The International Chess Federation — AKA FIDE — has barred transgender women from competing in women’s events, saying they have “no right to participate” until the organisation does a “further analysis” on the player’s participation. What the actual fuck.
During a FIDE council meeting earlier this week, the federation approved a policy update that would impact chess players who identify as transgender.
“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,” the policy update reads.
The policy also says that transgender people who are competing need to provide “sufficient proof of a gender change that complies with their national laws and regulations.”
FIDE’s decision and their “further analysis” of the player’s ability to participate in comps could take as long as two years. The federation also mentioned that there are no restrictions on players who want to compete in “the open section”.
The policy further explains that if a female transitions into a male, their “woman titles” will be “abolished”.
“Those [titles] 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 continues.
“The abolished women title may be transferred into a general title of the same or lower level.”
However, if the player were to transition from male to female, all of their titles will “remain eligible”.
Towards the end of the policy update, FIDE says they do not “publicly discuss the player’s gender change”, but they have “the right to inform the organiser and other relevant parties”.
Since FIDE’s decision on transgender players was made public, the federation has seen an immense amount of backlash — and as it fucking should.
Two-time chess champion Jennifer Shahade (@JenShahade) described the policy update as “ridiculous and dangerous”, per Athlete Ally (@AthleteAlly) on Twitter.
“It’s obvious they didn’t consult with any transgender players in constructing it. It’s also sinister timing that this comes out just as chess is finally reckoning with sexual assault and harassment in chess, highlighting the links between misogyny and transphobia.
“I strongly urge FIDE to reverse course on this and start from scratch with better consultants.”
The National Center for Transgender Equality (@Transequality) also took to Twitter to slam FIDE’s policy, retweeting chess master and transwoman Yosha Iglesias (@IglesiasYosha) who questioned the policy update.
It is unclear if the policy will impact trans players who are competing in tournaments right now. However, the updates will be implemented by August 21.
In a statement to CNN, FIDE says the policy was created to make sure players were “properly represented” in the official FIDE register.
“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 statement said, per the publication.
