The world's top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for women until its officials make an assessment of gender change.
“The International Chess Federation, often referred to by its French acronym FIDE, has restricted transgender biological males from competing in women’s tournaments.
Last week, the organization said that they have been receiving increased applications from players who claim to be transgender and want to play against players of the sex they identify as.
‘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’, the FIDE said.
Decisions on each player would take up to two years to complete, the organization said.
‘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’, the announcement continued.
According to a report from RFI, ‘Holders of women’s titles who change their genders to male would see those titles abolished’, the federation said while holding out the possibility of a reinstatement ‘if the person changes the gender back to a woman’.
‘If a player has changed the gender from a man into a woman, all the previous titles remain eligible’, the federation said”. -Cassandra MacDonald, Gateway Pundit
It’s interesting how while transgender women cannot compete in events for women, a woman, or transgender male, would almost certainly be permitted and even encouraged to compete against men.
When one considers the implications of this recent ruling by the International Chess Confederation, it seems somewhat contradictory to, on the one hand, denounce the inclusion of trans women into female sports as being a threat to women’s athletics and, on the other hand, deny the fact the same discrepancies exist between the performances of men and women even in purely intellectual contests, such as the game of chess.