@Doubledb - What does math have to do with chess? It's all about reading your opponent, forcing him into moves that are advantageous to you. Other than the coordinate system there's nothing mathematical about it.

An argument could be made for statistical analysis, but even then it's little more than a roll of the dice if you haven't learned how to read your opponent. For instance, on an opening move there are eight pawns and two knights that can be moved, for a possibility of ten opening moves. There's no way to determine which piece he will move based on that. If he moves the queen's pawn one space forward you can guess whether or not he's going to run a queen's gambit, but that's more about knowing openings than any form of analysis.

@Doubledb - Because at its roots it's a war game. Two armies face off, you have foot soldiers (pawns), cannons (rooks, at least I assume they have cannons as boiling pitch would likely be represented by having the exact same movement as the king), war elephants (which became bishops, which in turn I now frequently hear called archers), and knights. For some reason the queen assumes a combat role, as well, all led by a king who has to be protected but under the right circumstances can be a decent combatant in his own right.

When you play a game of chess you're not crunching numbers. You're managing an army. With few exceptions women generally don't care much for war games.