One month ago, British grandmaster Nigel Short provoked anger and derision when he claimed that men are “hard-wired differently” to be better chess players than women. Short incurred the wrath of the women chess players worldwide including the Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgar, whom he had engaged previously, losing three games, drawing five and winning zero in their eight certified encounters.
Short, 49, became a grandmaster at 19, and challenged Garry Kasparov for the world championship title in 1993. Polgar,