I’d argue that it’s not gate keeping. Anyone can get a very cheap pair of smart trousers at a charity shop. I bought a blazer worth £200 in perfect condition for £7 the other day.
I’d argue it’s more of an image issue. They want the tournament to look smart and professional, and whilst I get that, there’s a big movement within the chess community to make the game more attractive to new players, and part of that is to make look less like a “stiff old man’s game”.
That’s true today, but it is a rule that was created with the intention to gatekeep. The image of chess as an elitist sport is not spontaneous, it was manufactured to exclude and marginalize people away from their perfect sport. Then they wonder why chess popularity is in decline and tournaments see reduced number of participants year after year. Until the advent of internet streaming and online gaming, chess was in a death march. These ancient institutions don’t understand the world anymore and blindly reproduce traditions from a discriminatory, classist, sexist and racist past uncritically.
I’d argue that it’s not gate keeping. Anyone can get a very cheap pair of smart trousers at a charity shop. I bought a blazer worth £200 in perfect condition for £7 the other day.
I’d argue it’s more of an image issue. They want the tournament to look smart and professional, and whilst I get that, there’s a big movement within the chess community to make the game more attractive to new players, and part of that is to make look less like a “stiff old man’s game”.
That’s true today, but it is a rule that was created with the intention to gatekeep. The image of chess as an elitist sport is not spontaneous, it was manufactured to exclude and marginalize people away from their perfect sport. Then they wonder why chess popularity is in decline and tournaments see reduced number of participants year after year. Until the advent of internet streaming and online gaming, chess was in a death march. These ancient institutions don’t understand the world anymore and blindly reproduce traditions from a discriminatory, classist, sexist and racist past uncritically.
Maybe, but a dress code has a long history of being used to discriminate.