Will woke nonsense affect chess?!

Ok, what I am about to say may be at least slightly controversial. It may even offend some people - let me be loud and clear that this is not my intent. However, this issue, I think, needs to be discussed.

In case you have not heard, there is an Olympics going on and there is a transgender athlete from New Zealand competing in the women's section. The problem of course, is that she is a biological male that will be competing against females. Now, let me be clear on one thing - I do support the said person in their life choices (even as I personally find them repulsive) so long as the said person's actions do not affect fair competition of others.

Now, this situation is quite ridiculous and unfair towards biological women in the Olympics. I think it is a shame that it came to that. Be that as it may, I have to wonder what will be the result if this nonsense wants to come into the Chess World? Will the FIDE and other chess organizations (including chess.com as an example) cave in to such demands? Suppose a man who is a 2600 GM starts to putting on a dress and identifying as a female to win the World Championship. Why would anybody want to do such a thing? Well, there is a good deal of money at stake; notoriety too - some people may want to achieve fame through infamy.

So, I think this is a discussion that will be allowed by chess.com. Organizations are quick to censor controversial topics but I think there must be a pushback against nonsense of any sort. 

I've already teasingly joked about this a few years ago on some other thread.

I said something like, "What if Magnus Carlsen transgendered into a woman and changed his name to Maggie Carlsen?  Then he/she could win the women's world chess championship while also possessing the world chess championship!  Wouldn't that be something?"

For somebody like Carlsen that would not make sense. He will have nothing to gain from it - maybe with the exception of notoriety. But for somebody who wants to get the money, this may be a way to do it. Let's say a GM who is between 2600 to 2650 and sees no progress in his chess career and makes little money in chess. Somebody like that will be more inclinded to do such a thing. It will, undoubtedly, bring shame onto the sport.

Also some people may want to do it for the Chess Olympics. This will affect not only the individuals involved but also the countries due to the medal count. In the regular Olympics this is a bigger deal as it potentially can affect which country wins the whole Olympics on the medal counts. Imagine the US and China (or Russia) are racing neck-to-neck and the New Zealander wins the Gold medal in weightlifting that would, otherwise, go the the American athlete. So the US falls behind China or Russia at the end due to this nonsense. The whole thing is a sick joke indeed.

But on a lighter note, at least we can laugh at the stupidity and nonsense. Check out this guy's take on YouTube on the matter. He has some other good stuff too.

He's really funny. I've seen a few of his videos. Here's South Parks (the cartoon) take on the matter. 

Valid question!! Perhaps it can only be answered by players who become involved should it happen. Given that we have players deliberately cheating in chess, perhaps such an eventuality is not out of the question.

Well, perhaps we need to think proactively about this issue before it becomes a reality in chess. Like I said, I am all for individual choices but I am also hopeful that there is a fair playing field for everybody involved.

Will be intresting to see what happens

Yep. One problem that chess would have, as compared to physical sports, is that it is difficult to make a case that having been a man grants any competitive advantage. Indeed, most feminists would argue strongly against such a suggestion. Tricky one, isn't it!!! Bed time here. Speak soon.👍

Bed time?!

I don't think chess should concern itself with gender issues at all.  I don't even think there should be a "women's champion" or WGM title or anything like that. Women should just be treated as equal participants.  I don't believe there is any disparity of intelligence; only disparity in the number of actual chess playing women.  When you no longer make any gender difference, then all these issue simply disappear.  We are trained by political discourse to think of these as legitimate issues.  This whole thinking about being "woke" is really about being fast asleep.  Truly woke is to simply be done with all this media manufactured nonsense.  It doesn't matter if you're playing a man, or a woman, or man dressed as a woman, or woman dressed as man. . . it still has to be destroyed.  I quote Kasparov: "Not even him or her - It. It has to be destroyed."  End of story.  

Historically, female chess players have been lagging behind men though. I already outlined a case where a 2600 GM can enter the Women's World Chess Championship and he will have a good chance to win it as most of the female players are rated under 2600. Of course there are no guarantees, but it will put the most of the females at a great disadvantage. It will affect the whole cycle actually.

And even beyond the higher levels, some guys may do this for attaining the female titles. Just idenifying as a female, wearing a female attire, and playing the game may be all it takes for them to get it done. Of course the prizes will be much smaller and the titles not as meaningful but it will still be a shame as a lot of females may be at a disadvantage. Furthermore, many will be demoralized by such an unfairness and quit the sport altoghether. I can imagine this scenario playing in the Chess.com's speed chess championship cycle as well down the road. Hopefully, the chess players and chess authorities will think about it proactively and not let it happen. Alas, by doing things like this nowadays, some social justice warriors may end up exposing this as "transphobic" and start a viral Twitter tirade that will be catapulted into the mainstream conversation. But I hope that the chess community stands up to the woke brigade and allows no such nonsense in our sport. 

The current trend states that this will inevitably happen. It's already happened in Esports as well. Men will be on top in men and womens competitions. Thus is life, and until people fight this in vast majority form, chess will allow it eventually. 

Well, It will be interesting to watch what actually happens but I think they will not allow that man to play, I think while registeration of FIDE account they see the birth certificate to clarify age, gender etc. So, they will be knowing this is a male and simply wouldn't allow him. But, a real transgender in chess would be taken in male or female idk, probably female.

It will be an issue only as long as FIDE and other institutions continue to discriminate gender on the assumption that gender difference = performance difference.  On principle - that is because we recognize the abstract nature of the search for truth as having nothing to do with gender - there should be no gender categorization to begin with. If we honestly liken chess to mathematics or music, then we immediately see how absurd it is to create an artificial gender-performance distinction. We do not do it for math; we do not do it for music; we do not do it because we know that there is no cognitive disparity in performance; perhaps only a cultural idiosyncrasy, or a statistical disparity in participant numbers, for whatever extraneous reason.  

I'm a dude so none of this affects me. Women are the ones who were always on the "liberal" side of things and now that it is backfiring in their faces they can be the ones to fix it.

There is a small problem with that though. In our state, anyone is allowed to modify their birth certificate to reflect what they happen to feel at the moment. So if someone is born male, but later feel like they want to be female, the birth certificate will say female. Or it could say neither.

So checking a birth certificate wouldn't be a means of establishing if someone has XX or XY chromosomes. And even if a dna test conducted determined if someone was male or female, what about disorders like XX males or people that are XXY? 

Intersex individuals and other chromosomal abnormalities (that would be able to compete in high level chess) are extraordinarily rare. It's a completely separate topic than someone with XY identifying as XX in tournaments. 

100% right.

Chess.com,FIDE,and USCF already spoke to this years ago.

"even as I personally find them repulsive" ....yeah immature fool.

Its even funnier cause you think FIDE is some upstanding organization...haha what a kid.