The e ects of gender-segregated competition on learning and performance in chess

Abstract

A statistical analysis of FIDE rated games of high-performance chess players during a 10 year period is made. Players who finish with higher rating are found to have faced higher rating differences - their opponents are higher rated than them - and a positive correlation is found between challenge faced and rating improvement. Despite being a small minority in the population, women are found to play the majority of their games against other women. An agent-based model of chess tournament competition is presented incorporating the concept of desirable difficulties in which players get a long-term benefit from facing challenging opponents. Self-segregating to playing within a group to is found to be detrimental to the improvement of the elite of the group that self-segregates when they are a minority. The smaller the minority, the higher the performance cost found. This effect is found to be linked in the model to the learning that takes place when facing difficult opponents.