Countries where chess are most popular? - Chess Forums

ChuckECheese

Nov 29, 2013

0

#1

What countries are considered the biggest hotbeds of chess? I'm not referring to how good a country is at chess, but how many % of the population plays chess and the amount of recognition and respect chess players get in their country.

Russia and Ukraine comes to mind immediately, but per capita, I think Iceland and Armenia would be at the top.

Here's my top 5:

Iceland, Armenia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Russia

6-10:

Norway (due to Carlsen), India (recent chess boom caused by hosting the WCC), UK, Hungary, France

echizenjohn

Nov 30, 2013

0

#2

Philippines...
despite of lack of "Financial support/capabilities" to join in different tournament around the world, there are so many Filipinos Chess Enthusiasts here.... Not mentioning Wesley So, Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio, Mark Paragua etc....

Crazychessplaya

Nov 30, 2013

0

#3

Georgia. Just ask NM Reb.

WGF79

Nov 30, 2013

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#4

You can get an idea from this list, there you see who has the most titeled players, the average rating of the top 10 players etc. : http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml

varelse1

Nov 30, 2013

0

#5

1.Russia

2.India

3. Everywhere else

Benedictine

Nov 30, 2013

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#6

Vo1d3mort wrote:

You can get an idea from this list, there you see who has the most titeled players, the average rating of the top 10 players etc. : http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml

Thanks for the link. Of course you would have to figure in the population factor too.

I am interested chess in Russia. I have this image of people playing chess everywhere, parks, bars and cafes etc but it is probably not like that!

pulix

Nov 30, 2013

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#7

[Abusive statement removed; DS]

thisforkingmess

Nov 30, 2013

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#8

pulix wrote:

according to your grammar, i think the country with the most illiterate people, are the USA..

Your caps and shift keys must be broken.

ChuckECheese

Nov 30, 2013

0

#9

Vo1d3mort wrote:

You can get an idea from this list, there you see who has the most titeled players, the average rating of the top 10 players etc. : http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml

Thanks for the link, but I'm talking in terms of per capita. Which country is "pound for pound" (or person for person) the top country for playing chess?

I'm sure Russia has the most titled players, but Russia also has a large population. I would think chess is more popular in Iceland than Russia because Iceland has 52 titled players and less than a hundredth of the population of Russia.

Also, chess is HUGE in India right now, riding the fever of the World Championships. But we have to keep in mind India has the world's second largest population, and they are not the #2 chess playing country in the world.

Lou-for-you

Nov 30, 2013

0

#10

Interesting list. The 10 best players of Macau have an average elo below 1700. I could become the best player of a country by moving there. But where is it??

Alec834

Nov 30, 2013

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#11

Chuckieman wrote:

What countries are considered the biggest hotbeds of chess?

Aside from Russia I'd say Germany they have alot of active clubs in the 1800's Austria and Germany were covered with Chess Cafes there was at one time according to Kurt Landsberger in his biography on Wilhelm Steinitz over 7000 in Vienna alone that's and they still exist in the hundreds.

If you know where to look they can be found.

pulix

Nov 30, 2013

0

#12

thisforkingmess wrote:

pulix wrote:

according to your grammar, i think the country with the most illiterate people, are the USA..

Your caps and shift keys must be broken.

how did you know?? apparently the US has the biggest number of fortunetellers too!

Exhausted3125

Nov 30, 2013

0

#13

echizenjohn wrote:

Philippines...
despite of lack of "Financial support/capabilities" to join in different tournament around the world, there are so many Filipinos Chess Enthusiasts here.... Not mentioning Wesley So, Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio, Mark Paragua etc....

I've noticed a lot of Phillipines players here, especially for the size of the country.

