ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
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Within the FIDE Development Committee we have been discussing a lot about how to measure the development of chess in a simple but a clear way. The objective is to have several performance indicators to give to the chess community information that covers the main trends, to motivate individual federations to think about the situation and to provoke a healthy competition at the same time.
In total there are six indicators discussed by the members of the Development Committee.
The trend is very clear and positive: during the last five years the number of active players with FIDE rating has been almost doubled. 164 national federations contribute to the statistics. The table below shows the top 20 federations as they stood at the end of 2013:
# | Federation | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
1 | Spain | 6 973 | 8 430 | 9 195 | 9 527 | 10 149 |
2 | Germany | 7 538 | 8 258 | 8 553 | 8 780 | 9 384 |
3 | France | 5 409 | 6 684 | 7 606 | 7 986 | 9 019 |
4 | India | 2 475 | 3 736 | 4 735 | 5 209 | 7 014 |
5 | Russia | 5 196 | 5 704 | 6 268 | 6 511 | 6 649 |
6 | Czech Rep. | 2 297 | 2 879 | 3 123 | 3 463 | 3 703 |
7 | Italy | 2 318 | 2 811 | 3 087 | 3 279 | 3 437 |
8 | Poland | 2 442 | 2 788 | 3 062 | 3 256 | 3 385 |
9 | Hungary | 2 534 | 2 967 | 3 060 | 3 150 | 3 350 |
10 | Greece | 1 214 | 1 571 | 1 813 | 1 985 | 2 201 |
11 | Serbia | 1 422 | 1 696 | 1 825 | 1 955 | 2 142 |
12 | Slovakia | 1 126 | 1 390 | 1 563 | 1 734 | 1 890 |
13 | Netherlands | 1 303 | 1 553 | 1 675 | 1 763 | 1 840 |
14 | Austria | 980 | 1 203 | 1 426 | 1 513 | 1 662 |
15 | USA | 828 | 1 194 | 1 415 | 1 544 | 1 646 |
16 | Denmark | 864 | 1 155 | 1 284 | 1 438 | 1 619 |
17 | Turkey | 660 | 834 | 1 000 | 1 146 | 1 554 |
18 | Croatia | 1 184 | 1 397 | 1 427 | 1 474 | 1 532 |
19 | Ireland | 554 | 731 | 1 193 | 1 393 | 1 528 |
20 | Belgium | 707 | 922 | 1 044 | 1 155 | 1 371 |
The top 20 federations have around 74% of all active FIDE rated players in the world. Just two of these federations, India and USA, are not members of the ECU. The share of all 54 European federations is therefore even more crucial.
The trend is very positive. Open tournaments are mainly about the mass promotion of chess, about giving possibilities to weaker players to play with stronger ones. The increase is by 37% during the monitored period. But who organised the most of opens? Let's have a look on the top 20 federations in this group:
# | Federation | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
1 | France | 629 | 565 | 697 | 703 |
2 | Spain | 479 | 497 | 570 | 512 |
3 | Russia | 354 | 417 | 517 | 503 |
4 | Italy | 419 | 454 | 515 | 486 |
5 | Germany | 299 | 311 | 331 | 363 |
6 | Poland | 230 | 280 | 325 | 344 |
7 | Greece | 186 | 212 | 259 | 258 |
8 | Hungary | 154 | 155 | 172 | 250 |
9 | USA | 155 | 212 | 245 | 211 |
10 | Netherlands | 149 | 168 | 166 | 200 |
11 | India | 96 | 132 | 150 | 180 |
12 | Denmark | 83 | 126 | 151 | 168 |
13 | Czech Rep. | 96 | 114 | 149 | 145 |
14 | Turkey | 79 | 79 | 82 | 133 |
15 | Brazil | 104 | 118 | 136 | 130 |
16 | Portugal | 116 | 118 | 129 | 125 |
17 | Romania | 96 | 106 | 132 | 124 |
18 | England | 45 | 55 | 86 | 116 |
19 | Croatia | 112 | 95 | 117 | 104 |
20 | Austria | 44 | 59 | 70 | 103 |
The top 20 federations organised 71.45% of all open tournaments in the world. With the exception of India and the USA, Brazil was the third non-European federation that got into the top 20.
