
Top Nations Ranked by "All Strong Players" FIDE 1500+ Per Capita
I'm adding two more criteria that might better display the most chessian nations in the world by considering a broader pool of players as opposed to the elitist Super-Grandmasters-only approach showing only the tip of iceberg.
There have come two suggestions as to how it could be done.
The first came from the renowned British coach and educator Richard James @falseknight at Minichess (GM Luke McShane and GM Jonathan Rowson were his pupils among others) who says on Twitter (handle: chesstutor),
"I prefer # 2000+ per capita or even # 1500+ per capita as a measurement of top chess nations. We should measure chess enjoyment and culture: number of proficient players, not number of very strong players."
I got and have crunched data from the FIDE database and here are the rankings. First, the players FIDE 2000+ (Candidate Master and on), then the players with 1500+ rating, or all "strong players", sorted by per capita numbers.
Country | Pop (mill) | Rated 2000+ | 2000+ per 1M pop |
Iceland | 0,4 | 174 | 483 |
Serbia | 7,0 | 2199 | 314 |
Montenegro | 0,6 | 166 | 267 |
Croatia | 4,1 | 858 | 209 |
Slovenia | 2,1 | 416 | 198 |
Hungary | 9,8 | 1666 | 170 |
Czechia | 10,7 | 1694 | 158 |
Denmark | 5,8 | 781 | 135 |
Slovakia | 5,5 | 685 | 125 |
Austria | 8,9 | 1081 | 121 |
BiH | 3,3 | 370 | 112 |
Germany | 83,0 | 8920 | 107 |
Armenia | 3,0 | 295 | 98 |
Netherlands | 17,3 | 1621 | 94 |
Cuba | 11,3 | 1056 | 93 |
Lithuania | 2,8 | 250 | 89 |
Israel | 8,9 | 779 | 88 |
Sweden | 10,2 | 892 | 87 |
Norway | 5,3 | 444 | 84 |
Switzerland | 8,5 | 706 | 83 |
Bulgaria | 7,0 | 558 | 80 |
Spain | 46,9 | 3508 | 75 |
Georgia | 3,7 | 266 | 72 |
Russia | 144,5 | 9626 | 67 |
Greece | 10,7 | 611 | 57 |
Poland | 38,0 | 1992 | 52 |
Ukraine | 42,0 | 1770 | 42 |
France | 67,0 | 2758 | 41 |
Romania | 19,4 | 731 | 38 |
Azerbaijan | 10,0 | 318 | 32 |
Argentina | 44,5 | 1150 | 26 |
Italy | 60,4 | 1403 | 23 |
England | 56,0 | 1114 | 20 |
USA | 328,2 | 2562 | 8 |
Brazil | 209,5 | 967 | 5 |
Turkey | 82,0 | 375 | 5 |
India | 1353,0 | 1480 | 1,1 |
China | 1393,0 | 536 | 0,4 |
.
And now a broader pool of all FIDE rated players (rating 1000+), that is all strong players of the country.
Country | Pop (mill) | Rated 1500+ | 1500+ per 1M pop |
Iceland | 0,4 | 492 | 1367 |
Serbia | 7,0 | 4818 | 688 |
Croatia | 4,1 | 2803 | 684 |
Montenegro | 0,6 | 385 | 619 |
Czechia | 10,7 | 6506 | 608 |
Denmark | 5,8 | 3262 | 562 |
Slovenia | 2,1 | 1166 | 555 |
Slovakia | 5,5 | 3051 | 555 |
Hungary | 9,8 | 5008 | 511 |
Norway | 5,3 | 2056 | 388 |
Austria | 8,9 | 3432 | 386 |
Spain | 46,9 | 17224 | 367 |
Sweden | 10,2 | 3010 | 295 |
Germany | 83,0 | 24456 | 295 |
Switzerland | 8,5 | 2345 | 276 |
BiH | 3,3 | 888 | 269 |
Armenia | 3,0 | 801 | 267 |
Lithuania | 2,8 | 741 | 265 |
Greece | 10,7 | 2775 | 259 |
Netherlands | 17,3 | 4045 | 234 |
Israel | 8,9 | 1908 | 214 |
France | 67,0 | 13873 | 207 |
Georgia | 3,7 | 734 | 198 |
Bulgaria | 7,0 | 1338 | 191 |
Cuba | 11,3 | 2092 | 185 |
Poland | 38,0 | 6465 | 170 |
Russia | 144,5 | 23675 | 164 |
Romania | 19,4 | 2711 | 140 |
Italy | 60,4 | 7370 | 122 |
Ukraine | 42,0 | 3834 | 91 |
Argentina | 44,5 | 4050 | 91 |
Azerbaijan | 10,0 | 844 | 84 |
England | 56,0 | 3079 | 55 |
Turkey | 82,0 | 2997 | 37 |
Brazil | 209,5 | 4333 | 21 |
USA | 328,2 | 6048 | 18 |
India | 1353,0 | 8298 | 6,1 |
China | 1393,0 | 1288 | 0,9 |
.
The second proposal as to how to identify top chess nations taking into consideration the strength of a wider pool of players came from @fanxiong and we will take a look at it next time.