The world chess association FIDE will exclude trans women from international competitions in the future. The FIDE Council passed a corresponding rule earlier this month. It comes into effect on August 21.
FIDE wants to develop further guidelines for dealing with trans women
FIDE has determined that the issue is an “evolving theme” for chess. “FIDE and its member federations are increasingly receiving requests for recognition from individual members who identify as transgender”. Therefore, further guidelines would now have to be developed “in line with research results”. Until then, trans women will remain banned from international women’s tournaments.
FIDE told Reuters: “Transgender legislation is evolving rapidly in many countries. Many sports federations are adopting their own regulations. FIDE will monitor these developments and see how we can apply them to the chess world.”
It went on to say: “Two years is a time frame that seems appropriate for the thorough analysis of such developments.”
Women’s titles revoked after gender reassignment
According to the association, trans women can continue to participate in open tournaments that are open to all players. There are no all-men tournaments in chess. There are only open tournaments and women’s tournaments. In addition, according to the new FIDE rule, female players who later identify as male will be stripped of all female titles.
If the decision is reversed, there is a chance of getting the title back. According to FIDE, nothing happens the other way around: “If a player has changed gender from a man to a woman, all previous titles remain eligible.”
Activists for the rights of transgender people have criticized Fide’s decision. Chess champion Yosha Iglesias, herself a trans woman, tweeted: “FIDE has published a list of anti-trans rules as if it were the ‘biggest threat to women in chess’.”
In another tweet, she captioned a picture of the FIDE Council: “Am I woman enough? These people will decide. They may need ‘further investigations’. What investigations exactly?”
German Chess Federation: “Do not exclude trans women”
And the German Chess Federation (DSB) also showed no understanding of the new FIDE rules: “We do not exclude trans women. In Germany, a trans woman became German champion as early as the 2000s and in the future, of course, trans women will be allowed to participate in all German tournaments for women,” said the DSB when asked by Deutschlandfunk.
It went on to say: “We have serious concerns that these new FIDE rules are compatible with the legal situation in several countries. If a person is legally recognized as a woman, we do not understand what else FIDE would like to examine and why – as laid down in the new rules – takes two years for this. From the point of view of the DSB, these regulations for the registration of transgender chess players issued by the World Chess Federation are an example of how discrimination arises when those affected are not involved in any way.”
Transgender regulations in several sports federations
In the past few months, several sports associations had passed new transgender regulations. In swimming, track and field, and cycling, trans women are only allowed to compete in women’s competitions if their gender reassignment occurred before puberty. Otherwise the physical advantage over cis women is too high, according to the respective justifications.
In Australia, the national basketball association had banned transgender athlete Lexi Rodgers from semi-professional NBL1 – a precedent.