The number of round robin tournaments went down in 2013. These tournaments are more about quality (of course not always) and therefore more demanding on sufficient sponsorship. The global financial crisis probably had some influence too. The analysis of the average rating of these tournament and the trend could be another interesting topic for further analysis.
# | Federation | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
1 | Denmark | 71 | 139 | 155 | 187 |
2 | France | 102 | 79 | 165 | 141 |
3 | Russia | 139 | 171 | 145 | 105 |
4 | Spain | 86 | 81 | 77 | 82 |
5 | Hungary | 84 | 97 | 95 | 76 |
6 | Germany | 67 | 70 | 56 | 62 |
7 | Ukraine | 74 | 58 | 52 | 56 |
8 | Sweden | 30 | 35 | 34 | 46 |
9 | USA | 33 | 44 | 53 | 41 |
10 | Poland | 46 | 40 | 37 | 35 |
11 | Argentina | 43 | 34 | 39 | 34 |
12 | Brazil | 37 | 61 | 39 | 33 |
13 | Czech Rep. | 30 | 34 | 25 | 26 |
14 | Australia | 21 | 18 | 24 | 25 |
15 | Mexico | 18 | 20 | 19 | 24 |
16 | Serbia | 13 | 16 | 11 | 17 |
17 | Romania | 15 | 12 | 24 | 17 |
18 | Cuba | 43 | 42 | 24 | 15 |
19 | Yemen | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
20 | Norway | 2 | 7 | 9 | 14 |
The top 20 federations organised 71.43% of all round robin tournaments. The number one position of Denmark is a surprise, but here again we only compare the number of tournaments, not their objective strength. Stronger tournaments are probably organised more in France and especially Russia.
In 2013 there were almost one million FIDE rated games played in total around the world. Each day an average of 2737 games are played. The trend is also quite positive and it's quite obvious that there is still a very promising potential.
# | Federation | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
1 | Spain | 155 675 | 163 243 | 174 018 | 189 945 |
2 | India | 86 652 | 125 131 | 131 830 | 182 640 |
3 | France | 127 061 | 151 458 | 160 598 | 180 281 |
4 | Germany | 114 761 | 119 678 | 121 692 | 139 928 |
5 | Russia | 121 929 | 134 884 | 137 486 | 137 614 |
6 | Poland | 57 665 | 65 598 | 64 807 | 81 508 |
7 | Czech Rep. | 62 943 | 67 633 | 63 577 | 78 871 |
8 | Italy | 59 849 | 70 263 | 74 314 | 72 702 |
9 | Hungary | 60 046 | 61 747 | 59 942 | 71 116 |
10 | Greece | 37 055 | 53 985 | 52 584 | 55 841 |
11 | Serbia | 25 994 | 28 101 | 32 759 | 35 039 |
12 | Turkey | 24 290 | 19 241 | 35 559 | 34 856 |
13 | Austria | 19 905 | 27 894 | 23 355 | 34 319 |
14 | USA | 23 100 | 29 442 | 33 001 | 33 421 |
15 | Romania | 25 468 | 26 678 | 27 409 | 32 823 |
16 | Slovakia | 24 388 | 27 891 | 31 479 | 32 530 |
17 | Denmark | 17 659 | 22 934 | 26 145 | 31 419 |
18 | Ireland | 15 217 | 19 433 | 26 824 | 30 665 |
19 | Croatia | 33 441 | 24 986 | 30 603 | 29 328 |
20 | England | 15 961 | 18 483 | 21 040 | 26 631 |
Spain, India and France are leaders in this group, with the growth of FIDE rated games in India being the most promising. Probably the former World Champion has had some influence.
This indicator is interesting from the point of view of organisers of chess tournaments, who want to know whether they can attract foreign players. The trend is not so important – the fact to remember is the 25% of all games are in average played by foreign players. The federation that has the higher indicator (for example 28%) is successful and most probably very active in getting foreign players in the country.
