Quote Originally Posted by CGM View Post
The number of grandmasters in the world today approaches 1,000, at last count a grand total of six are from Africa, and most of them are Arabic, from Northern Africa. South of the Sahara there is only one grandmaster. Anyways, only one black grandmaster from Africa.

Women's chess is on the rise, but maybe there are 12-15 grandmasters. In most countries, and around the world, there are two categories of competition. One category is open to women only, the other is open to men and women. Really there is only one woman who can compete at the highest level with the men, that is Judit Polgar of Hungary. It is to her credit that she refuses to play in women's chess, even though she could make a decent dollar there.

It's an interesting debate as to why there are so few women in chess.
You know the thousand grandmasters CGM is that 1000 amongst current competitive players or 1000 grandmasters ever? I know you never lose the title so do you mean there's only been around a 1000 GM's so far?