"Uninformed opinion" - FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky disagrees with Vaishali Rameshbabu & Judit Polgar's take on women-only tournaments

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky has opposed Vaishali Rameshbabu's take on doing away with women's events in chess, declaring that those advocating for the same were "uninformed."

The Indian grandmaster had earlier argued in favor of relinquishing events exclusively for women owing to her contention that they created a false sense of achievement.

Vaishali concurred with the views of chess legend Judit Polgar who called for the deletion of women's titles which would take the gender equation out of the game.

Emil Sutovsky was of the opinion that trying to prove that the women's game can grow more in open tournaments than women-only events was based on a "false pretence." The Israeli grandmaster who is now the CEO of FIDE was speaking during an interview at a FIDE Women's Grand Prix event in Cyprus.

"If we were to remove all the possibilities to compete in women-only events, I think we would deprive many of these talents of an 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 on women-only events," he said (via FIDE/Sportskeeda Instagram)

"I think it is very important that there are women-only events and women-only titles. I know that this opinion is not shared by everyone but it's very easy to have uninformed opinions. You need to rely on data and know how chess and women's chess works," Sutovsky stated early in the FIDE interview. (3:35)

What had Vaishali Rameshbabu said while advocating her case for removing women's tournaments?

Vaishali Rameshbabu in action at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023 - Source: Getty

Vaishali Rambabu pointed out that women-only titles could demotivate women players from aiming for the GM title.

Vaishali, who is the sister of grandmaster Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, stressed that women-only titles did not hold much value.

"Women's titles can create a false sense of achievement. In the open category, these titles don’t hold much value and can demotivate players from aiming for the GM title. Removing these titles could inspire more women to compete directly for GM titles," Vaishali Rameshbabu had stated during an interview with Times of India earlier this year.

Vaishali Rameshbabu categorically stated that she was in agreement with Hungarian chess legend Judith Polgar's view with regard to the removal of women's events in chess.

"I agree with her (Judit Polgar). Early in my career, I felt that titles like WIM and WGM can create a false sense of achievement," the 23-year-old said.

Polgar had, last year, called for the abolition of women-only titles in a chess podcast.

"Delete the women's titles, I mean why do we have women's titles? Titles belong to my rating, not to the gender question," declared Polgar, one fo the greatest women's players of all time.

Meanwhile, Sutovsky also mentioned that Pune will host the next event on the FIDE Women's Grand Prix calendar in April.