The International Chess Federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, has infuriated the left by joining a small but growing trend among sports associations that are banning or limiting men claiming to be transgender women from competing in the women’s category.
FIDE ruled that trans players have “no right” to automatically play in the women’s category just because they claim to be women, Forbes magazine reported. The group added that they reserve the right to determine what gender category a player can enter and that such determinations can take up to two years to complete.
The new policy requires trans players to supply FIDE “sufficient proof of a gender change that complies with their national laws and regulations.”
To further discourage transgender switches among member players, FIDE also noted that past records will be “abolished” after a switch, though they did say they might reinstate past records if someone switches back to their original gender designation in tournament play.
FIDE also said that more rules may come in the near future because transgenderism is “an evolving issue for chess,” and that “further policy may need to be evolved in the future in line with research evidence.”
“Change of gender is a change that has a significant impact on a player’s status and future eligibility to tournaments, therefore it can only be made if there is a relevant proof of the change provided,” the organization said, according to Fox News.
FIDE sponsors both the World Chess Championship and the Women’s World Championship. The former allows women to compete, but the latter is a women-only event. It has been explained that the Women’s World Championship is open only to women because only a bit more than 14 percent of competing chess players are women, Forbes added.
Yosha Isgeslias, a transgender chess master, blasted the new rules, calling it an “anti-trans regulation” that suggests trans chess players are “the biggest threat” to female players. Isgeslias added that the new policy “relies on ignorant anti-trans ideas” and “is so insulting to cis women, to trans women and to the game itself.”
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Richard Pringle, a professor of sociology and education at Australia’s Monash University, also blasted the policy and told the Washington Post that the idea that “males are somehow strategically better” at chess is “not just transphobic, it’s anti-feminist too.”
Pringle also alleged that the new policy was “likely a political decision rather than an issue of fairness.”
The chess organization’s move comes as a growing number of sports associations and governing bodies have begun to pull back from blanket acceptance of transgender athletes.
This year, the world governing body for cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale, officially banned male-born athletes from competing as women after too many male-born trans cyclists began winning races in the women’s category.
Other sports authorities have also moved to place limits on trans athletes.
In 2022, International Rugby League banned men claiming to be women from playing their sport, mostly because the organization feared for the safety of natural-born female competitors in the high-contact sport.
In addition, the Pro Disc Golf Association and the International Swimming Federation both moved to place limits on trans competitors.
The movement to limit or ban men claiming to be women from being allowed to play as women in pro sports leagues is gaining steam, but it is also being reflected in a large number of American states which have also moved to ban transgender athletes from girls’ teams in schools. So far, 23 states have some level of limitations on trans athletes, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Along with lawmakers, detransitioners such as Chloe Cole, who are victims of the left’s political agenda, are also speaking out to warn parents that transgenderism can destroy lives. Cole, for instance, has had her life turned upside down by dangerous medical procedures that will cause her pain for the rest of her life.
It is good to see more sports groups finally realizing that men parading as women pose a threat to women’s sports. but more need to be brought to this sensible conclusion before men end up holding all the top records and titles in women’s sports.
