Trans people are now being excluded from competing in chess categories, which makes even less sense than ever
Knights using us as pawns in the next story of sporting misogyny
If you’ve been lucky enough to avoid the transphobic news cycle, then you might be unaware that there is a strong right-wing push to ban trans women from… well, everything. But in particular, from sports. And recently, this has also included the high stakes world of… chess.
There is a persistent myth that trans women have a distinct body type, involving larger muscle mass or larger lung capacity than cis women, and thus this is used to justify excluding us from women’s sporting events. As I’ve written before, all of this is untrue and rooted in deep misogyny and transphobia, but it hasn’t stopped sporting bodies such as FINA banning our participation.
Nonetheless, in spite of all the usual negative coverage, trans people have had a lot to celebrate in recent times, particularly in the realm of card and board games. Jessica Robinson took the Yu-Gi-Oh world by storm by becoming the 2023 European champion and finishing Top 8 in the world, all at the age of 20. Canadian non-binary player Cyrus Davis likewise earned the International Champion at the Pokemon North America International Championships.
But no one could ever suggest that trans women could possess an inherent advantage in non-physical competition, right? Right?
Well, apparently they can. This week, FIDE, the governing body for international chess, announced new strict regulations which would radically hinder the ability for trans people to partake in competition. The announcement stated as follows:
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. Such decision should be based on further analysis and shall be taken by the FIDE Council at the earliest possible time, but not longer than within 2 (two) years period. There are no restrictions to play in the open section for a person who has changed the gender.
The restrictions then go onto say that gender changes “must comply with the player’s national laws” and that FIDE has the right to mark transgender players as “transgender” in their files. This is a heavy-handed transphobic restriction even for the worst sporting bodies. There is no explanation for what “further analysis” means and absolutely no awareness of the intricacies of “national laws” regarding transgender identity. In Australia for instance, trans women can change gender freely if they’re born in Queensland but are forced to go through surgical procedures before changing gender in they’re born in New South Wales.
The rules make even less sense with respect to what happens to titles that have already been won. For trans men who hold titles won in women’s competitions pre-transition, all titles are forfeit, and will only return upon detransition. For trans women, all titles won pre-transition in male competitions can be retained upon transition, but they remain ineligible to compete in women’s competitions for up to two years. A full description of these rules can be found on Erin Reed’s piece on this situation.
The way this is being framed, it definitely makes it sound as though the male divisions are the exclusive club for the top players, while the female divisions are for precious lesser people, which men, even trans men, are above.
This is all interesting not just in the context of this happening whilst trans women are openly succeeding in card games, but in the context of the feminist spotlight that has been shone on chess in recent years thanks to the success of The Queen’s Gambit. While not based on any real person, the show does mirror that of real-world women who killed it in the chess world such as Hungarian grandmaster Judit Polgár, who famously defeated the legendary Garry Kasparov. You’d think the opportunity shown by the new generation of female players would be taken as an opportunity to showcase chess as a place ripe for female empowerment, but no. Alas.
Commentators across the world, and even some people who have been sympathetic to the idea of “biological advantages” in sport by trans women, have all reacted with this news with immense confusion. Yosha Inglesias, French chess master, described the move as “heartbreaking” and applauded cis women coming to her defence.
It just goes to show that there is much work to be done not just in terms of trans liberation, but now it bleeds into how we think about women’s sports as a whole. The idea that trans women possess a biological advantage in chess, a game that is purely intellectual, is ridiculous.
And yet, the prospects of trans inclusion, and as a result, opportunities for less gender segregation and more female empowerment are being shafted away in the spirit of sheer, relentless transphobia. The queens are sacrificed and no one wins.
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Natalie Feliks is a writer and activist originally from Adelaide, now living in Melbourne. She's written for the likes of Junkee, Crikey, and Overland, and spends her time listening to pop music and eating chocolate.