A Finely Balanced Battle

@gobbledyZero You can't just call anybody that doesn't agree with you names. This is why civil discourse is where it is.

Anyway, I agree:

Back to chess.

The distance between Carlsen and Firouzja must've meant that Firouzja couldn't hear any Norwegian words spoken during the tournament that would have thrown him off.

@gobbledyZero -- Please be civil in the forum + don't call names.

You brought up an issue about women prizes being cancelled going forward. I simply replied that I didn't think they should have been instituted in the first place. I also brought arguments for my position. There was (and isn't) anything sexist about my remark. I am all for gender equality, which imho isn't served well by any form of discrimination (negative or positive).

Otherwise, I agree with you re. the general idea that rules should not be made / changed just because of the actions of few. However, Lichess justified their decision by stating that the abuse of those particular prizes was "frequent" through account sharing. I trust their assessment and respect their decision.

Congrats to all the winners! :)

@Pashut If we want to support equality, then why do the rules regulators have separate titles for women? If it has nothing to do with physical attributes, then why separate GMs from WGMs? Why not just call everyone a GM (Grandmaster or Grandmistress, whichever one floats your boat) and be done with it? The reason is that it's all inherently absurd and detracts from the real headline here which is the performance of the competitors in the Titled Arena. Bringing up unrelated sexual politics and unfairly judging other people (such as calling another on the forum 'childish' for something they didn't actually do) just isn't welcome and I agree with @gobbledyZero that this entire thread belongs on a different forum.

@ogilviemt -- To be honest, I've been wondering myself why there are GM and WGM titles. I don't have a satisfactory answer yet.

I don't recall calling anyone "childish" here, so I'm not sure what you meant by that. Or perhaps you weren't referring to my posts, in which case I apologize for misunderstanding.

I respect the opinion that this conversation might be better continued in another forum. I would like to highlight however that it wasn't me who brought the matter up. However obliquely, gobbledyZero did, and I only replied to what they said on the matter. Regardless, I don't want to hijack the topic, so I promise to refrain from further posting on this issue here, provided of course that everyone else does the same. ;)

Thanks.

@pzmp lol you accuse others of insulting, and in the same post call those you disagree with "venomous shrill people", "abusive characters", label them politically ("left"), and the obscure "MAGA baby" comment

the irony is making me dizzy

@Pashut so if a small minority breaks the rule frequently, it becomes ok to punish the majority?

I do not respect this decision.

As for "obliquely" bringing up the topic of women deserving their own prizes, or gender equality.. No. I did not bring that up in any way. That was entirely you.

@gobbledyZero What do you mean by punishing them? What crimes are you talking about by the few?

Nevermind, I see. I don’t view taking away Women’s prizes as hurting them. I would have to side with @Pashut
You are pretty much referencing it @gobbledyZero when you bring up the word ‘punish’.