Women's titles and prize categories in chess

The open titles - GM, IM, FM, CM - are available to everybody without exception. The women's titles - WGM, WIM, WFM, WCM - are a separate ladder with thresholds 200 points lower.

The point most often misunderstood: women compete for the open titles on the same terms as anybody else. Women grandmasters exist, and their title is GM. The women's ladder does not replace the open one, it sits alongside it.

Norms for WGM and WIM work exactly as the open norms do, with a lower required performance: 2400 for WGM and 2250 for WIM. WFM and WCM are awarded on rating, without norms.

The commonest arrangement: the tournament is open, everybody plays together, and a separate prize goes to the best woman. It is not a separate event but an additional category.

How to set it up properly:

• Announce it in advance, in the regulations, alongside the other categories and prizes.
• Define the criterion. Normally the best score among the women, with the same tie-breaks as the main standing.
• Do not remove anybody from the overall standing.A player can win both an overall prize and the women's one - or a one-prize-per-player rule applies; what matters is announcing which.
• Collect the data. The entry form needs a sex field, or the category cannot be computed - taking registrations.

The practical effect is straightforward: a women's category noticeably raises the number of women entering. When five of thirty players are women their chance of the overall top three is small, but they have a competition of their own.

The second format is a competition for women only. It exists at every level, from school championships to the Women's World Championship.

Organizationally such an event is no different from any other: the same Swiss or round robin, the same paperwork and tie-breaks. The only difference is eligibility, which is written into the regulations.

The purpose is the same as with age categories: create a field where the contest is between players of comparable experience, and put more people within reach of a prize. Whether such events should exist is a public argument rather than an organizer's question, and it is not one for this page - the debate itself.

The typical amateur event has two or three women among thirty players. What actually changes that:

• A women's category with a prize. The most effective single instrument, and it costs almost nothing.
• How the announcement is written. «All levels welcome» and photographs showing a mixed field work better than neutral copy.
• Mixed formats. Family and pairs events bring in people who would not enter an ordinary tournament - family tournaments.
• The venue. An evening in a café with decent light attracts a different crowd from a basement club.
• No condescension. Remarks along the lines of «you play well, for a girl» are the single commonest reason somebody does not come to the next event.

About friendly formats - a beginners' event.

Three technical points for the organizer:

• A sex field on the entry form. Without it the category cannot be computed and a rating report cannot be filed - in TRF it is a mandatory field - the TRF format.
• The wording of the prize. «Best result among women», with the tie-break order stated.
• The one-prize rule. Decide in advance whether prizes stack, and write it down.

In the Vibe Chess appsex is part of the player's profile along with the rest of the reporting data and is filled in automatically - there is no need to ask for it on the entry form.