[Born to Conserve]

The GM requirements were "dumbed down" do get women in, so the chess blogs say.

No woman has ever been the world champion chess player. They had to make a special women only competition to get a woman world champion. Is there a men only championship?

The fact is that in many areas, the high extremes of the men are higher than the high extremes of the women. Men are simply more prone to extremes of talent and behavior. For example, nearly all the best serial killers have been men. (Funny, the women don't seem to try to steal that title).

[Celtjew Libertarian]

The way I'm reading it, there is a separate "Woman's grand master" title. But Suan Polgar, etc., are grandmaster's on the male scale.

Nope, no woman has ever been the World Champion chess player -- but there haven't been that many total. And women are just getting started in serious competition. Check back in 100 years or so.

You do have a good point on the extremes tending to be male.... Although I live in the area that Aileen Wournous struck, so there are some female. So even there, there are exceptions.