Vaishali Rameshbabu courted controversy just lately, when she admitted that girls titles must be abolished in chess, and supported legend Judit Polgar’s views from the previous. Polgar, one of many best chess GMs in historical past, stopped collaborating in women-only occasions throughout her profession as a consequence of an absence of competitors.
FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky gave a contrasting opinion to Vaishali Rameshbabu and Judit Polgar’s views.(PTI/Twitter)
In the meantime, Vaishali had acknowledged that girls titles like WGM and WIM must be eliminated fully, because it might encourage extra ladies to compete straight for GM titles.
Talking on YouTube, FIDE CEO and in addition a GM, weighed in on the opinion and disagreed with Vaishali and Polgar’s views. He identified that Elo ranking for the highest-ranked feminine gamers has been reducing through the years, so women-only occasions make sense for competitors and enchancment.
“In spite of all the efforts and increase in prize money, we have biggest gap for 15 years or so. If previously we had top female players at age of 15,16 and 17 reaching 2500, today we have just a couple of players above 2400 at the age of 17 or 18,” he mentioned.
“If we were to remove all the possibilities to compete in women-only events, if we were to remove the possibility to support travel and so on, I think we would deprive many of these talents of opportunity under, I think, a false pretence that we will try to prove that women can grow in open tournaments, better than they can by competing in women-only events.
“Once again, never restricting, but any women player should have a chance to compete and excel in girls-only or women-only events. But, of course, also to provide an opportunity to play in open events and compete on par with the best.”
‘Important to rely on real data’: FIDE CEO
Sutovsky additionally felt that such choices by FIDE must be made on the idea of date and on private opinion, taking an oblique dig at Vaishali and Polgar.
“It is also important to rely on real data and not on some hype or some opinion, which is not based on anything rather than personal beliefs or dreams. It cannot work like that,” he mentioned.
Vaishali turned a GM in 2024, and has a peak ranking of 2506. He might be collaborating within the upcoming Norway Chess, together with the likes of Koneru Humpy.