Aside from the fact that chess is filled with transphobes and sexists (just spend some time on the chess.com forums), the issue here seems to me to be purely transphobia.
Chess has open competition (any gender plays) and women only competition. And the women only competition (and the women only master titles) came into existence purely because so many women were being harassed my men (pretty much every top female chess player has stories of abuse and sexism etc). So the women's only events are basically a place for women to escape from the bad behaviour of men.
By them now saying that transwomen can't enter those safe places frommale sexist harassment, it seems they're saying that transwomen would make the event not safe for womenand would act like the sexust men. That's pretty bloody transphobic.
The other influence might be that chess is a big game in Russia and the Middle East.
Chess has open competition (any gender plays) and women only competition. And the women only competition (and the women only master titles) came into existence purely because so many women were being harassed my men (pretty much every top female chess player has stories of abuse and sexism etc). So the women's only events are basically a place for women to escape from the bad behaviour of men.
By them now saying that transwomen can't enter those safe places frommale sexist harassment, it seems they're saying that transwomen would make the event not safe for womenand would act like the sexust men. That's pretty bloody transphobic.
The other influence might be that chess is a big game in Russia and the Middle East.
