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International Chess Federation (FIDE) to ban and punish transgender players
(www.erininthemorning.com)
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Why are men and women separated in chess competition at all? There is no logical reason other than sexism and transphobia. The reason the top women in the world are so far below the top men is because chess has historically been a man's game and the history of and continued sexism has no doubt kept out women who could be just as good as the best men. I play chess regularly online and have lost to both men and women. I wouldn't be surprised if several top chess players chose to leave fide in favor of other competitions over this.
Since men have been getting support and funding for over a century in sports and games like this, you end up with them dominating the field. Women's categories bring in more female players that otherwise wouldn't have a chance if the entire game was open only. But on the other hand, this enables concern-trolling over "transgender invasion". It's also applied questionably to sports that maybe don't need this such as in the case of Zhang Shan & Olympic skeet shooting. It can reinforce gender stereotypes. Finally, I'd say it's frustratingly slow at leveling the playing field.
I'll assume you just didn't understand what I meant so I will repeat it. Men and women can both play chess. Male brains are not superior to female brains. The reason there are more male pros in chess is because of the centuries long head start they had. To rectify this, there must be a conscious effort to boost female chess players. The current strategy to do this is to create a women's league. At this rate, perhaps by 2100 there will be an equal mix of male and female pros, and we can abolish the gendered division in chess because it would no longer serve any purpose.