FIDE Chess Players by Country

Explore the number of FIDE-rated chess players by country — total count and per million inhabitants — on an interactive 3D globe.

Data source: FIDE Standard Rating List — June 2026 edition. All data is stored locally; no external request is made.

Country grouping: England (ENG), Scotland (SCO) and Wales (WAL) are merged into the United Kingdom (GBR). The FIDE federation (FID — stateless players) and Kosovo (KOS — no ISO 3166-1 numeric code) are excluded.

Map borders: Natural Earth via world-atlas TopoJSON (1:110 m scale). Borders reflect de facto administrative control and do not imply any position on the legal status of disputed territories.

Drag to rotate · Scroll to zoom · Double-click to reset · Hover a country for details

About FIDE chess ratings

What is the FIDE rating list?

The FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) rating list is the official global ranking of chess players. It is published monthly and covers every player who holds at least one active rating — standard (classical), rapid or blitz. As of June 2026, there are 749,459 FIDE-rated players across more than 180 federations.

Which countries have the most chess players?

Russia currently leads with over 70,000 rated players, followed by India, France, Spain and Germany. However, when normalised by population, smaller countries with strong chess traditions — such as Iceland, Croatia and Serbia — rank far higher than large nations.

How are England, Scotland and Wales counted?

FIDE maintains separate federations for England (ENG), Scotland (SCO) and Wales (WAL). In this map, their players are combined into a single figure for the United Kingdom (GBR) to match the ISO 3166-1 standard used for country borders. Players registered under the FIDE federation (FID, for stateless or internationally displaced players) and Kosovo (KOS, which has no ISO 3166-1 numeric code) are excluded from the map.

Top 10 rankings

Most rated players (total)

# Country Players

Most rated players (per million)

# Country Per million

Highest share of female players

# Country % female

Frequently asked questions

Russia currently leads with over 70,000 rated players (standard, rapid or blitz), followed by India (68,000), France (51,000), Spain (43,000) and Germany (39,000). These figures are updated monthly by FIDE.
When measured per million inhabitants, Iceland, Croatia and Serbia consistently rank among the highest. These countries have deep cultural ties to chess and very active national federations.
FIDE recognises England, Scotland and Wales as separate federations (ENG, SCO, WAL). On this map, all three are combined and displayed as the United Kingdom, matching the ISO country borders used for the globe.
A player is FIDE-rated when they have completed at least one game in a FIDE-rated tournament. The rating measures playing strength on the Elo scale. Not all active chess players have a FIDE rating — many casual players play only in local unrated events.
Mongolia leads with around 32% female FIDE-rated players, followed by the UAE (29%), China (26%), Sri Lanka (26%) and Vietnam (26%). The global average is roughly 12%. Countries with strong traditions of girls' and women's chess development tend to show higher proportions. Use the "% female" tab on the globe to visualise this distribution worldwide.
Some countries have no players in the FIDE standard rating list, or very few. Countries may also be excluded if their federation code (e.g. Kosovo — KOS) does not correspond to an ISO 3166-1 country used in the globe's map data.

Related tools

Population Density
Explore population density by country on an interactive 3D globe.
Open tool →
Forest Coverage
Explore forest coverage by country on an interactive 3D globe.
Open tool →
Cities Near
Find all cities within a chosen radius around any city.
Open tool →

Send your feedback