ONE of the greatest rivalries since time immemorial is between the blondes and brunettes. They not only compete in real life but also in movies, television, comics and sports like baseball, swimming, football, soccer and most important chess.
The rivalry is a cultural phenomenon in countries that have a significant blonde population like Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and especially in the United States.
The existence of the blonde vs. brunette rivalry in the USA dates back To 1875 when the first female professional baseball players were assigned to teams according to their hair color. In 1924 a female swimming meet listed a “blonde vs. brunette” relay race, that was “won by the blondes.”
Another recent example is the gridiron football game called Blondes vs. Brunettes powderpuff football, which started in 2005 and is now played in 16 cities around the USA to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association. Anson Dorrance the women’s soccer coach at the University of North Carolina divides his team into blondes and brunettes and then have them compete against each other.
He claims his “blondes vs. brunettes drill” worked with his female team because it was a “matter of pride.”
The most popular blonde vs. brunette rivalry in American culture exists in the comic book industry where Betty Cooper and Veronica Lodge have been engaged in a mostly friendly competition for more than 70 years now with their high school classmate Archie Andrews, a redhead.
Three’s Company an ABC itcom that ran from 1977-1984 also featured a blonde and brunette triangle. The blonde, Chrissy Snow, was played by Suzanne Somers and the brunette, Janet Wood, was played by Joyce DeWitt. The man in the middle, Jack Tripper, was played by John Ritter.
Blondes vs Brunettes is a Hollywood technique that extends back to before the war. Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner stated that lead women in supporting roles must always have different hair color to accentuate the contrasting beauty of each type. Blondes were usually cast as the fickle types while brunettes are cast as the more serious and emotional types.
The blonde vs. brunette chess matches began in 2011 as part of the World Chess Tournament held in Moscow. The match was hosted by the Botvinnik Central Chess Club and featured two teams of young girls, blondes dressed in light colors and brunettes dressed in dark colors .The 2011 match, which was the first in the series, was won by the brunettes. The 2012 re-match was won by the blondes who defeated the brunettes, 36.5-24.5.
A third blonde vs. brunette chess match, also held at the Central Chess Club on April 1, 2013, resulted in a tie score The traditional sixth blitz match between “Blondes” and “Brunettes” took place last March 27 in Moscow. The format was Scheveningen with eight players in each team, meaning each player played all of the members of the other team.
The Brunettes clinched a 34.5-29.5 victory. The players and their individual results are listed below.
Blondes: 1.) GM Valentina Gunina (7.5), 2.) GM Natalia Zhukova (6), 3.) WGM Irina Zakurdiaeva (3), 4.) IM Irina Vaselivich (2), 5.) WIM Alina Bivol (2), 6.) WIM Maria Fominykh (4), 7.) WFM Viktoria Zarivkina (2), 8.) WFM Yulia Dumcheva (2.5).
Brunettes: (1) WGM Alexandra Gorvachkina (4), 2.) IM Svetlana Matyeeva (4), 3.) WGM Karina Ambartsumova (7), 4.) WGM Elmira Mirzoeva (3.5), 5.) WGM Evgeniya Chasovnikova (2.5), 6.) FM Daria Pustovoytova (4.5), 7.) WFM Anna Gvanceladze (4), 8.) WFM Alexandra Zherebtsova (5).
Women with red hair are few but the strongest female of all time is a redhead, GM Judit Polgar.
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