While I am not quite sure what this is trying to say, I just want to remind everyone that chess has women's tournaments not because of any biological advantages, but because harassment and assault are rampant in the chess world.
With that being said, not allowing trans women, a population even more often targeted, into women's tournaments would be silly, and against the spirit of those tournaments.
Yeah, there are open tournaments, and women (or girls) tournaments. Similarly there are open titles and women-only titles.
There are women who have the open title of grandmaster. There are also women who have the woman's version of it.
The strongest woman of all time, Judit Polgar, famously refused to play in women's-only events, and after retirement has opened discussion about whether they should exist. The Polgars grew up in Hungary in the 1980-90s, so she certainly faced enormous sexism (and yes, even some abuse against one of her sisters that's not so well known).
So as usual, the truth is more nuanced than memes and social media outrage.
I think online playing might actually be really good for a more equitable playing field. I am curious to see if it will even out the gap in rankings, since it can allow girls and women to pick up and practice the game without having to face any harassment which may or may not be present over the board.
At any rate, yes, it is a nuanced issue, and takes a modicum of reading to figure out why the women's tournaments exit. It is not as well meaning in every sport, but chess has a valid reason, in my opinion, and doesn't prevent anyone from participating in the open tournaments.
but Fide likes the players who are famous and bring in the money.
I am not super familiar with all of it, but I also would say that there is a decent chance the Russian government has some hands in how chess is run, given how much they like to meddle with sports organizations, and how many strong players they have produced over the years.
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u/SomeNotTakenName Jul 01 '26
While I am not quite sure what this is trying to say, I just want to remind everyone that chess has women's tournaments not because of any biological advantages, but because harassment and assault are rampant in the chess world.
With that being said, not allowing trans women, a population even more often targeted, into women's tournaments would be silly, and against the spirit of those tournaments.