--- description: One of Britain’s best chess players sparked controversy after he said that women were not as good as men at chess. title: Chess Master Says Men Naturally Better Players Than Women image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt905adc39be4e3a10/6987ebe0a988ca68dd6b0449/nigel-short.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Chess Master Says Men Naturally Better Players Than Women  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 20, 2015 3:03 PM CUT  British former World Chess Championhip finalist Nigel Short looks at a chess board in his home in Athens November 4, 2005. British former World Chess Championhip finalist Nigel Short looks at a chess board in his home in Athens November 4, 2005.Yannis Behrakis—Reuters  by [Noah Rayman](/author/noah-rayman/)  ## Noah Rayman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 20, 2015 3:03 PM CUT One of Britain’s best chess players has sparked controversy after he said that women were inherently not as good as men at chess and suggested that women were worse drivers. Nigel Short, who lost to Garry Kasparov in the 1993 world championship, told _New In Chess_ magazine that we should “gracefully accept it as a fact” that women possess different skills than men, [the _Telegraph_ reports](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/chess/11548840/Nigel-Short-Girls-just-dont-have-the-brains-to-play-chess.html "undefined"). “I don’t have the slightest problem in acknowledging that my wife possesses a much higher degree of emotional intelligence than I do,” he said. “Likewise, she doesn’t feel embarrassed in asking me to maneuver the car out of our narrow garage. One is not better than the other, we just have different skills.” “It would be wonderful to see more girls playing chess, and at a higher level, but rather than fretting about inequality, perhaps we should just gracefully accept it as a fact.” The comments from the sometimes provocative player drew a swift response from the chess community. Amanda Ross, the head of the Causal Chess club in London, told the _Telegraph_ that his statements were “incredibly damaging when someone so respected basically endorses sexism.” Russ also observed that Short lost to Judit Polgar, the former women’s world champion. \[[_Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/chess/11548840/Nigel-Short-Girls-just-dont-have-the-brains-to-play-chess.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3828179/chess-nigel-short-sexist-inequality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3828179/chess-nigel-short-sexist-inequality/"},"headline":"Chess Master Says Men Naturally Better Players Than Women","datePublished":"2015-04-20T15:03:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:56.875Z","description":"\"Rather than fretting about inequality, perhaps we should just gracefully accept it as a fact”","url":"https://time.com/3828179/chess-nigel-short-sexist-inequality/","keywords":["Living","women","Britain","United Kingdom","sexism","chess"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt905adc39be4e3a10/6987ebe0a988ca68dd6b0449/nigel-short.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Noah Rayman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/noah-rayman/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt905adc39be4e3a10/6987ebe0a988ca68dd6b0449/nigel-short.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"British former World Chess Championhip finalist Nigel Short looks at a chess board in his home in Athens November 4, 2005.","caption":"British former World Chess Championhip finalist Nigel Short looks at a chess board in his home in Athens November 4, 2005.","creditText":"Yannis Behrakis—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3828179/chess-nigel-short-sexist-inequality/","name":"Chess Master Says Men Naturally Better Players Than Women"}}]}] ```