Interesting Links for 18-08-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Chess regulator bans trans women from competitions for two years

(tags:chess bigotry LGBT transgender OhForFucksSake )

Comments

[cmcmck]

So they really are saying that they think men are innately mentally superior to women?

This is utterly insane!

Could it be to do with the fact that Russia still dominates world chess and its organisation, I wonder?

[channelpenguin]

wait, chess competitions are SEGREGATED?

[mtbc]

This was a surprise to me also, wtf.

[andrewducker]

Apparently mostly not.

[adrian_turtle]

Mostly, not. A quick scan of US tournaments suggests that they are open, limited by age, or limited by amateur status. A few seem to be specifically for teen girls.

[ninetydegrees]

The more I hear bout it, the more the chess competitive world sounds like a clusterfuck of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and more. But the same can be said of any sport or sport-like stuff, can't it? The harm insecure hateful (white) men do seems endless. *sigh*

Well!

[lsanderson]

I'm sure they just want to make sure the ass they pinch is a natural-born woman, otherwise, you know, there might be talk.

[calimac]

Do men and women compete separately in chess? The article doesn't say. (But if so, why??)

[andrewducker]

Looking into this a bit further there are apparently only a few competitions that do segregate.

[calimac]

If they don't, then WTF difference does it make, even by TERF logic (which differs from our human logic), if a player is trans?

[conuly]

Because something something something rationalizations.

[dewline]

This is damned ridiculous on FIDE's part.

[doubtingmichael]

Fifty-plus years ago, FIDE set up women's titles and championships, as otherwise (at that time) there would have been no women capable of competing with the best men, and the best women would have gone unrecognised. So that was quite sensible, I think.

But this just seems like FIDE being a bunch of assholes, which they have form on. It might be Russians, but it might be people from any number of regressive nations, or it might be part of some scheming about national standings.

The good news is that a lot of national chess associations have told FIDE to get mated (so to speak): https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/08/20/english-chess-federation-fide-trans-women-policy/