International Chess Federation Will ‘Abolish’ Women’s Titles From Any Player Who Transitions Into a Man, Per New Guidelines
Kamran Jebreili/AP
The International Chess Federation says it will “abolish” the women’s titles a player has earned should they transition to a man.
The sport’s international governing body — known commonly by its French acronym FIDE — recently updated its handbook to include a slew of guidelines to account for transgender players. In addition to revoking the titles — such as Woman Grandmaster, Woman International Master, Woman FIDE Master, and Woman Candidate Master — the FIDE bar transgender women from competing women’s events.
“In the event that the gender was changed from a male to a female,” the handbook says, “the player has no right to participate in official FIDE events for women until further FIDE’s decision is made. Such decision should be based on further analysis and shall be taken by the FIDE Council at the earliest possible time, but not longer than within 2 (two) years period. There are no restrictions to play in the open section for a person who has changed the gender.”
Although the FIDE has both women’s events and “open” events, women are not prevented from competing with men. Women’s events are organized primarily to encourage more women to play chess, as men far outnumber them. There is no inherent advantage that would require separate categories, but a woman has not competed for the World Chess Championship since Judit Polgar in 2005.
Polgar is widely regarded as the world’s greatest women’s player. As noted in a 2010 report from NPR, she never competes in women’s events and has earned the gender-neutral title of Grandmaster. According to the FIDE’s new guidelines, a woman who earned a women’s title could have it transferred to a gender-neutral one.
The issue is that women’s titles are considered less valuable by the FIDE, so a Woman Grandmaster wouldn’t be tranferred a general Grandmaster.
“The abolished women title may be transferred into a general title of the same or lower level (e.g., Woman Grand Master may be transferred into FIDE Master, Women’s International Master into Candidate, etc.)”
A player’s international rating, however, will remain unchanged.
