For years now, sports experts and culture warriors alike have been fiercely contesting the issue of whether transwomen (males who live and identify as women) should be eligible to compete in the female categories of numerous sports—including
rugby,
swimming,
weightlifting, and
disc golf. But last August, this debate entered an unexpected domain: the game of chess.
Under a new policy announced by the Switzerland-based International Chess Federation (widely known as
FIDE, following on its French name, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs), for now, at least, transwomen
will not be permitted to compete in official events reserved for women.
Readers who aren’t serious chess players may be surprised to learn that the game—in which the most demanding physical movements consist of lifting small pieces of carved wood—even reserved a separate category for women in the first place. What could be the justification? And given that such a category exists, some might ask, why wouldn’t transwomen be allowed to identify into it? Some journalists and other commentators have been quick to
suggest that the new policy is motivated by transphobia; but might there be sound reasons for the change? These are the questions I’ve set out to answer in this essay.
On a chess board, the queen is the most powerful piece. But in the human world, the fair sex accounts for only about two percent of the world’s chess Grandmasters. Even at lower competitive levels, males not only outnumber, but also outrank females by a large margin.
The Queen’s Gambit (2020) made for great television, and
inspired many girls to pick up the game. But contrary to what some Netflix viewers might have assumed, its world-conquering protagonist, chess prodigy Beth Harmon (actress Anya Taylor-Joy), is a fictional character: No woman has ever achieved the title of U.S. Chess Champion; let alone World Champion...
