Sex differences in chess performance: Analyzing participation rates, age, and practice in chess tournaments ¬リニ¬リニ¬リニ

a r t i c l e i n f o This study analyzed sex differences in chess Elo ratings with chess tournament data. We evaluated whether sex differences were due to differential participation rates of males and females, and whether age and practice were able to predict differences in chess ability. There were meaningful sex differences in Elo ratings unrelated to different participation rates. Age and practice predicted sex differences in Elo chess ratings for females, but not for males. The findings paralleled those concerning sex differences in cognitive ability research, and supported that biosocial factors (i.e., age and practice) rather than divergences in participation rates of males and females in the domain influenced the extreme sex differences in Elo ratings. The chess domain conveys a number of strengths for expertise and cognitive ability research. It involves a considerable amount of practice to reach expert levels, there is a wealth of available archival chess data, and there is an Elo rating indicator reflecting a player's chess skill (Gobet, 1998). The Elo chess rating allows the differentiation of chess players at diverse skill levels, and to studying individual differences in intellectual performance in a higher level cognitive function such as chess (Charness, 1992). A core issue within this field is why males achieve higher chess performance than females. Sex differences in Elo ratings have been attributed to different participation rates of males and females in chess From this approach , the huge disparity in chess performance between males and females originates in the underrepresentation of women in the domain, thus, higher Elo rating scores arise in the larger population (i.e., men). On the other hand, a variety of biological and cultural agents have also been proposed to accounting for the observed differences With data from six chess tournaments, we examined this controversy and whether two intertwined factors related with the Elo rating (age and practice), contributed to explain sex differences in chess skill. The relationship of intellectual performance with age is far from being simple. That cognitive abilities such as fluid intelligence or processing speed decrease along the life span is well-established, with some instances suggesting an inverted U-shaped relationship are remarkable variations in several factors accounting for individual differences in ability deterioration, such as cohort effects or higher intelligence in young days that preserve intellectual decline in later life (Gow et al., 2011; Schaie, 1994). Performance declines in chess …