"UK MP Angela Eagle, who was a joint winner of the 1976 British Girls' Under-18 chess championship, said: 'There is no physical advantage in chess unless you believe men are inherently more able to play than women - I spent my chess career being told women's brains were smaller than men's and we shouldn't even be playing.
"'This ban is ridiculous and offensive to women,’ she added.”
"Transphobes believe women are inferior to men in general"
TizzyEnt gives a great explanation of how the International Chess Federation's ban of transgender women proves that such anti-trans policies are not about protecting women.
In the video he quotes Kate Montogomerie, who writes:
"In banning trans women from chess the insane anti-trans lobby has fully revealed their hand. They don't just believe that sex is a non-material immutable binary, they also think that women are intellectually inferior. Which is what we've been saying they believe from the start. ...
"To a transphobe there is a supernatural order. Men first, women second. Women are inferior in body and mind. And that cannot be changed, no matter what physical or social changes one undergoes. Because if it could be changed then that hierarchy falls apart. It threatens order."
See also our article on FIDE banning trans women and punishing trans men.
This is why FIDE's ban on transgender players is not only insane, but reflective of an ongoing contempt for women in FIDE.
Here's one big takeaway from this essay: women don't have separate chess tournaments because they are not as good as men. They have separate chess tournaments because they do not want to be harassed and assaulted at chess tournaments. Some of the most successful male players are serial assaulters, and FIDE does... nothing.
FIDE : We will not act to curb the harassment that women, cis and trans, face in the chess world.
Everyone with sense : Go fuck yourself, FIDE.
FIDE : But we will ban trans women from women's tournaments and do nothing to prevent harassment to follow the bandwagon, knowing that will rally the extremely conservative male board and will give TERFs the illusion that we are being noble saviours of the patriarchal gender binary by further isolating trans women from the sport. And we will litterally not be doing anything about harassment.
TERFs : HELL YEAH! FIDE'S FINALLY FIGHTING FOR WOMEN BY ???
The real champion of the chess board is a transgender woman!
Laura Amalasunta wrote over at Mastodon:
Trans women have a biological advantage at chess because we know how to go a long distance as a vulnerable little piece that everyone is always threatening in order to become a queen
To which Andrew responded with this comic:
For those who are not familiar with chess: This is called" "queening".
When a white or black pawn reaches its promotion square, players can exchange it for a queen, the most powerful piece in a chess game, of their respective color. This type of promotion is known as “queening the pawn” or “queening.”
See also:
“Transphobes believe women are inferior to men in general”
The International Chess Federation’s new transphobic policy is beyond belief
So, uh. This is a fucking mess. TIL there are gendered chess competitions. Trans men will be "stripped" of their titles (women's titles, I guess) post-transition and trans women can keep their "male" titles, but won't be able to compete as women? And, once again, nonbinary folks are just...smoke? We don't exist anywhere.
This is incredibly ridiculous and insulting! I've been a fan of chess since I was a child and never thought I would be addressing this issue.
1) Trans women are banned from playing until "further analysis" is done, which could take up to two years (because they think you're male and superior to females...basically, saying it would be an unfair advantage).
2) Trans women will not have any titles taken away prior to transitioning (again, because they think you're male and superior to females).
3) Trans men will have titles taken away that were won prior to transitioning (because they think you're female and inferior and don't deserve the titles).
On a more positive note, the article states chess stars across the world have spoken out against FIDE's new policies, saying they will bring unnecessary harm to transgender competitors.
"The new regulations will make trans chess players all over the world face a horrible dilemma: transition or quit chess," professional chess player Yosha Iglesias wrote on X."
I have to Blaze 🔥 this post...and if tumblr denies it, they're buttheads.
In a move that is sure to cause a significant stir, FIDE announced that it would be setting restrictions on transgenders participating in official FIDE Women events, specifying that any such restrictions pertain exclusively to man to women transgenders. These regulations come into effect on August 21.
Regardless of one’s thoughts on this, the physical disparity between men and women is not in…