The world’s top chess federation has ruled that transgender women cannot compete in its official events for females until an assessment of gender change is made by its officials.

  • @NewEnglandRedshirt@lemmy.world
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    5611 months ago

    Wow. The argument against trans women in sports is already unscientific enough. Why is chess even split into gendered categories? This just makes zero sense.

    • @binkster@lemm.ee
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      2611 months ago

      It is generally not, most tournaments anyone can enter. However, there are women-only tournaments because for a lot of social and historical reasons, men dominate the open tournaments.

      Interesting side-note fact on the power of social norms: if a woman and man play without knowing each other’s gender the woman will be more likely to win than she would if either party is made aware.

    • @Lmaydev@programming.dev
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      11 months ago

      I believe it’s done mainly to encourage women to play. More than any genetic differences like other sports.

      I feel like as it makes very little difference, so letting trans people play either doesn’t really matter.