Why Do Women Have Own Chess Tournaments? Transgender Ban Raises Questions
an update to its handbook this week, the International Chess Federation or FIDE as it is known by the French acronym, announced that "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."Over the past several months, transgender rights have remained a topic of conversation, with many states seeking to prohibit gender-affirming care for minors.
The topic of transgender women competing in women's sports has also sparked controversy and the world governing swimming body, FINA, recently announced that transgender women are banned from competing in female-only events.Despite the ban on transgender women competing in the women-only category of chess, the FIDE updated handbook notes that "There are no restrictions to play in the open section for a person who has changed the gender." According to the FIDE website, currently there is an open category, where men and women can compete against each other.In a statement to Newsweek following publication of the updated handbook, a spokesperson for FIDE said, "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.""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.
