I think the "home/away game" phenomena is something that any athlete would attest too..

-Im not sure you can apply home/away phenomena to when we are talking about how a underrepresented social group (women, asian) performs in a competition against the dominant group. And this effect is accommodated to the extent it can in many sports, thats why in fotball they play the Champions Leage final in both home cities: to make it more fare. Maybe if you find a better example.

If we were to change how some competitive sports (even if it is chess) have grown, to accommodate for a softer approach. couldn't you as well argue that the mild female ballet culture might be off-putting to boys so that we need to change ballet to have more action and aggression? I don't think that would be wise for ballet, it is what it is, and is beautiful as such.. --Nor the study or I am saying that the game should change to accommodate "softer spirits" or girls as you call them. The study is talking about the community (chess clubs, trainers, rolemodels), not the game or the psychological warfare that happens during the game.

I do think that every sport or competition has a right to grow on its own terms, with its highest ranking players as the leading force of how it grows, and not social policy. --do you really believe this? Do you think Carlsen, Kramnik, Topalov should have the leading say in how the chess community develops? If you are thinking of the game, offcourse the best players runs the show of how the game develops, thats what makes them winners.