Chess champ takes on 20 women in Auckland

Chess champ takes on 20 women in Auckland

He's been called a "sexist buffoon" and "ignorant" by those in the chess community.

Today English grandmaster Nigel Short took on 20 women in Auckland's Aotea Square, for the New Zealand Chess Championships to test his theory that men are hardwired to be better at chess than women.

Among his opponents was former Bachelor contestant Natasha Fairley.

"I'm more in my element here than in a house with 20 girls," she says. "Competing against people who eat healthily and exercised was not my cup of tea."

Unlike her time on The Bachelor, today Fairley was the winner – the last of the women left standing after two and a half hours of play.

But she couldn't go on to prove Short wrong.

"I didn't make any mistakes, he just slowly outplayed me and that's the way to die," she says.

Mr Short says he had some "tough fights" today.

He may have infuriated women all over the world, but he reckons he's done some good. Mr Short says he was out to raise the profile of the game and he's done just that.

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