Playing Strength and Gender
Table of contents |
Observations
- There are over 100 male 9 dan players in Japan as of August 2010. There are additional male 9 dan players in China and Korea.
- There were four female 9 dan players, Rui Naiwei, Feng Yun, Park Jieun, and Cho Hye-yeon as of December 2010 in China, Japan and Korea. Since then, Choi Jung, O Yujin, Kim Eunji, Kim Chaeyoung, and Kim Hyemin are Korean female professionals who have reached 9 dan.
- One open professional title has been won by a female player (Kuksu by Rui Naiwei in 2000) as of August 2010. In Japan, Ueno Asami became the first female to win the Shinjin O, the 48th in 2023, after being runner-up in the 46th in 2021. In the Hiroshima Arumi Cup for players under 30, Xie Yimin won the 1st in 2006, Fujisawa Rina won the 15th in 2020, then Ueno Asami won the 16th and 17th in 2021 and 2022. In the Daejoo Cup for veterans, where males must be over 50 and females over 30, Cho Hye-yeon reached the final of the 5th, losing to Cho Chikun, then won the final of 7th, beating Kim Younghwan. In the 9th edition (2022), the two finalists were both female, Kim Hyemin and Lee Minjin (Kim Hyemin won just 10 days before giving birth to her second child).
- The Korean GC Auction Cup, a win-and-continue format between a Female Team and a Seniors Team composed of male players over 45. In the 17 completed tournaments, Female teams have won 9 times, and Seniors teams 8.
- There are fewer female players than male players.
- The highest ranked female on
21 Jun 2024 is Choi Jung, #64. No other female player is currently in the top 150. The best female ranking in history by far was by Rui Naiwei: #17 on the
ranking list of 1998-01-01 and 18th on the
1994-01-01 list.
- The current world #1 (as of 7 Aug 2024), Shin Jinseo, has 100% score in his 14 official games against female opponents, including the world's top (including 6–0 against world #1 female Choi Jeong).
Hypotheses and Predictions
- If there is no difference in playing strength between male and female players, the average ELO value of female players should not differ from the average ELO value of male players.
- If there is no difference in playing strength between male and female players, the ratios “open titles won by male players/open titles won by female players” in a given timeframe should be proportional to the ratio of “number of participating male players/number of participating female players” in said timeframe, assuming there were no other relevant factors (such as age, for example).
Data
- Professional results[1], European Go Database and AGA Go Database are available for further inquiry.
Comparing Male and Female Professionals
The following graph was constructed according to data on 783 professional players (131 of which women)[2]. The average ELO is higher for male professionals than for female professionals (M_male=3095, SD_male=178, SE_male=6.96 vs. M_female=2916, SD_female=144, SE_female=12.58).
As of Nov 27th, 2015, the highest rated female Go professional is Yu Zhiying[3]. According to the goratings.org game record consisting of 204 games where her opponent's sex could be readily identified, her winrate against other female professionals is 73% (95–35) whereas her winrate against male professionals is 42% (31–43).
Research Books and Articles
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Comparing Extreme Members is a Low-Power Method of Comparing Groups: An Example Using Sex Differences in Chess Performance Chabris, C.F., & Glickman, M.E (2010)
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Why are (the best) women so good at chess? Participation rates and gender differences in intellectual domains Bilalic, M., Smallbone, K., McLeod, P., & Gobet, F. (2009)
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Sex Differences in Intellectual Performance Chabris, C.F., & Glickman, M.E (2006)
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Participation rates and maximal performance: A log-linear explanation for group differences, such as Russian and male dominance in chess Charness, N. & Gerchak, Y. (1996)
See also
[1] Example sources: gokifu.com, https://badukmovies.com/pro_games
[2] Source: www.goratings.org on Oct. 30, 2015.