International Chess Federation

The International Chess Federation (better known by FIDE, from the acronym of its name in French: Fédération Internationale des Échecs) is a international organization connecting the various national chess federations. It was founded in Paris, France on July 20, 1924 and its motto is Gens una sumus (‘We are a family’). Its current president since 2018 is the chess player, Russian politician Arkady Dvorkovich, who is also an economist.

Currently, FIDE has 195 registered national federations, of which 176 correspond to UN member countries and 19 to other federations.

In addition to organizing the world chess championship, FIDE calculates the Elo rank of players, writes the rules of chess, publishes books, and appoints international masters, grandmasters, and arbitrators.

In 1999, FIDE was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and two years later the IOC anti-doping rules were introduced in chess. FIDE wants chess to be part of the Olympic Games.

FIDE is affiliated with the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA).

History

The first effort to create rules for a "world chess championship" The main players of the 1920s did so, and so in 1922 the then world champion José Raúl Capablanca proposed the "London Rules" whereby the first player to win six games in a world championship dispute would be declared the overall winner, game sessions would not last more than five hours (with the game suspended if necessary), the maximum number of moves would be forty every 150 minutes, and the world champion was obliged to defend his title in a match a year after receiving the challenge of a recognized grandmaster, although the champion reserved the right to set the date of the match .

A special detail was that Capablanca proposed that the champion could reject the challenge if the challenger did not offer a "bag" minimum of US$ 10,000 (ten thousand US dollars) as a condition prior to the match. From this "bag" 20% would be paid to the defending champion, 48% would go to the winner of the match and the remaining 32% to the loser; however, the defending champion had to accept the challenger who proposed the "bag" highest. Great masters like Alexander Alekhine, Bogoljubov, Géza Maróczy, Réti, Rubinstein, Tartakower and Vidmar accepted these norms; however, the only match played under these conditions was Capablanca vs Alekhine in 1927, where the latter, as a challenger, won the world title.

In that same year, 1922, the Russian master Yevgueni Znosko-Borovski announced that a chess tournament would be played during the 1924 Paris Olympic Games hosted by the French Chess Federation. Thus, in said Parisian tournament, the participants founded FIDE, although in its early days it was more like a "union of grandmasters", without much financing. The dependence on the grandmasters meant an initial weakness of FIDE as its effective influence was subject to the individual will of each grandmaster. One of the first points of discussion was that, over time, the requirement to raise $10,000 (just over $160,000 in 2022) to challenge the world champion became a very difficult requirement to meet in a time when professional dedication to chess was very rare.

In 1927 FIDE organized the first Chess Olympiad in London, with the Hungarian team winning, and the following year declared Bogoljubov the "FIDE Champion" after beating the Dutch master Max Euwe in a match. The then world champion, Alekhine, then accepted that future matches for the world title be organized by FIDE but maintaining the same requirements of the London Rules, especially the payment of the minimum purse of US$10,000, which FIDE could not refuse.

In fact, FIDE did not control the 1935 match where Euwe beat Alekhine for the world title. On the contrary, the Netherlands Chess Federation proposed a tournament to be held in 1938, the AVRO Tournament, with grandmasters and young stars to select Alekhine's challenger from there. FIDE rejected this idea and designated Czechoslovak grandmaster Salo Flohr as the official challenger. Euwe claimed that if he retained the title against Alekhine he could face Flohr, though reserving the right to arrange a match with Capablanca, who had not had a chance to challenge Alekhine after his 1927 loss; In the event Capablanca defeated Euwe and regained the world title, it would be Capablanca who would face Flohr in 1940. Again FIDE rejected these plans but events overtook him: in 1937 Alekhine defeated Euwe and became world champion again, and the Avro Tournament -planned to find a challenger against Alekhine or Euwe- ended with the triumph of Paul Keres in first place, second place was Reuben Fine while Flohr and Capablanca were much further behind. To make matters worse, the start of the Second World War prevented agreeing on a world championship for many years.

