World chess federation bars transgender women from competing in women's events

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World chess federation bars transgender women from competing in women's events
apnews.com

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.

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Lol, literally the only game where physical size, bone density, lung capacity and muscle strength does not matter is keeping men and women separate! Haha... In chess there should be no separate category for women, unless.... Unless.... Unless we believe that women are less smarter than men.

Chess got an open class and a female class. The latter is there to provide a safer environment for girls and hopefully encourage more to try out the sport.

Why do girls need a safe environment when playing with boys?

Because as we've proven times and times again when in presence of women, we're a bunch of morons that can't treat them with the respect they deserve.

Men can be nasty and intimidating towards women as history have shown a million times. Add in the fact you have a lot of "old fashioned" men in the sport that may not be up to date on how you should behave in the third millennium. If you want to grow the sport, you need to facilitate a safe and welcoming environment for everyone. Tournaments exclusive to girls is one way build towards that.

This is the first comment that made me understand why separate competitions are requires. Thank you.

Set a code of conduct and ban people who misbehave. Might lose some top players, but it'd be better for everyone else.

I mean, the real answer is that chess is full of toxic people who've made it to the top to run the organization. The fact that this behavior wasn't curtailed already shows that. Its just an accepted part of it. If the ones who would make the decision to ban those players don't already see an issue they're not going to start now to make the space better for women.

If you want to grow the sport, you need to facilitate a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

Hm. In addition to a welcoming environment it might be fun to have a 'cutthroat' class with an opposite approach where intimidation, bullying, and over-the-top shit-talking is encouraged. They could have competitors come out in like pro-wrestling gear or something and have a stare-down at the beginning of the match.

Nerdy men playing a board game are intidimating? How do women even get anything in life done of they are this fragile? WTF? Do you also want separate women-only schools, and women-only companies?

Playing a board game isn't problematic, but being crass and abusive about it like this is.

What is abusive about saying that women are strong and should play with men without issues?

Morphing the actual event and using softer language to describe the behavior is certainly one way to abuse people by gaslighting them. He didn't say women are strong he accused the ones participating in this of being weak. Take your doublespeak elsewhere.

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The vast majority of times when men's and women's sports are separated it isn't for the benefit of the men. It is because it would be a blow-out if the two sexes were together.

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Women traditionally have been discouraged from competitions, including chess. To speak in broad strokes, even in progressive locations around the world, there are still those who believe that traditional gender roles mean women should but compete. Men have a generational head start. We are at the stage where, in order to be equitable and fair, we should be creating extra opportunities for women. If we didn't, tradition and systemic practices would continue to discourage women.

Chess has no male category. There's open, and female. This allows an extra space for women to compete against each other, feel safe, and make connections and friendships with other women in the minority. While still allowing them to compete in the coed category on a level playing field.

We will most likely continue to be at this stage for generations.

Sorry to be contrarian here, but at the high competitive level chess is a cardiovascular challenge. If you listen to serious chess players talk about playing it's not just a simple mental exercise.

High performing chess players have a higher HRV. Chess grandmasters might be sitting still but their body is undergoing a high degree of stress. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-14359-001

Men statistically have higher HRV on average, and the outliers are even more extreme. https://www.whoop.com/ca/en/thelocker/normal-hrv-range-age-gender/

So when you enter into a competitive environment it's just nicer to know you have a MORE level playing field.

I know chess specifically is controversial with regards to gender stuff and I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm just saying that there are real reasons to support separate brackets.

Hold up. I'm not super experienced in reading studies, but I can read.

  1. At best this is correlation. HRV increasing for these men doesn't mean a high HRV is required to be good at chess.

  2. Sample size of 16... And only male.

HRV was reduced in participants who achieved worse results. This could indicate the possibility of HRV predicting cognitive performance

If reduced HRV means lower cognitive performance and women have, on average, lower HRV, you're saying women are less smart. At least in chess. I think that's bullshit and this study isn't incorporating enough/the correct data to show anything you're stating.

But here is one: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763411002077 that links HRV with stress response

And another: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763419310292 That shows women's HRV responds less severely to stress.

Both meta-analysis, not a single data point.

So maybe men are just shit at dealing with stress and that's why their brains go haywire during competition. But it's so gracious of you being so kind to women and giving them a space where they can play among equals on a "MORE level playing field."

By your logic, they should just be testing people's HRV and ranking them that way so they all are on even ground. Give those dummy men a MORE level playing field.

Heh, TIL chess is cardio.

But as a person whos heart rate also increases while playing competitive board games, I can say the heart rate increase is usually due to adrenalin because I was blindsighted and I am in danger of not getting my 'easy win' or a toddler like rage at my predictions going wrong. YMMV.

Remember the chess player accused of cheating via anal dildo?

Also remember Petrosian? He spawned a whole bot over on AnarchyChess.

Pretty sure those two's heart rates had nothing to do with increased bloodflow to the brain to make calculated decisions.

Having my ass handed to me in chess (amateur level) by women a couple of times makes me think that maybe the segregation is to protect men, rather than women. Or I might just be a bad chess player.

Why, if Petrosian had gone berserk on women instead of men, he probably would have had a huge reputation hit. With a bot quoting him for all internet eternity or some stuff like that. Oh, wait.

Pretty typical for here to see a post with actual sources and instead of people doing their own research they instead want to downvote and dog-pile. You can be upset with the outcome but there are reasons behind it (and it's not just them jumping on the trans bashing bandwagon, they outlined exactly why it was done and how it works for male-female transitions and vice versa)

It's not an "actual source", it's a shit source. N=16, really? Barely qualifies as a study.

Providing a source doesn't make a statement unchallengeable, especially if the source is deeply flawed.

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