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Silly question, why does chess, a mental activity, need gendered leagues?

And they also made it so trans men have to give up any women's titles they've earned. So, they simultaneously think trans men are men, but trans women are not women.

If anything, based on the past comments of the head of the organization, they have a position that's generally "women are dumber than men and we want to make decisions that align with that ethos always".

this makes sense because cis women have such small bones they can't reach past the centre board, giving most trans women and tall cis women an inherent advantage. /s

what the fuck chess this is just blatant transphobia

Clarifications and comments (some pre emptive)

Chess has a women's category to boost participation and spotlight female players.

Women can and do compete in the open category, which allows men and women. However, currently the highest rated women perform under the super closed "Super GM" level, so they participate in the tournaments that are less prestigious but fitting their rating. Male players like IM Eric Rosen also participate in such tournaments.

The best female player in history , Judit Polgar was 8th best in the world when taking both genders into account. There's nothing stopping women from reaching the elite level in open chess. She even participated in the candidates tournament which decides who gets to play against the world champion for the world champion title. Unfortunately she didn't perform too well, but it's not because of her gender, she was basically beaten 2-1 (plus draws) by a male competitor, just like the other contestants in the round she was eliminated.

At her peak she had 2735 Elo points, making her 55th highest rated person in the history of organized chess. This is higher than one of the actual challengers to the crown, Nigel short.

Regarding the rulings:

1. No one is going to pretend to be a woman, in order to convert the person's identity with fide, they are required to have government issued paperwork saying they have transitioned. It's not worth it.

2. it's funny that male to female transgender people are not regarded as women by this ruling, hence cannot participate in women's events, but female to male transgender people also forfeit their women's titles as they are not seen as women either. (To be fair, they can convert them to open titles, and get them back if they detransition officially)

So according to FIDE, transitioning from a man to a woman doesn't make you a woman, you are considered a man, but also, transitioning from a woman to a man makes you a man, so you are also not considered a woman.

Seems paradoxical. You'd think they'd pick one and stick to it.

Also: chess does have physical advantages, but they seem to be reletive and not competitive. Most high level players have some sports regimen as it helps increase cardiovascular efficiency, but size of competitor doesn't seem to matter as seen by David Bronstein and Mikhail Tal. Ian Nepomniatchschi intentionally lost weight for the world championship, and his ratings grew as a result.

Remember that whales are not necessarily more clever than humans even though their brains are huge in comparison.

What? Is this real? Are the men and women not competing together? It is not a physical competition. Why the separation?

Plenty of enlightened gents hitting the thread here to rubbish the need for a women's category whilst simultaneously demonstrating why there's a women's category

TIL: Chess had separate things for genders.

Weird...

Today we learned that bigots think trans women have a biological advantage at being smarter and more logical than cis women.

Last month we learned that bigots think trans women are hotter than cis women.

Starting to think bigots don't think clearly.

Being a minority in any social setting brings difficulties that others just don't otherwise face.

Having a women's category for chess is a way of creating a safe environment for everyone to thrive.

I didn't even realize chess had separated mens/womens events. I figured maybe a U18 and an open tournament. Is this par for normal? Or do most grandmasters etc compete at open tournaments?

I knew professional chess was blatantly sexist, but transphobic now too? Not surprised just dissappointed

it was never about fairness.

Ugh, why do they feel the need to even write these rules in the first place? I can almost guarantee you there's like, five trans people who are even registered to play chess. Why go to so much effort to block such a fraction of a percent of people anyways?

Whenever I read articles like these, I substitute "trans" for a different minority, such as a racial or ethnic minority, and it really puts it in perspective.

I remember when Utah made a huge deal about it in women's sports. And someone like the Utah governor was against it, saying he'd never seen so much hate around something so little. He told his colleagues that in the entire state, only four trans youth were even playing registered sports, and most were JV, not even going to competitions. It's sad to see people so stoked by hate for something so...mundane. :/

This isn't like running or something where men have a significant advantage physically over women just make it mixed gender and be done with it people can claim whatever gender they want and chess can avoid getting into a politically charged firestorm

To be clear, the head of FIDE (the chess federation) is close to the Russian fascist state. This is the Russian state showing off anti-trans hate as a culture-war move.