After the war, FIDE warned that the Soviet Union provided almost half of the potential challengers for the world title, such as Mikhail Botvinnik, Igor Bondarevski, or David Bronstein, making it necessary to have Soviet participation for a match credible for the world title; In addition, the death of Alekhine in 1946 and of Capablanca in 1942 implied the absence of the current champion and his main challenger. Until then the USSR refused to participate in FIDE considering chess a matter of a political nature. This changed in 1946, when, after the death of Alexander Alekhine, FIDE organized a tournament for the year 1948 to find a new champion and the Soviet Union joined FIDE and announced its willingness to participate in the process.

From that initial tournament in 1948 in The Hague (won by Mikhail Botvinnik) until 1993, FIDE was the only entity recognized as the organizer of the World Chess Championships, with some minor anecdotes. For example, the one carried out, in 1975, by the American champion Bobby Fischer who did not defend his title against the challenger Anatoli Kárpov because FIDE did not agree to a set of extravagant demands made by Fischer. Or the one that occurred in 1984 when the then FIDE president, Florencio Campomanes, canceled the match between Karpov and Gari Kasparov for the world title, alleging exhaustion of the contenders, although the challenger Kasparov insisted on continuing.

1993 Schism

In 1993, then defending champion Kasparov and challenger Nigel Short (who had qualified through the FIDE system) broke with the International Federation and played their match under the auspices of the PCA (Professional Chess). Association) alleging discrepancies with the policies of the FIDE leaders regarding prizes and classifications of the contenders. Since then both World Championships have coexisted: the FIDE one and the PCA one, later known as the Classic Champion. Until 2005 FIDE championships had consisted of knockout tournaments with increasingly fast-paced matches, which never produced a champion widely recognized as the best in the world as long as the Elo rating of the classic champions could be greater than that of competitors sponsored by FIDE.

FIDE changed the format for a tournament which was held in San Luis (Argentina) between September and October 2005. The championship faced the top 7 of the world ranking (except the Russian Vladimir Krámnik who declined the invitation for considering himself a "classical" world chess champion) and the previous FIDE champion. The winner was the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov who did achieve acceptance as world champion, being the best player in the Elo ranking at that time.

Recognition from the International Olympic Committee

In 1999, FIDE was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Two years later, he introduced anti-doping rules in chess, as part of his campaign to be part of the Olympic games.

World title reunification in 2006

In 2006, FIDE organized a title reunification match between its champion, Veselin Topalov, and "classical" Vladimir Krámnik, which ended with Krámnik's victory, allowing FIDE to once again take over the regulation of the world championship.^{[citation needed]}

Unfortunately, FIDE still does not maintain a consistent position regarding the form the fight for the maximum title should take, and after scheduling candidate competitions, has now announced in parallel that any player with an Elo higher than 2700 Points contributed by a million-dollar purse can challenge the world champion without further ado.^{[citation required]}

FIDE Presidents

• 1924 - 1949 Alexander Rueb
• 1949 - 1970 Folke Rogard
• 1970 - 1978 Max Euwe
• 1978 - 1982 Fridrik Olafsson
• 1982 - 1995 Florencio Campomanes
• 1995 - 2018 Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
• 2018 to date Arkady Dvorkovich

Partner federations and zones

The following chess federations belong to FIDE:

• International Federation of Postal Chess
• International Association of Chess Braille (IBCA)
• International Committee on Chess (ICCD)
• International Association for Disabled Chess (IPCA)
• International Computer Games Association (ICGA)

Confederations

FIDE organizes chess in the world through four continental confederations:

• European Chess Union, based in Hünenberg, includes 54 associations. The president is the Georgian Zurab Azmaiparashvili.
• Confederation of Chess for the Americas (CCA), based in Mexico City, includes 35 associations. The president is Jorge Vega of Costa Rica.
• Asian Chess Federation (ACF), based in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, represents 48 Asian and Oceania organizations. His president is Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan.
• African Chess Confederation (ACC), based in Gaborone, Botswana, has 35 members, two provisional members since 2010. His president is Lewis Ncube (Botsuana).

Zones and National Associations

All the continents are divided into zones. For the composition of the zones, regional, qualitative and quantitative aspects are taken into account, and in some cases, also political considerations. Some zones are divided into subzones.

Each national association is assigned to a zone. To be a member of FIDE, a nation must be a member of the UN or at least be an observer. However, in the case of the United Kingdom, each of the nations that compose it has its own representation in FIDE.

