International Chess Federation bans trans women with bizarre new policy

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced that transgender women have “no right to participate” in women’s chess events.

The regulatory organisation that governs international chess competitions said that players who transition “from a male to a female” will not be allowed to play in women’s chess events until further notice which could take up to two years.

The FIDE did not offer any justification or reason for the policy change that was updated in its handbook.

“Such decisions should be based on further analysis and shall be taken by the FIDE council at the earliest possible time, but no longer than within [a two-year] period,” the policy read.

Under the new guidelines, any transgender men who earned their titles in pre-transition period in a women’s tournament will be stripped of those achievements and the “abolished women title may be transferred into a general title of the same or lower level”.

But trans women who won titles in men’s events will be allowed to keep that title in full.

Yosha Iglesias, a French chess coach who holds the FIDE Master title, questioned the updated guidelines calling it “anti-trans regulations”.

“So FIDE just published (yesterday) a list of anti-trans regulations, like it was ‘the biggest threat of women in chess’,” she said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Can someone tell me what qualifies as an official FIDE event? Will I be allowed to play the French Championship in 3 days? The European Club Cup in September?”

Ana Valens, a trans writer for The Mary Sue, also raised questions over the policy change and said “FIDE is treating trans women as some sort of threat to the integrity of cisgender women playing chess”.

“This raises many questions. Why are trans women being banned from women’s chess? What’s the point? Are trans women innately better at chess? Are we too smart to play with cis women? I for one don’t think I am smarter than most cis women, nor do I think my pre-transition years gave me some sort of innate advantage at chess, so this shouldn’t be the case,” she said.

In its updated guidelines, the FIDE also said that it will have the right to inform event organisers about a player’s identity, raising fears over the possibility of transgender players being outed from the events.

It said the FIDE will only recognise a player’s gender identity that is “consistent with the identity they maintain in their non chess life AND that has been confirmed by national authorities based on a due legal and formal process of change”.

The regulations had been mandating players to apply for new FIDE ID numbers (FIN) that are required to participate in chest tournaments.

But it has become almost impossible unless it is approved by a national rating officer.

“If the national rating officer rejects to approve the gender change, the player may appeal to FIDE [qualifications commission]. FIDE QC can also cancel the decision of the national rating officer to change the gender of the player if there is no sufficient evidence of such change.”

The new rules will come into effect from 21 August.