LGBTQ+ Rights and America

World chess body bars trans women from competing in women’s events

This is one of those things like how the terfs reacted when that trans woman (can't remember her name right now) won on Jeopardy where there's no way to parse this but the decision makers thinking that women are inherently stupider than men. The reason chess is separate is because it took decades before women were being taught to do chess on a high level at all and any attempts to just add women to the tournaments resulted in a lot of grand masters threatening to walk completely.

It's straight up sexism and transphobia and there's no justification for this at all.

Edited by Zendervai on Aug 17th 2023 at 3:36:15 PM

Ah yes chess, the most physical of activities. What the heck

Amy Schneider, I think.

Gonna be honest, I never understood why chess is gender-segregated at all. It has been since the early 20th century but I don't remember why.

I am guessing this is another reminder that unlike the other LGBT things, transgender rights are the least advanced and it seems like the least popular at least in the West.

I wondered it for a bit too before arriving at the most obvious reason. Just sexism.

… Yeah, apparently it doesn’t occur to these brilliant minds that they could just abolish the gender separation in a sport that doesn’t justify it in any way? >.>

I think the rule is, "if something's gender segregated for no logical reason, the men in charge are afraid of being beaten by women."

Maybe the gentlemen are worried about unfair distractions.

"Gonna be honest, I never understood why chess is gender-segregated at all. It has been since the early 20th century but I don't remember why."

Like I said, it's because whenever anyone suggests desegregating it, a bunch of the grand masters pitch a fit. They're more willing to play against a computer than a woman because of pure sexism. The upper echelons of chess are very sexist, very traditional and are completely unwilling to budge on anything.

Edited by Zendervai on Aug 17th 2023 at 4:11:21 AM

Why the hell would you gender-segregate CHESS? Physical sports I get (there are actual physical differences; in virtually every Olympic sport the men’s world record is ahead of the womens’ so it would be unfair, and in some like hockey it would be downright unsafe) but it’s silly to do it for board games!

Ah. For goodness’ sakes.

Edited by Galadriel on Aug 17th 2023 at 1:42:53 AM

in before the 'Queen' chess piece is removed

Let those "grand masters" walk out. They will be crawling back to try to regain their titles soon.

It's literally because when chess started to get that kind of attention, women were considered generally too inherently stupid and irrational to understand chess, let alone play it at high levels. This was the culture that developed croquet, one of the most pathetic sports, to entertain women.

Every single sport or game that is segregated for no apparent reason, it's because the existing (male) champions historically throw huge fits at the idea of having to compete with women. It happened in fucking darts.

The Queen piece was controversial as hell when it was introduced because men were offended that a feminine piece was the most powerful piece on the board. Dead serious.

Edited by Zendervai on Aug 17th 2023 at 4:49:38 AM

"Can't believe chess is going woke." -Some medieval chess player.

I'm curious for reference but not sure how to really phrase the question here, but like. Chess.com's only been getting more and more popular over time, right? Since it pretty much allows anyone and everyone to play chess on an online ranked ladder for free and get feedback on the ins and outs of the game.

What's the view there from the grandmasters? Is it even a blip on the radar? I doubt they'd ever entertain the idea of playing on there, but given it makes chess more accessible it stands to reason that there can only be so long before there's larger pushes for more inclusive chess leagues.

Take this with a grain of salt, but IIRC, I think it's seen as fine as a training tool, but it doesn't confer the title or prestige or anything. You have to be in an actual competition for that. They don't care if other people play chess...they just really hate the idea of women competing with them. Or at least, enough of them that the association doesn't care about pushing back.

Admittedly, it's increasingly the association itself that's like that as the older grand masters are pushed out.

Edited by Zendervai on Aug 17th 2023 at 4:57:21 AM

Generally the younger ones like it. (Notably both GM Carlsen and GM Nakamura are at least exposed to it enough to know about the bongcloud opening, which originated there, and occasionally play it, and Nakamura definitely uses it frequently. A bunch of IMs and normal Ms also use it.)

Older ones are less interested. But title requirements do require you to participate in official tournaments, which are usually held in-person because That's Just How Things Are Done or whatever.

Anyway, a lot of chess players, even at high levels, actually really hate FIDE. It's widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.

It's like FIFA but less terrible pretty much solely because it doesn't have as much money and prestige going through it.

Edited by Florien on Aug 17th 2023 at 2:20:00 AM

… But wait, isn’t the female protagonist of The Queen's Gambit competing with men?

I think so? My understanding is FIDE has open competitions and women (or I guess female now) competitions. The open championships can be entered by anyone.

Edited by ECD on Aug 17th 2023 at 2:51:19 AM

I did hear that chess was segregated to encourage women to play, but still for sexist reasons. Basically women trying to compete in chess got harassed out of the game, so a woman's league was started to try and get more women into the game.

Is the world chess body an American organization?

FIDE was founded in Paris and is based in Switzerland. The US organization is the US Chess Federation.

Then this might be best moved to the LGBT rights worldwide thread.

Yeah, chess isn’t gender segregated in the traditional sense of women and men not playing together because men throw a fit when a women defeats them. It’s got a gender specific league for women so as to encourage more women into chess/minimise harassment. I believe some Esports have a similar practise.

As for what the hell FIDE are playing at, if it’s not just outright bigotry from their leadership, it may that they’re expecting the exclusion of trans women from women’s sports to become a legal requirement in some countries with possible retroactive punishment.

While that all sounds insanely draconic, I can think of at least one country that is transphobic enough to push through something like that.