[Bobalu]

Males have a genetic advantage over females in chess.
The difference only becomes important at the pro level.
There are no females at the very top of the chess world.
There are no females at the top of many fields...
It’s a very tiny group at the top, it’s as far from my reach as it is for any female, so I, along with 99.99% of males, have a kinship with them :-)

Just as with athletics, no XY should be allowed to compete with an XX.

For me it is entirely a fairness question.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

There are no females at the very top of the chess world.

Wrong. See #12.

Just as with athletics, no XY should be allowed to compete with an XX.

I agree. Men have an advantage in general, although it's not as extreme as in athletics.

[Alberta's Child]

Dr. Jordan Peterson has discussed the issue of male dominance at length.

It's remarkable that women can't compete with men even in an activity as cerebral as chess. There's something about the male brain that processes abstract information better and more efficiently. It's the reason why men are better at navigating on a road trip (for example).

These differences may be insignificant for average people, but they are magnified exponentially when you get to the far right ends of the bell curves for men and women.

[Alberta's Child]

P.S. -- I would also point out that some top chess players are certifiably nuts (Bobby Fischer might be a perfect example of this). You almost have to be borderline autistic to excel in a game like chess.

The disproportionate presentation of certain types of mental illness in men vs. women probably has a lot to do with this.