World chess federation bans transgender women from competing in women's competitions

The world's top chess federation has ruled transgender women cannot compete in its official events for women until officials have made an assessment on their gender change.

The decision by FIDE, a Switzerland-based federation, was published on Monday and has drawn criticism from advocacy groups and supporters of transgender rights.

Chess player Yosha Iglesias, 35, a trans woman from France who is recognised as female by FIDE, called the move “heartbreaking”.

She said: "So FIDE just published (yesterday) a list of anti-trans regulations, like it was 'the biggest threat of women in chess'."

The new ruling means trans women "have no right to participate in official FIDE events for women" until officials make an assessment of their gender change, which could take up to two years.

FIDE said it and its member federations have been receiving an increasing number of recognition requests from players who identify as transgender.

It comes as the popularity of chess among young people has boomed since 2020, partly thanks to Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit starring Anya Taylor-Joy.

The most popular chess site, Chess.com, reported its traffic increased by nearly double in January 2023 from the beginning of December 2022. 

This year other sports federations, such as athletics, have banned transgender women from competing in women's sports events due to claims of physical advantages - though charities such as Stonewall say there is no evidence to justify this.

It is unclear if this reasoning extends to chess, which is a game of brains and not physicality.

National Centre for Transgender Equality calls out the World Chess Federation's decision

FIDE said: “Change of gender is a change that has a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility to tournaments."

The new rules mean if a player holds women's titles and has transitioned to male, those titles would be “abolished”, the federation said.

Their title could be reinstated “if the person changes the gender back to a woman”, the federation said.

However, if a player transitions to female "all the previous titles remain eligible”, the federation said.

The reason for the disparity could be because in most chess tournaments anyone can play, however there are specific events for women.

There are no tournaments just for men, though they do dominate the top level of the sport.

In chess, the highest title is a Grandmaster - in 2020, there were more than 1,700 grandmasters, just 37 are women, according to The New York Times. 

In recent weeks female chess players have made accusations of sexual assault, violence and harassment from male players.

On August 3, 14 of France's top female players wrote an open letter, "denouncing the sexist or sexual violence they have suffered" in the chess world.

Just five days later, over 100 women in chess had signed their letter.

On Friday, the International Chess Federation said it was “deeply moved” by the open letter, and that it “stands firmly against any behaviour and actions based on sexism including any form of abuse". 

FIDE acknowledged that questions regarding transgender players were an “evolving issue for chess” and that “further policy may need to be evolved in the future in line with research evidence”.

No one immediately responded to emails to top federation officials and calls to the federation’s headquarters in Switzerland seeking further comment.

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