In 2020, the FIDE zones are as follows (the first digit belongs to the continent):

Area	Subzona	Federations	Players	Great Masters
1.1	1.1 to	EnglandEngland, Ireland, ScotlandScotland, WalesWales	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild exposes010434.10 434	30
	1.1 b	BelgiumBelgium, France, NetherlandsNetherlands	& fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild dies 071454.71 454	83
	1.1 c	ItalyItaly, Portugal, SpainSpain	' s fake fake fake fake fake brainchild dies 073404. exposes himself to fake brainstorm.73 404	64
1.2	1.2 a	GermanyGermany, AustriaAustria, SloveniaSlovenia, SwitzerlandSwitzerland	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild style.40 150	105
	1.2 b	Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina, CroatiaCroatia, IsraelIsrael, KosovoKosovo, Northern MacedoniaNorthern Macedonia	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainstorms016300.16 300	84
1.3		DenmarkDenmark, FinlandFinland, IcelandIceland, Norway Norway, Sweden Sweden	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild. fake fake brainchild.20 570	63
1.4		BulgariaBulgaria, HungaryHungary, PolandPoland, Romania Romania, Slovakia Slovakia, Czech RepublicCzech Republic	& fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake 060973. exposes fake brainchild.60 973	178
1.5	1.5 a	Albania Albania, GreeceGreece, Montenegro Montenegro, SerbiaSerbia, TurkeyTurkey	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake age068261.68 261	73
	1.5 b	ArmeniaArmenia, GeorgiaGeorgia	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.3754	57
1.6		Russia Russia	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild hippox.71 566	166
1.7		EstoniaEstonia, LatviaLatvia, LithuaniaLithuania	& fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake 08509. exposes fake brainchild.8509	21
1.8		AzerbaijanAzerbaijan, BelarusBelarus, MoldovaMoldova	& fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake 0606870. expose himself to death row06870	42
1.9		Ukraine Ukraine	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild exposes012435.12 435	70
1.10		AndorraAndorra, CyprusCyprus, Faroe IslandsFaroe Islands, Guernsey, JerseyJersey, LiechtensteinLiechtenstein, LuxembourgLuxembourg, MaltaMalta, MonacoMonaco, San Marino	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.2481	3
2.1		United States	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake brainchild.14 371	69
2.2		CanadaCanada	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainstorm nightmare.3211	11
2.3	2.3.1	Mexico Mexico	& fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake age 06712.6712	3
	2.3.2	Costa RicaCosta Rica, El SalvadorEl Salvador, GuatemalaGuatemala, HondurasHonduras, NicaraguaNicaragua, Panama Panama	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake 08050. fake fake fake fake brainstorm8050	1
	2.3.3	CubaCuba	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.1811	23
	2.3.4	ColombiaColombia	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brain tumor.7934	8
	2.3.5	Netherlands Antilles, Netherlands Antilles, ArubaAruba, BahamasBahamas, BarbadosBarbados, BermudaBermuda, Cayman Islands, Dominican RepublicDominican Republic, GrenadaGranada, GuyanaGuyana, HaitiHaiti, British Virgin Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Puerto RicoPuerto Rico, Saint LuciaSaint Lucia, San Cristóbal y NievesSan Cristobal and Nieves, SurinameSuriname, Trinidad and TobagoTrinidad and Tobago, Venezuela Venezuela	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.13 906	2
2.4		BoliviaBolivia, BrazilBrazil, EcuadorEcuador, Peru Peru	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainstorm 7266.27 266	21
2.5		Argentina, ChileChile, Paraguay Paraguay Uruguay Uruguay	' s fake fake fake fake fake brainchild exposes the fake brainchild.13 787	31
3.1		Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia BaréinBaréin, QatarCatar, IranIran, IraqIraq, JordanJordan, KuwaitKuwait, LebanonLebanon, OmanOman, PalestinePalestine, SyriaSyria, United Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates, YemenYemen	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.54 486	16
3.2		BangladésBangladés, BhutanBhutan, MaldivesMaldives, NepalNepal, PakistanPakistan, Sri LankaSri Lanka	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.23 891	5
3.3		BrunéiBrunéi, CambodiaCambodia, Hong KongHong Kong, IndonesiaIndonesia, JapanJapan, South KoreaSouth Korea, LaosLaos, MacaoMacao, MalaysiaMalaysia, Mongolia, BurmaBurma, PhilippinesPhilippines, SingaporeSingapore, Thailand, East TimorEast Timor, Republic of China, VietnamVietnam	& fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild expose031921. hypothesize fake brainchild.31 921	35
3.4		AfghanistanAfghanistan, Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, UzbekistanUzbekistan	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.12 261	27
3.5		ChinaChina	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainstorms02876.2876	39
3.6		Australia, FiyiFiyi, GuamGuam, NauruNauru, New ZealandNew Zealand, PalaesPalaos, Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea, Solomon Islands Solomon Islands	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild exposes herself to death.5275	8
3.7		India	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake hipster dies76735. fake fake fake fake fake brainstorm76 735	63
4.1		AlgeriaAlgeria, EgyptEgypt, LibyaLibya, MoroccoMorocco, MauritaniaMauritania, TunisiaTunisia	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.17 557	13
4.2		Burkina FasoBurkina Faso, Ivory CoastIvory Coast, Cape VerdeCape Verde, GabonGabon, GhanaGhana, LiberiaLiberia, MaliMali, NigerNiger, SenegalSenegal, Sierra LeoneSierra Leone, Sierra LeoneSierra Leone, Togo	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild fake sex2504. fake fake fake fake brainstorm2504	0
4.3		BurundiBurundi, Central African RepublicCentral African Republic, Chad, CameroonCameroon, Democratic Republic of the CongoDemocratic Republic of the Congo, GabonGabon, Equatorial GuineaEquatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild.398	0
4.4		ComorosComoros, DjiboutiYibuti, EritreaEritrea, EthiopiaEthiopia, KenyaKenya, MadagascarMadagascar, Mauritius, RwandaRwanda, SeychellesSeychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, TanzaniaTanzania, UgandaUganda	' s fake fake fake fake fake fake brainchild exposes the fake brainchild.7113	0
4.5		AngolaAngola, BotswanaBotswana, LesotoLesoto, MalauiMalaui, MozambiqueMozambique, NamibiaNamibia, South Africa, SwazilandSwaziland, Zambia, ZimbabweZimbabwe	& fake fake fake fake fake fake fake brainstorm. exposes fake brainstorm.12 875	1

