After track and field, cycling and swimming, chess has decided to ban transgender women from competing in the women’s category.
FIDE, the game’s ruling body, made its decision official on Monday, ruling that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials.
“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 federation 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 was necessitated by FIDE member federations increasingly receiving recognition requests from players who identify as transgender.
Under the new ruling, holders of women's titles who change their genders to male will see those titles “abolished.”
The titles could be reinstated “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,” Fide said.
Fide acknowledged that the subject was complex, and “further policy may need to be evolved in the future in line with research evidence.”
In the last few months, sports such as track and field, cycling and swimming have focused on fairness of competition rather than inclusion, and have banned transgender athletes from women’s events. But those are sports where strength, height, speed and physical attributes make a difference, and where transgender athletes are deemed to have an advantage over female athletes. That is not the case in chess, and therefore the FIDE move has elicited surprise as well as criticism in some quarters.
