FIDE temporarily bans transgender women from women's chess events; faces backlash

GLOBAL CHESS ORGANIZATION FIDE has banned transgender women from competing in official women's chess competitions until further notice.

The Federation Internationale des Echecs has decided that they would individually assess the case of each transgender player before deciding on whether or not they can play compete in women's chess.

A statement from FIDE said,

"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... if a player has changed the gender from a man into a woman, all the previous titles remain eligible."

This move comes as a surprise since the only debates around transgender women's participation in women's sports have been centred around the physically intensive sports like rugby, weightlifting, swimming, football and different forms of combat sports.

The decision has sparked criticism and opposition from several parts of the chess world. Notably, the German Chess Federation has openly and immediately expressed their opposition to this decision saying, "We do not exclude trans women."

Statement of the German Chess Federation on the "@FIDE_chess Policy on Transgender Chess Players Registration" pic.twitter.com/kjCTMTLVVi

— Deutscher Schachbund (@Schachbund) August 18, 2023

Under the current rules, each individual case may take up to 2 years to review before a decision is made by FIDE.

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