The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is temporarily banning males who identify as female from women’s events, pending “further analysis.” While chess may appear to be a sport in less urgent need of segregation by sex — since physical size and strength are less relevant than in, say, rugby — there is still a gender gap in the game.
Women make up one out of the top 100 adults, three out of the top 100 juniors, and 2 percent of grandmasters. In a 2022 FIDE Exchange Forum report, titled “Facts and Myths About Gender in Chess,” Dr. David Smerdon concluded that participation levels “explains most, but not all, of the performance gap.”
But why do men and women participate at different rates? Possible explanations include social and even biological factors. The debate around these issues resembles that of female underrepresentation in STEM fields. Perhaps chess is a self-selecting activity that, due to a biological influence, men generally prefer. Or perhaps the underrepresentation is due more to social pressures or stereotypes that women find off-putting. If the latter, allowing men who identify as women to compete against females can hardly help. As the Times of London reports the female-only events “were created to encourage more women into the game and celebrate their achievements in a largely male-dominated field.”
In either case, on principle, men shouldn’t be in women’s events if for no other reason than that men are not women.