>So I'm curious how they got enough games to draw solid conclusions from.
Yes there was. There was a paper by a statistician based on data of officially rated chess players (that would include semi-pro and pro players), the conclusions are hard to argue with.
The lack of female players in top chess is mainly due to very small pool of players.
Other conclusion is that there is a bias against women in chess and it causes many female players to drop off, resulting in only the 'mentally strongest' to keep on playing. Ergo the average female player in rated chess has higher rating than average male player.
Yes there was. There was a paper by a statistician based on data of officially rated chess players (that would include semi-pro and pro players), the conclusions are hard to argue with.
The lack of female players in top chess is mainly due to very small pool of players.
Other conclusion is that there is a bias against women in chess and it causes many female players to drop off, resulting in only the 'mentally strongest' to keep on playing. Ergo the average female player in rated chess has higher rating than average male player.