# | Federation | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
1 | France | 16 434 | 18 936 | 17 694 | 17 460 |
2 | Germany | 12 152 | 10 999 | 13 301 | 15 837 |
3 | Czech Rep. | 15 162 | 13 740 | 8 972 | 15 530 |
4 | Spain | 16 702 | 14 962 | 13 881 | 15 161 |
5 | Austria | 5 492 | 8 498 | 5 326 | 10 270 |
6 | Poland | 5 668 | 4 162 | 4 484 | 8 807 |
7 | England | 5 681 | 6 619 | 8 702 | 8 565 |
8 | Greece | 5 363 | 14 492 | 8 748 | 7 592 |
9 | Russia | 16 229 | 9 576 | 8 818 | 7 453 |
10 | Montenegro | 505 | 492 | 679 | 7 208 |
11 | Italy | 7 831 | 10 562 | 8 649 | 6 890 |
12 | Switzerland | 6 428 | 7 073 | 6 139 | 6 409 |
13 | Croatia | 9 235 | 4 126 | 6 359 | 6 359 |
14 | Hungary | 6 852 | 6 611 | 6 948 | 6 329 |
15 | USA | 3 580 | 5 018 | 6 597 | 6 179 |
16 | Bulgaria | 4 262 | 9 218 | 8 094 | 5 508 |
17 | UAE | 1 390 | 2 337 | 4 402 | 4 608 |
18 | Serbia | 5 137 | 2 256 | 3 048 | 4 400 |
19 | India | 2 919 | 3 227 | 3 812 | 4 016 |
20 | Netherlands | 3 319 | 4 002 | 4 827 | 3 977 |
France and Germany are leaders of this group. The Czech Republic ranks the third and proves that it belongs to the world's top chess exporters.
Chess import reflects the travelling of national players abroad. There can be at least three reasons:
# | Country | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
1 | Germany | 17 023 | 19 461 | 15 532 | 20 403 |
2 | Russia | 15 975 | 14 997 | 14 730 | 19 160 |
3 | Ukraine | 8 987 | 9 729 | 8 476 | 8 730 |
4 | Netherlands | 6 450 | 6 821 | 6 123 | 7 113 |
5 | India | 5 531 | 5 228 | 7 107 | 6 734 |
6 | France | 5 974 | 6 366 | 5 202 | 6 664 |
7 | Poland | 5 630 | 6 066 | 5 570 | 6 300 |
8 | Serbia | 5 566 | 5 359 | 5 261 | 5 892 |
9 | Italy | 5 396 | 5 072 | 5 248 | 5 535 |
10 | Hungary | 4 293 | 4 736 | 4 732 | 5 075 |
11 | Belgium | 4 373 | 4 372 | 4 446 | 5 068 |
12 | England | 4 261 | 4 067 | 4 663 | 4 955 |
13 | Norway | 3 505 | 3 839 | 3 718 | 4 715 |
14 | Romania | 4 160 | 4 631 | 3 897 | 4 660 |
15 | Czech Rep. | 4 746 | 4 199 | 4 439 | 4 462 |
16 | Spain | 3 333 | 4 073 | 3 084 | 4 258 |
17 | Slovakia | 4 035 | 4 223 | 2 956 | 4 017 |
18 | Slovenia | 2 679 | 3 111 | 2 787 | 3 694 |
19 | Sweden | 3 150 | 2 817 | 3 044 | 3 622 |
20 | Bulgaria | 4 112 | 3 855 | 3 591 | 3 608 |
Germany, Russia and Ukraine are leaders in this group.
It would be interesting to analyse “chess trade balance” whether a country attracts more foreign players to its tournaments (chess import) or whether its own players tend to travel to play abroad (chess export). Slovakia for example has a negative chess trade balance totalling minus 1210 games. It means Slovak players played 1210 more games abroad than foreigners in Slovakia, in 2013. To make the balance equal there would be a need to organise a few more open tournaments in Slovakia, and probably there would be a market for such a step.