If You Don't Want to Be Accused of Transphobia, Don't Act Like a Transphobe
Chess' ruling body needs to pull its interior from its posterior
Change of gender is a change that has a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility to tournaments, therefore it can only be made if there is a relevant proof of the change provided. In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to participate in official Fide events for women until further Fide’s decision is made[.]
Many sports worldwide have been dealing with various degrees of controversy regarding the participation of transgender athletes. It’s been a problematic issue for some, and both sides of the argument (for and against allowing transgender athletes to compete) believe they have compelling points to make.
The international governing body that rules the chess world has weighed in on transgender women. They’re declining to allow them to compete in official events for women while Fide, the governing poohbahs, get their shit together. That’s not how they phrased it, of course, but that’s what it comes down to.
The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until a review of the situation is made by its officials.
The decision by Lausanne, Switzerland-based federation Fide was published on Monday and has drawn criticism from advocacy groups and supporters of transgender rights.
Fide said it and its member federations increasingly have received recognition requests from players who identify as transgender, and that the participation of transgender women would depend on an analysis of individual cases. That process could take up to two years.
“[T]he participation of transgender women would depend on an analysis of individual cases.” And this is where y’all can repeat after me: “WTF???” What, precisely, is there to analyze?
I don’t know if y’all have ever played chess before, but if you have, you’ll likely remember that it’s not a particularly athletic endeavor. Success in chess lies not in how high one can jump, how fast one can run, or how hard one can hit another competitor. No, when it comes to chess, the key to success lies between one’s ears.
And, as far as I know, the ability to reason, think quickly, and plot out strategy isn’t a gender-specific skill (Did no one at Fide watch The Queen’s Gambit?). Some of the best chess players in the world currently are women. So, whether a world-class player is male, female, transgender, or a talking koala shouldn’t matter.
And yet….
The regulations, reported online by French transgender FIDE master, Yosha Iglesias, spell out a list of policy changes that apply to transgender competition in chess. Among the policy changes:
Transgender men must relinquish their women-category titles after transitioning.
Transgender women can keep their previous titles.
Transgender women have “no right to compete” in the women’s division.
Transgender women will be “evaluated” by the FIDE Council on if they will be allowed to compete in a process that may take up to 2 years.
FIDE can mark transgender players as “transgender” in their files.
Gender changes must “comply with the player’s national laws” and may include birth certificate documents (despite many nations refusing to change transgender birth certificates)
What does the FIDE Council propose? Perhaps having someone at tournaments to look down the pants or panties of players to verify the gender claimed by a competitor?
What’s genuinely challenging is to understand the purpose FIDE’s diktat serves. In chess, a player’s gender provides no advantage. Again, what lies between their ears will make or break a competitor. The fact that a chess player happens to be a transgender woman should be apropos of nothing.
It feels as if FIDE is looking to make a mountain out of a molehill for reasons no one has clarified.
The unveiling of these regulations drew widespread ridicule, with numerous individuals challenging the notion that transgender women possess a “natural advantage” in chess. According to the chess news site Chessbase, the women’s category in chess exists to encourage increased participation among women, not because women inherently perform at a lower level in the game. Thus, the typical arguments against transgender women competing don't hold water, as it's implausible to claim that transgender women have an unfair advantage.
This isn't the first instance of scrutiny regarding transgender participation in non-physical competitions. In 2022, transgender Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider set the record as the highest-winning woman in Jeopardy history. Following her success, several anti-trans voices online claimed she unfairly took the title from “real women,” suggesting that transgender women possess an inherent advantage in trivia over cisgender women.
Left unexplained, of course, is HOW Schneider “unfairly took the title from ‘real women.’” If trolls are going to claim transgender women somehow possess an “inherent advantage” over cisgender women regarding trivia, then they need to lay out their argument. Otherwise, their “argument”- such as it is- is complete nonsense or, using the field’s more technical language, utter bullshit.
The ability to use brainpower is not inherently an issue of male superiority. Unlike an athletic competition, men are blessed with certain physical advantages. Women, and therefore transgender women, are every bit as capable of high-level thinking as men.
There are circumstances in which I’d argue that I’d sooner trust the brainpower of a woman than a man, especially when this phrase is involved:
“HOLD MY BEER….”
Ms. Iglesias asks an excellent question. What gives these folks the right to determine who’s “woman enough” to compete in chess competitions as a woman? Especially since there’s no inherent advantage to being male, female, or a trained squirrel. Chess players sit in a chair and stare at a board for the duration of their matches. What advantage would a transgender female have over a “natural born” female?
The worst part of FIDE’s new policy is that there’s no transparency or specificity regarding how it will be handled and adjudicated. There’s the potential for it to be entirely arbitrary, discriminatory, and unfair. Will there be any avenue for appeal? Or will transgender women be left to the whims of a governing body that neither cares about nor understands transgender issues?
And FIDE’s statement that “Change of gender is a change that has a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility to tournaments, therefore it can only be made if there is a relevant proof of the change provided” is meaningless. How might it have a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility? What is “relevant proof?” And how does a change of gender affect a player’s ability to compete?
It acknowledged that questions regarding transgender players were an “evolving issue for chess” and that “further policy may need to be evolved in the future in line with research evidence.”
No one immediately responded to emails to top federation officials and calls to the federation’s headquarters in Switzerland seeking further comment.
Word of the decision comes as the federation is hosting a World Cup event in Azerbaijan where top players including No 1 ranked Magnus Carlsen are attending.
The federation has open competitions that allow all players to take part, as well as specialized categories for women, young players and even computers.
Many sports involving intense physical activity – which chess does not – have been grappling with how to formulate policies toward transgender athletes in recent years.
We’re talking about a player’s change of gender, not a brain transplant. Whether a player is sporting a penis or a vagina, their ability to compete at a chess table is unchanged; how FIDE cannot recognize that defies understanding.
Once again, a minority of people who only want to live their lives are left to the mercy of a majority of people who know little and probably care even less about the issues that impact transgender people.
Again, this is chess, a pursuit in which being male provides no inherent advantage. FIDE acts as if keeping men and women separate and maintaining that division is sacrosanct, but women are every bit as capable of competing with and beating men. So why the resistance to allowing transgender women to compete as women? What difference does it ultimately make how they’re “classified?”
It sounds like the very existence of transgender people puts some people in the chess world off, and they’re unwilling to keep their prejudice out of their FIDE roles and responsibilities.
If it looks like a transphobe, walks like a transphobe, and talks like a transphobe….
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There is no escaping the fact that these sexist a$$holes are asserting that men are inherently smarter than women, and as such have a "natural" advantage over them in a chess match.