Trans Women's Ban From Chess Tournaments Sparks Outrage: 'Insane'

A decision to effectively ban transgender women from competitive chess tournaments until further notice by the chess world's governing body has sparked a backlash on social media.

The International Chess Federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, recently released an updated version of its handbook that says players who transition "from a male to a female" have "no right" to participate in official events for women until a further decision is made. That decision will be based on "further analysis" in a process that could take up to two years.

It comes amid moves to shut transgender women out of women's sports in the U.S. and beyond, while a record wave of anti-LGBTQ+ bills sweeps U.S. statehouses this year.

But unlike in chess, those efforts have been based on concern that transgender women who have gone through male puberty have an unfair physical advantage over their cisgender competitors. World Athletics in March banned transgender women who have gone through male puberty from international competition.

FIDE's new rules, which go into effect on August 21, state that transgender players will not be restricted from competing in open tournaments, but that they will not be able to compete in women-only competitions.

Transgender men will also be stripped of any titles they won in women's competitions under the new rules. "Those can be renewed if the person changes the gender back to a woman and can prove the ownership of the respective FIDE ID that holds the title," the policy states.

It also says that FIDE "does not publicly discuss the player's gender change," but "has the right to inform the organizers and other relevant parties on the gender change." It adds that FIDE also "has the right to make an appropriate mark in the Players' database and/or use other measures to inform organizers on a player being a transgender, so that to prevent them from possible illegitimate enrollments in tournaments."

The new rules prompted outrage on social media.

"This is insane. Trans women banned from playing women's CHESS by the International Chess Federation," India Willoughby, a journalist who is transgender, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"Pure bigotry and persecution. How can you justify this @FIDE_chess?"

Professional chess player Yosha Iglesias, who is transgender, also criticized the new policy.

"Can someone tell me what qualifies as an official FIDE event?" Iglesias wrote on the platform. "Will I be allowed to play the French Championship in three days? The European Club Cup in September?"

Katy Montgomerie wrote in a post on the platform that in "banning trans women from chess the insane anti-trans lobby has fully revealed their hand. They don't just believe that sex is a non-material immutable binary, they also think that women are intellectually inferior."

The National Center for Transgender Equality wrote: "Really? Chess?This is so insulting to cis women, to trans women, and to the game itself. It assumes that cis women couldn't be competitive against cis men - and relies on ignorant anti-trans ideas."

Some did argue that transgender women would have a biological advantage at chess.

"There are more male geniuses than female geniuses," wrote Jon Schweppe, the policy director of the American Principles Project, a conservative think tank.

"There are also more males with low IQs than females with low IQs. This is known. It's biology."

In a statement, a FIDE spokesperson told Newsweek that the new regulations "are aimed at clearly defining the procedure on how a person who has officially changed their gender may register the fact on FIDE Directory.

"The absence of such regulations caused ambiguity and therefore an established order was needed to provide the right of the transgender players being properly represented on the official register of FIDE."

The spokesperson said the regulations "also provide protection to players who are denied from such right by their national federation—FIDE itself would take care of registering the gender change in such cases. The gender change would be registered based on the player's national legislation, no additional procedures would be required."

They added: "Any further decisions related to admission of the players to official FIDE women events require a more [thorough] analysis that will be done and further decisions taken by the Council. Meanwhile, the transgender players are allowed to participate in the open section of the official FIDE chess tournaments."

Newsweek has contacted Yosha Iglesias for comment via email.

Update 8/21/23, 3:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a statement from a FIDE spokesperson.