Governing bodies for sports such as cycling, track and field and swimming have tightened their participation rules for trans women in elite women’s competitions. Now, the International Chess Federation (FIDE, for its acronym in French) has banned trans women from competing in its official women’s events while it carries out a “comprehensive analysis” of the evolution of the situation, a process that could last up to two years.
The new regulations, approved by the FIDE council this month, will come into force on August 21 and require transgender players to provide “sufficient evidence of a gender change that complies with their national laws and regulations.” Most chess competitions are open to all players, with the exception of a few tournaments like the Women’s World Championship.
“In the event that the gender has been changed from male to female, the player will not have the right to participate in official FIDE events for women until FIDE makes a new decision,” the federation said.
“FIDE recognizes that this is an evolving issue for chess and that, in addition to technical regulations on trans regulations, additional policies may need to be developed in the future in line with research evidence,” the federation said.
In an emailed statement to Reuters on Thursday, a FIDE spokesman said the decision was made to better define the processes involved when a player changes gender.
“Trans legislation is developing rapidly in many countries and many sports bodies are adopting their own policies. FIDE will closely monitor this development and see how we can apply it to the world of chess,” the statement said.
“Two years is a margin of vision that seems reasonable to analyze these developments in depth. It is about setting a certain period for a new iteration of these policies, without rushing.” He added that transgender players can continue to compete in the “open” categories of tournaments.
