ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Officials at Rockland High School have implemented a new policy banning transgender males from competing in all-female chess tournaments because they are believed to have a “distinct and unfair physical advantage.”

Speaking to reporters after announcing the policy, Superintendent Jack Brauner noted that it’s liable to be controversial, but in the interest of fairness in sports competition, “we had to do it.”

“Look, I know we’re supposed to think that there are no real differences between males and females, but after watching a couple of these transgender guys take on females on the chess board, it became clear to me what needed to happen,” he said. “It was just no competition: The physical advantages were clear. And patently unfair.”

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In one instance, he said, it appeared as though the female high school competitor would actually win a match, but she was simply overpowered by the transgender competitor with a last-minute power move on her King.

“That was the only close one,” Brauner said. “The rest were just physical wipeouts. It was painful to watch.”

Women’s rights advocates cheered the move as a long time coming.

“The massive physical differences between boys and girls on the chess board are obvious, physiological, and unalterable,” Janet Phillips of the Women’s Chess League said. “Honestly, Rockland officials should have never let it get this far.”

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