Jonathan Rogers wrote:Natasha also had a default win v Guildford 2 a few weeks ago. That, in fact, is what has kicked off this present debate - Nigel Povah finally had had enough and asked for the compulsory rule in division one to be reconsidered. It is worth bearing in mind that Nigel is prepared in principle to pay expenses for women players, but still he could not find one.
None of Guildford's female players were available for the last 4NCL weekend, so Nigel needed two new players, but only managed to find one for the 1st team. When he asked for help from the rest of the team he did say that he would only consider women based in the UK.
Jonathan Rogers wrote:As to the wider question, why is it so difficult to find women players - well, does anyone know the answer? It seems to me that far more women play in Germany and France and I would be curious to hear opinions at to what that is so.
Maybe recognising chess as a sport has a noticeable effect. Parents and children may think that something that is a recognised sport must be worth doing, but something that is merely a game isn't.
Funding could be a factor in France. When I played in the French League about 10 years ago, there was a requirement that each team included a French female player. As a sporting organisation, Le Havre chess club got a lot of money from the local authority, so they were able to field a reasonably strong woman who lived in Lille, pay a couple of GMs to play and cover expenses for the likes of me travelling from England.