watcha

Nov 30, 2013

0

#14

rank	country	average rating	GM-s	IM-s	total titled	population	GM-s per capita ppm
1	Iceland	2521	12	13	52	325010	36,92
2	Monaco	2235	1	1	10	36136	27,67
3	Andorra	2286	2	1	7	76246	26,23
4	Armenia	2659	36	23	98	3024100	11,90
5	Montenegro	2453	6	15	61	620029	9,68
6	Serbia	2583	53	108	562	7181505	7,38
7	Croatia	2581	31	61	243	4290612	7,23
8	Slovenia	2554	13	21	101	2061149	6,31
9	Latvia	2521	12	11	52	2014000	5,96
10	Georgia	2592	26	38	115	4483800	5,80
11	Hungary	2653	52	111	428	9906000	5,25
12	Israel	2631	39	49	161	8081000	4,83
13	Bulgaria	2612	35	55	138	7282041	4,81
14	Macedonia	2471	9	10	47	2062294	4,36
15	Estonia	2460	5	12	41	1286540	3,89
16	Lithuania	2476	9	15	52	2950684	3,05
17	Czech Republic	2579	30	74	272	10512900	2,85
18	Azerbaijan	2614	20	21	86	9235100	2,17
19	Bosnia & Herzegovina	2509	8	25	91	3839737	2,08
20	Sweden	2537	19	36	141	9616429	1,98
21	Norway	2554	10	29	104	5077798	1,97
22	Denmark	2533	11	34	119	5608784	1,96
23	Cuba	2589	21	43	288	11163934	1,88
24	Slovakia	2509	10	27	103	5410728	1,85
25	Belarus	2571	17	25	94	9464400	1,80
26	Netherlands	2639	30	79	297	16803500	1,79
27	Ukraine	2704	81	196	502	45469812	1,78
28	Moldova	2489	6	23	66	3559500	1,69
29	Qatar	2068	3	1	11	1864817	1,61
30	Russia	2740	220	502	2216	143500000	1,53
31	Mongolia	2416	4	7	48	2754685	1,45
32	Greece	2551	12	23	109	10815197	1,11
33	Romania	2582	21	82	273	20121641	1,04
34	Germany	2622	80	236	1216	80523700	0,99
35	Switzerland	2507	8	35	133	8085300	0,99
36	Poland	2628	38	99	339	38533299	0,99
37	Spain	2598	43	108	502	46704314	0,92
38	Finland	2439	5	20	109	5442322	0,92
39	Kazakhstan	2497	15	28	124	17076000	0,88
40	Austria	2497	7	46	210	8464554	0,83
41	Turkmenistan	2374	4	8	45	5240000	0,76
42	France	2663	47	100	371	65776000	0,71
43	Paraguay	2356	4	3	23	6600284	0,61
44	Singapore	2329	3	13	61	5399200	0,56
45	England	2623	35	56	249	63705000	0,55
46	Argentina	2538	20	72	246	40117096	0,50
47	Uzbekistan	2526	11	10	51	30183400	0,36
48	Belgium	2488	4	20	86	11162121	0,36
49	Albania	2323	1	6	18	2821977	0,35
50	Uruguay	2297	1	4	29	3286314	0,30
51	Canada	2511	10	34	147	35158304	0,28
52	Portugal	2410	3	13	40	10562178	0,28
53	United States of America	2653	79	123	613	316889000	0,25
54	United Arab Emirates	2305	2	5	40	8264070	0,24
55	Chile	2468	4	11	61	16634603	0,24
56	New Zealand	2308	1	6	37	4476800	0,22
57	Ireland	2386	1	7	28	4585400	0,22
58	Peru	2513	6	11	58	30475144	0,20
59	Tunisia	2311	2	4	23	10777500	0,19
60	Kyrgyzstan	2286	1	5	12	5551900	0,18
61	Australia	2443	4	25	110	23219582	0,17
62	Italy	2562	10	41	201	59772978	0,17
63	Philippines	2544	15	24	76	98522000	0,15
64	Tajikistan	2271	1	4	7	8000000	0,13
65	Iran	2494	9	12	70	76987000	0,12
66	Dominican Republic	2323	1	6	24	9445281	0,11
67	Turkey	2534	8	18	79	75627384	0,11
68	Bolivia	2246	1	2	23	10027254	0,10
69	Colombia	2438	4	31	111	47283000	0,08
70	Vietnam	2499	7	12	106	88780000	0,08
71	Brazil	2545	11	29	172	201032714	0,05
72	Mexico	2450	5	27	152	118395054	0,04
73	Egypt	2471	3	27	56	83661000	0,04
74	Venezuela	2418	1	18	56	28946101	0,03
75	Bangladesh	2401	5	3	31	152518015	0,03
76	India	2644	34	76	230	1235320000	0,03
77	Algeria	2319	1	10	36	37900000	0,03
78	Indonesia	2420	6	14	80	237641326	0,03
79	China	2671	34	25	127	1360570000	0,02
80	South Korea	2084	1	1	12	50219669	0,02

watcha

Nov 30, 2013

0

#15

The above data is from the thread GM-s per capita worldwide, 1. Iceland !.

ilgambittoo

Nov 30, 2013

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#16

Chess is popular in Norway, Sweden Denmark and Philipience.

ColonelKnight

Nov 30, 2013

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#17

This sentence is a grammar and diction disaster.

pulix wrote:

[Abusive statement removed; DS]

pulix

Nov 30, 2013

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#18

ColonelKnight wrote:

This sentence is a grammar and diction disaster.

pulix wrote:

[Abusive statement removed; DS]

i'm waiting for an explanation, brainiac!!

ColonelKnight

Nov 30, 2013

0

#19

[Abusive statement removed; DS]

See this http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page51.shtml

'According' is the wrong word to use in this context. And don't get me started on your unnecessary use of punctuation.

That said, sir, the United States of America is a pretty awesome place.

netzach

Nov 30, 2013

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#20

It is!

Like the trailer parks.