World chess body bans transgender women from women’s tournaments

Visitors play chess at The World Chess Club Berlin in Germany on May 9. The German Chess Federation described the new international policies for transgender chess players as discriminatory.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Rugby, swimming, track and field — transgender women have been banned from international women’s events in a growing number of sports. The latest to make that list is chess.

The International Chess Federation, known as FIDE, will effectively stop allowing transgender women from participating in women’s competitions until “further analysis” can be made — which could take up to two years.

The organization will also remove some titles won by players who won in women’s categories and later transitioned to male. It will also remove some titles won by transgender men. The new policies are slated to go into effect on Monday.

“FIDE recognizes that this is an evolving issue for chess and that besides technical regulations on transgender regulations further policy may need to be evolved in the future in line with research evidence,” the federation wrote in a statement.

Over the past few days, several chess federations have come out against the new changes, including in the U.S. and Germany.

“If a person is legally recognised as a woman, it is incomprehensible to us what FIDE still wants to check and why it needs two years for this,” the German Chess Federation wrote Friday in a statement.

The new regulations around transgender players

Under new guidelines, transgender people will still be allowed to compete in the “open” section of tournaments, where men and women typically compete against one another.

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