FIDE World Ranking

FIDE publishes monthly the list of players with international Elo rating of all its associated federations, based on the tournament time control and the Elo rating of each player. Although this regulation is limited to the standard time control (40 plays for the first control), FIDE also publishes the ELO ranking of the players in four categories: standard, rapid chess, blitz, and online (the one obtained in games on its FIDE Online Arena platform).

From the general ranking of the absolute classification, FIDE also publishes the ranking for women, the youth category (under 20 years of age), and the country ranking (based on the Elo average of the ten best players of each country).

FIDE tournaments and competitions

Although FIDE regulates all chess tournaments organized and recognized by its federations, it also organizes specific competitions, especially those related to the Chess Olympiads and World Championships.

The main competitions organized by FIDE are:

• Individual World Championships: are the world chess championships in the absolute and feminine categories, and their related competencies; the FIDE Grand Prix, and the Candidates Tournament in the absolute category
• Chess Olympiad
• Championships for national teams: include continental and world championships by teams in absolute and feminine categories
• World fast chess Championships and blitz
• World and Continental Youth Championships: are tournaments organized for players under the age established for each category, which can be for children under the age of 8, 10 or 12 (category cadets), 14, 16 or 18 (pre-juvenile category), or 20 years (this last category is the classic world chess championship; as well as the world school championships, for players under the age of 7 to 17.
• Major World Championships: are organized tournaments for more than 50 years in the category of Veterans, and for more than 65 years in the category Sénior
• World Championship of Officials: tournaments open to players with International Elo less than 2000
• World Cities Championship: biennial tournament by teams emerged as a sequel to the Chess Olympiad, in which each of the 32 countries sends a representative team of a city. It is organized by the Al Ain Club of the United Arab Emirates chess federation

FIDE Online Arena

FIDE has opened an internet server for chess practice called FIDE Online Arena. This platform started its test operations in August 2013, and as of October it was declared fully functional, with emphasis on implementing technologies to avoid cheating with the help of computer programs.