up with an answer to why there aren’t more women in the top hun- dred. I just wanted to make sure she knew that her gen- der wasn’t a handicap—that it in no way precluded her from taking up chess, or pursuing excellence in any other field dominated by ‘boys’. I tried to eradicate that vague but insidious association in her mind between the word ‘girl’ and the word ‘bad’. Once we got past that, she
was very enthusiastic about the book, keen on reading the short biographies of the fea- tured women players, and of course, on solving the puzzles, which were completely level- appropriate. Did you know that in her
youth Judit Polgar had a pen- chant for the queen sacrifice followed by a double-rook mate? In just one chapter, there are no less than three such examples! Here are two:
Judit Polgar (2555) Lars Bo Hansen (2525)
-+-tr-+k+ zpR+-+p+- -+n+-+pwQ +-vLp+-+- P+-zP-+-mK +-+-+R+P -+-+r+q+ +-+-+-+-
White to play
White won with 1. Qg7+! since 1. ... Kxg7 2. Rfxf7+ Kh8 3. Rh7+ Kg8 4. Rbg7 is mate.
Judit Polgar (2595)
Jose Luis Fernandez Garcia (2475)
-+R+-+-+ zp-+-+pmkp -+-zp-+p+ +-+Ptr-+- -wq-tr-+nwQ +P+-+-+- P+P+-+LzP +K+-+R+-
White to play
A few years later, Judit executed an even prettier version of the same sacrifice: 35. Qxh7+ (35. Rxf7+ Kxf7 36. Qxh7+ Kf6 37. Rf8+ Kg5 38. h4 mate was pos- sible too, but it’s more elegant with the queen sacrifice.) 35. ... Kxh7 36. Rxf7+ Kh6 37. Rh8+ and Black resigned due to the impending mate: 37. ... Kg5 38. h4! pow! (my sister's annotation).
For more of such deviousness, you’ll have to get Play Like a Girl!
. Chess Life — July 2011 11
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