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The very first thing you’ll discover if you happen to attend a chess match is how few girls there are. It’s not unusual for males to outnumber girls by as many as 20 to 1, typically extra, at these occasions.
Chess stays stubbornly dominated by males, particularly amongst adults. At elite {and professional} ranges, the bias is evident. Globally, girls make up solely 2 per cent of Grand Masters, the Everest of achievements within the ferociously aggressive chess world.
Despite the success Australia has loved in girls’s sports activities domestically and internationally — cricket, rugby league, Australian guidelines, soccer, to call just a few — in the case of chess Australia is positioned 108th of 119 nations for gender equality, which is measured by participation, ranking efficiency and development at worldwide tournaments. That’s based on a report revealed in March by the University of Queensland and FIDE, the worldwide governing physique of chess.
But chess is just not the one sport that skews closely in direction of males for participation, prize cash, achievements and stigma. Men outnumber girls in cue sports activities (billiards, snooker, eight-ball, pool) and darts, which have lengthy been related to cultures and settings the place girls don’t really feel welcome, or been barred from enjoying.
The paradox is there aren’t any bodily, organic or monetary obstacles to enjoying these video games, be that at a social and even skilled stage. Gender is a uncooked nerve on the coronary heart of those sports activities. Here,
three champions reveal how they’re hoping to spice up feminine participation.
Julie Watson, 53, Australian Women’s Billiard Champion 2023
”I began enjoying billiards as a teen, then pool in my 20s. It was social, with loud music, consuming, partying. When I bought into my 50s, it was the identical surroundings however I didn’t prefer it anymore.
In 2022 I returned to enjoying billiards and snooker, and I’ve gained 10 state and nationwide titles prior to now 4 years.
Historically, girls weren’t allowed in billiard rooms. It was a spot males might go and be themselves, smoke cigars, drink cognac. It was for the higher class. It was a males’s sport.
The greatest drawback now’s that males don’t see girls as their equal in snooker; even when we beat a person in snooker, it is going to be their perception that we bought fortunate. Quite typically even when I win, my [male] opponent will inform me what I might have accomplished higher, what I ought to have accomplished higher.
That occurs in billiards as effectively however not as a lot. It’s not as attacking as snooker. There tends to be much less ego in it.
Funding is a matter for selling girls’s competitions, as a result of if there are seven girls for each 500 males within the sport, the main target will probably be on the boys. That’s pushed us to include the Women’s Billiards and Snooker Network, which is solely dedicated to selling and growing girls’s cue sports activities. We haven’t any objections to males being on the board, and now we have no objections to males being concerned, however the community is only to encourage girls to play the game.
Women get scrutinised. We’ll be instructed, ‘She looks good bending over the table’ – actually sexist remarks like that. Weight, whether or not we glance good in our garments … they’re issues that come up recurrently.
When I play in open occasions, I’m typically the one feminine enjoying. I don’t have a problem with that, however initially it was very troublesome. Any new girls who are available in will probably be scrutinised. I don’t know what the reply is. You simply must get a thicker pores and skin. You can’t be too delicate if you happen to’re coming into the game.
Cue sports activities are enormous in China, which has developed a brand new variant. It’s known as Heyball and there’s huge cash in it. One of our Australian women simply gained the under-19 world championship.
I discover the discrimination is extra of a generational factor. Younger gamers are extra accepting of ladies being a part of the sector. The 50-year-old to 70-year-old era could be very old-school. I used to be a firefighter for the Country Fire Authority and it was the identical factor. I ended up leaving.”
Chloe Fan, 19, Australian Under-18 Girls Chess Champion 2023
“I didn’t really notice it until I was 13, but it was really common for me to be the only female chess player among 50 or 100 boys. After I won the girl’s title, I felt it was a better learning experience to play in open events than in women’s. It wasn’t about gender, there was simply better competition.
Chess is a social game, so as a young girl I would watch the boys bunch together and make friends more easily than I did. There were a couple of incidents that made me feel on edge or more vigilant.
Sexism today looks quite different to a couple of decades ago, when Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov said women were weaker fighters. It’s more covert and hidden [today]. If I win against a boy, he will complain to his friends that he lost to a girl. I have witnessed boys making unwarranted observations about girls’ physical appearance.
I had close friends in chess when I was younger, but a lot of them dropped off because their passion was not worth the treatment and uncomfortableness.
CHLOE FAN
For a long time, I didn’t realise these comments were offensive. They were disguised as humour, jokes, trivialised. As I’ve got older, I’ve felt more confident to stand up for myself and for other girls. There definitely needs to be work in supporting girls who speak up because there are so many boys involved, both explicitly and as bystanders. There needs to be support from the whole community.
I had a lot of close friends in chess when I was younger, but a lot of them dropped off because their passion was not worth the treatment and uncomfortableness they felt. But things like more prize money and women’s titles mean women are willing to stay and compete compared to previously.
There are no physical reasons women can’t play a board game like chess. The gaps between men’s and women’s participation and achievement comes down to the number of men/women taking part and socialisation.”
Joanne Hadley, 65, Darts Pacific Masters Women’s Winner 2025
“Darts is not just a pub game, which is what it’s thought of. When I was in my early 20s, there were no other women there. That environment of it being just a bloke’s game doesn’t exist any more.
A lot of women are playing. People like [three-time women’s world champion] Beau Greaves inspire young players because she’s only 22 and younger girls look up to her. And then you have the Luke Littler effect, as we call it, who has inspired younger kids to play. [In 2025, aged 17, Littler became the youngest ever world darts champion.]
There are a lot more tournaments for women and teenagers today. The stigma is not there as much as it used to be. We’ve had to fight hard to get where we are. A lot of women are getting the respect they deserve.
It’s just a matter of having a go. It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female.
There’s still some people out there who don’t think women are as good, but we’re just as competitive and we’ve earned our spot. Once you start beating blokes, you get respect. They know I can play, so they don’t take me lightly.
Prize money is weighted towards the men because they get more entries. I get annoyed because we are taking off the same amount of time to be away from work or our families as the men are. [Women’s events] don’t always get the same number of entries. I understand why [women’s prizes are less] but I don’t have to like it.
I tend to say [darts] is 95 per cent mental, 5 per cent body. Playing darts all day takes a lot. The concentration, standing up, you’re just exhausted at the end of the day. It can be physically exhausting.”
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