The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials.

  • NewEnglandRedshirt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    73
    arrow-down
    15
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wow. The argument against trans women in sports is already unscientific enough. Why is chess even split into gendered categories? This just makes zero sense.

    • binkster@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It is generally not, most tournaments anyone can enter. However, there are women-only tournaments because for a lot of social and historical reasons, men dominate the open tournaments.

      Interesting side-note fact on the power of social norms: if a woman and man play without knowing each other’s gender the woman will be more likely to win than she would if either party is made aware.

        • Squids
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Fuck it we should do the masked singer thing for chess. Masked grandmaster!

          • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            Seriously, a lot of people would play better chess if they weren’t intimidated by their opponent. Unless you consider headology part of the game, the way it is in poker and Cripple-Mister-Onion.

    • Lmaydev@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I believe it’s done mainly to encourage women to play. More than any genetic differences like other sports.

      I feel like as it makes very little difference, so letting trans people play either doesn’t really matter.

      • gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Except it’s going to discourage AMAB women from playing, so that excuse for this bigoted policy doesn’t hold water