I'm a chess fan. Men-only events were abolished in the 1980s. There are now women's events (no men allowed) and open events (everyone allowed). In practice open events are 90% male, and the male players, especially at the lower levels, tend to fit the smelly and socially inept stereotype. Playing in them can be unpleasant for women, and women's events exist basically to provide playing venues where women can enjoy competitive chess while staying the hell away from us clueless males. As a clueless male myself, I can get behind that, no problem. I understand and I'm fine with it. How do cis women feel about playing alongside trans women? Idk, I'm cis male and I don't feel entitled to spout off about that. But I think they are the ones I'd want to listen to the most.

The top levels from what I can tell aren't as bad as the lower levels, since the effort it takes to reach that level of chess tends to weed out the clueless and lazy. There is still bad stuff though, e.g. the incidents with GM Alejandro Ramirez.

You might like the book Chess Bi tch (that is the title, damn censor bot),by WGM Jennifer Shahade reviewed here , about her experiences in both women's and open chess events coming up through the ranks.

As for FIDE, there currently aren't really alternatives at the top levels. FIDE on the other hand is not much of a factor in lower and mid level chess. Those events tend to be regulated by national and ad hoc federations, etc.

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.

Having the current best female chess player, Hou Yifan, be at rank 55 and be the third woman ever to be in the top 100, while the second best woman, Aleksandra Goryachkina, is at rank 347, doesn't exactly paint a very gender-balanced playing field.

When did sexuality mattered in a game of chess? Like do trans people get a buff at thinking or something?

Well... no. There are maybe 50 women total who could play in the NFL, mostly as kickers. In basketball, women use a smaller ball because their hands are just smaller. Someone who's FTM is probably not going to be able to compete.

There are enduring advantages from living most of your life pumped with testosterone. But there's so few top athletes who transition MTF in their prime, it's not a big problem. Just look at Caitlyn Jenner. She could still beat most women (and men) at a track meet.

Yeah, non-trans women don't enjoy being forever 2nd because they weren't born men in physically competitive sport lol.

It doesn't take years long studies to understand a woman who transitioned well into or after puberty is still built more physiologically man than women. We will still need data about those who transitioned early and before onset. When a man transitions into being a woman then wipes the floor with every one of her peers, there's something wrong.

You either need mixed gender sport. Male only, and female only. The regulations regarding each will have to be arbitrarily chosen until a good spot is found.

Mental sports that take near zero physical strength should have zero separations between the genders though.

It was great when women started wiping the floor with men at Shooting lol.

It's not so great when, well, Bill Burr says it funnier lol: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2ESahoCdQ28

Edit: Since people want sauce wars...

Trans athletes retaining advantages even after a year or HRT.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trans-women-retain-athletic-edge-after-year-hormone-therapy-study-n1252764 - Jan. 5, 2021

Given that the percentage difference between medal placings at the elite level is normally less than 1%, there must be confidence that an elite transwoman athlete retains no residual advantage from former testosterone exposure, where the inherent advantage depending on sport could be 10–30%. Current scientific evidence can not provide such assurances and thus, under abiding rulings, the inclusion of transwomen in the elite female division needs to be reconsidered for fairness to female-born athletes.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9331831/ - 2022 Aug; 19

When a male athlete transitions to female, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which governs college sports, requires a year of hormone-suppressing therapy to bring down testosterone levels. The N.C.A.A. put this in place to diminish the inherent biological advantage held by those born male.

Ms. Thomas followed this regimen.

But peer reviewed studies show that even after testosterone suppression, top trans women retain a substantial edge when racing against top biological women...

Testosterone levels are crucial but do not invariably predict performance in every sport.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/29/us/lia-thomas-women-sports.html

Renee Richards interview...

“I know if I’d had surgery at the age of 22, and then at 24 went on the tour, no genetic woman in the world would have been able to come close to me,” she said in an interview. “I’ve reconsidered my opinion.”

https://slate.com/culture/2012/10/jewish-jocks-and-renee-richards-the-life-of-the-transsexual-tennis-legend.html

The council said they ultimately decided to prioritize "fairness and the integrity" of the female competition over inclusion.

The World Athletics Council plans to form a working group to consider the issue of transgender inclusion over the next year. The committee will speak with transgender athletes to seek their perspective, review research on the matter and submit recommendations to the council.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/24/1165795462/transgender-track-and-field-athletes-cant-compete-in-womens-international-events

However, we do have evidence - we have 13 studies that show significant retained advantage. We have a number of other studies of males with lower testosterone levels with prostate cancer, we know what happens with training, and so I think collectively the picture is quite strong to suggest that advantages are retained.
So I would be quite confident at this point that a policy that regulates women's sport by excluding male advantage, which includes trans women, is the evidence-based one.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/61346517 - 11 May 2022

In this study, we confirmed that use of gender affirming hormones are associated with changes in athletic performance and demonstrated that the pretreatment differences between transgender and cis gender women persist beyond the 12 month time requirement currently being proposed for athletic competition by the World Athletics and the IOC.10 This study suggests that more than 12 months of testosterone suppression may be needed to ensure that transgender women do not have an unfair competitive advantage when participating in elite level athletic competition.

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/55/11/577 - May 17, 2021

That you think people who are biologically male have an advantage in mental only competition

Doesn't supporting gender/sex separated leagues existing at all imply exactly the same thing?

You might have a case with physical sports, maybe (IDK anymore; used to think women were not able to be as physical strong as men due to physiology, but even that seems like it is inaccurate with new studies),

I feel like the fact that the top leagues in most sports are open to both genders but it's basically unheard of for females to be even close to be good enough to join, proves there is a massive difference at those levels.

For example women can play in the NBA, some have tried, only one or two got close, but none have played a game.

What research are you referring to that says there is no advantage?

Men and women don't have different minds.

Chess stats don't agree with you on that. Men have a greater spread of chess ability than women. ie. the bottom end of men are significantly worse than the bottom end of women but also the top skilled men are better than the top women.

I'm pretty sure it's just that greater male variability In most traits means that extreme upper echelon of men are better than the extreme upper echelon of women.

In case you don't know - there are two categories: open and women-only. Anyone can compete in open, no matter what their gender/sex is. Women can also compete against other women only if they want. It's definitely not like "oh you're a woman, you can't compete here, it's only for men".

Yes the current leader is a generic russian politician/stooge, but the previous leader was a real firecracker! He claimed to have been abducted by aliens and to have visited their planet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsan_Ilyumzhinov

Woman here, and genuinely, I don't know what's right.

I can recognise that m>f after puberty gives someone a strength advantage but at the same time it's hard enough having to transition without feeling even more marginalised by being banned from sports.

Maybe there needs to be just a women's and open category to recognise the strength handicap that cis women have for certain activities and allow anyone to compete in open, but then there's the challenge of prize money, viewers etc etc between the two that also needs to be managed appropriately.

At the end of the day, someone isn't going to be happy and for that there is no good solution, but we need to be doing our best for cis and trans athletes to make sure everyone has a chance to compete in the sports they live.

Chess? Banning trans competitors is fucking idiotic and the chess federation can fuck right off with that implied notion of women being less capable.