system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: In Chess, why are Female players rated lower than their Male counterparts for the same rank?
gpt
Chess rankings use a system called the Elo rating system. Your rating is a mathematical value that represents how much more likely you're going to beat another player *in the same rating group*. The number itself is fairly arbitrary.

The system starts with every player joining at a specific rating, and then it gets adjusted based on wins and losses. The adjustments are zero-sum. However many points you win, the other player loses. That means if you took the average point value of everyone in the league, it would be equal to that starting point.

The more players in the league, the more points there are to spread up and down. This means that more players there are, the higher the high end is going to be. So if the male league has more competitors, its highest ranked players will have a higher rating than the top players in the womens league, but the actual value of the number is meaningless outside of the league.