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.

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.

  • Not_Alec_Baldwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1329·
    1 year ago

    Sorry to be contrarian here, but at the high competitive level chess is a cardiovascular challenge. If you listen to serious chess players talk about playing it’s not just a simple mental exercise.

    High performing chess players have a higher HRV. Chess grandmasters might be sitting still but their body is undergoing a high degree of stress. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-14359-001

    Men statistically have higher HRV on average, and the outliers are even more extreme. https://www.whoop.com/ca/en/thelocker/normal-hrv-range-age-gender/

    So when you enter into a competitive environment it’s just nicer to know you have a MORE level playing field.

    I know chess specifically is controversial with regards to gender stuff and I’m not saying it’s perfect. I’m just saying that there are real reasons to support separate brackets.

    • TheActualDevil@sffa.communityEnglish
      15·
      1 year ago

      Hold up. I’m not super experienced in reading studies, but I can read.

      1. At best this is correlation. HRV increasing for these men doesn’t mean a high HRV is required to be good at chess.

      2. Sample size of 16… And only male.

      HRV was reduced in participants who achieved worse results. This could indicate the possibility of HRV predicting cognitive performance

      If reduced HRV means lower cognitive performance and women have, on average, lower HRV, you’re saying women are less smart. At least in chess. I think that’s bullshit and this study isn’t incorporating enough/the correct data to show anything you’re stating.

      But here is one: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763411002077 that links HRV with stress response

      And another: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763419310292 That shows women’s HRV responds less severely to stress.

      Both meta-analysis, not a single data point.

      So maybe men are just shit at dealing with stress and that’s why their brains go haywire during competition. But it’s so gracious of you being so kind to women and giving them a space where they can play among equals on a “MORE level playing field.”

      By your logic, they should just be testing people’s HRV and ranking them that way so they all are on even ground. Give those dummy men a MORE level playing field.

      • SpiderShoeCultEnglish
        52·
        1 year ago

        Heh, TIL chess is cardio.

        But as a person whos heart rate also increases while playing competitive board games, I can say the heart rate increase is usually due to adrenalin because I was blindsighted and I am in danger of not getting my ‘easy win’ or a toddler like rage at my predictions going wrong. YMMV.

        Remember the chess player accused of cheating via anal dildo?

        Also remember Petrosian? He spawned a whole bot over on AnarchyChess.

        Pretty sure those two’s heart rates had nothing to do with increased bloodflow to the brain to make calculated decisions.

        Having my ass handed to me in chess (amateur level) by women a couple of times makes me think that maybe the segregation is to protect men, rather than women. Or I might just be a bad chess player.

        Why, if Petrosian had gone berserk on women instead of men, he probably would have had a huge reputation hit. With a bot quoting him for all internet eternity or some stuff like that. Oh, wait.

    • Anonymousllama@lemmy.worldEnglish
      513·
      1 year ago

      Pretty typical for here to see a post with actual sources and instead of people doing their own research they instead want to downvote and dog-pile. You can be upset with the outcome but there are reasons behind it (and it’s not just them jumping on the trans bashing bandwagon, they outlined exactly why it was done and how it works for male-female transitions and vice versa)

      • Claidheamh@slrpnk.netEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        It’s not an “actual source”, it’s a shit source. N=16, really? Barely qualifies as a study.

      • Ultraviolet@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Providing a source doesn’t make a statement unchallengeable, especially if the source is deeply flawed.