Does Chess Need to Be ‘Trans-Inclusive’?

A boy recently won Germany’s under-18 girls’ chess championship, sparking yet another controversy about single-sex competitions. The head of the German commission for women’s chess, Nadja Jussupow, frustratedly told The Times that the competitor hasn’t undergone any medicalized treatments and merely “declared” himself to be a woman. “If someone really wants to live permanently as a woman and even undergo a sex change, then I don’t see any problems at all,” said Jussupow, without explaining what it means to “live . . . as a woman.” But she added that “we should prevent men from changing their gender just to win a title or get attractive prize money advertised for women,” in part because “then the other women are simply being discriminated against.” However, the German Chess Federation has refused to ban males from the women’s division, with its president Ingrid Lauterbach declaring, “We’re an inclusive sport and want to be so.” (In 2023, the International Chess Federation released guidelines to prevent transgender-identifying males from competing in the women’s division, which faced disapproval from the English Chess Federation, the French Chess Federation, the United States Chess Federation, and the German Chess Federation.)

Lauterbach is correct that chess is inclusive because there are essentially no financial barriers to playing the game, and it can be done pretty much anywhere. It isn’t expensive to buy a board, it can be played for free on a range of websites, and there are plenty of YouTube videos explaining the rules for novices. Indeed, good players have come from even the most dire circumstances, such as the Woman Candidate Master Phiona Mutesi from Uganda, who grew up in a crumbling shack. But assuming that there are both women’s and men’s divisions, banning participation with respect to self-declared “gender identity” just requires people to compete in a particular category; it doesn’t prevent them from competing. Ultimately, the only barrier to “inclusion” is whether a chess competition limits entrants by a fee and a minimum rating.

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Abigail Anthony

Abigail Anthony is a staff writer at National Review.

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A boy recently won Germany’s under-18 girls’ chess championship, sparking yet another controversy about single-sex competitions. The head of the German commission for women’s chess, Nadja Jussupow, frustratedly told The Times that the competitor hasn’t undergone any medicalized treatments and merely “declared” himself to be a woman. “If someone really wants to live permanently as a woman and even undergo a sex change, then I don’t see any problems at all,” said Jussupow, without explaining what it means to “live . . . as a woman.” But she added that “we should prevent men from changing their gender just to win a title or get attractive prize money advertised for women,” in part because “then the other women are simply being discriminated against.” However, the German Chess Federation has refused to ban males from the women’s division, with its president Ingrid Lauterbach declaring, “We’re an inclusive sport and want to be so.” (In 2023, the International Chess Federation released guidelines to prevent transgender-identifying males from competing in the women’s division, which faced disapproval from the English Chess Federation, the French Chess Federation, the United States Chess Federation, and the German Chess Federation.)

Lauterbach is correct that chess is inclusive because there are essentially no financial barriers to playing the game, and it can be done pretty much anywhere. It isn’t expensive to buy a board, it can be played for free on a range of websites, and there are plenty of YouTube videos explaining the rules for novices. Indeed, good players have come from even the most dire circumstances, such as the Woman Candidate Master Phiona Mutesi from Uganda, who grew up in a crumbling shack. But assuming that there are both women’s and men’s divisions, banning participation with respect to self-declared “gender identity” just requires people to compete in a particular category; it doesn’t prevent them from competing. Ultimately, the only barrier to “inclusion” is whether a chess competition limits entrants by a fee and a minimum rating.