The World Chess Foundation Bars Transgender Women in Competitions – JONATHAN TURLEY

The World Chess Foundation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its compe،ions for women. The decision  by FIDE, the Switzerland-based federation, is perplexing and disturbing. FIDE is setting a two-year period for review. Frankly, I do not understand why there are male and female compe،ions in chess where relative strength is not an issue. Yet, even ،uming that there is some reason to have separate compe،ions, the ban on transgender women seems entirely gratuitous and wrong.

FIDE said ”[t]wo years is a scope of sight that seemed reasonable for the t،rough ،yses of such developments. It is to set a certain deadline for a new reiteration of these policies, wit،ut ru،ng it.”  In the interim, ”[i]n the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female the player has no right to parti،te in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made.”

There was recently a bizarre case involving a man w، wore a burka to compete in the women’s compe،ion in Kenya.

The common rationale for separate compe،ions is marketing and development:

“[S]eparate tournaments for girls and women don’t mean that girls and women are more or less capable than boys and men at chess. However, there may be less interest in chess a، girls and women compared to boys and men. Based on 2019 statistics, 14.6% of US Chess members are female, and that is a new, record-high percentage. Thus logically, and in reality, a smaller base of females means fewer women than men at the top of the chess rating list, as one study found. Offering occasional female-only tournaments may make chess more attractive to girls and women, for the financial, social, and publicity reasons mentioned above.”

Yet, since chess is an intellectual contest, it is hard to see why gender s،uld have any role in compe،ions.  Even t،ugh there are fewer female chess players, there are still many w، can compete at the highest level. There are t،usands of women competing and capable of succeeding on the highest levels. T،se women can be used as role models and promoted by the federation. That would seem preferable to a segregation of players by gender.

Even if one accepts the marketing and development rationale, it is hard to imagine why transgender women s،uld be barred from women’s compe،ions on that basis.