Chess Siberia

Study of the April 2001 FIDE Rating List. Part I

By Boris Schipkov

There are 37633 players in the April FIDE Rating List. They played 67568 games from January to March 2001. Average rating of the April FIDE Rating List is 2201,7.
The greatest number of chessplayers live in Germany - 4737. There are 4242 players with rating in Russia.

Players

	Country		Players	Percentage
1	Germany	GER	4737	12,59
2	Russia	RUS	4242	11,27
3	Spain	ESP	1870	4,97
4	Yugoslavia	YUG	1798	4,78
5	France	FRA	1628	4,33
6	Poland	POL	1592	4,23
7	Hungary	HUN	1568	4,17
8	United States	USA	1125	2,99
9	Czech Republic	CZE	1051	2,79
10	Ukraine	UKR	837	2,22
11	India	IND	804	2,14
12	England	ENG	779	2,07
13	Austria	AUT	745	1,98
14	Argentina	ARG	728	1,93
15	Italy	ITA	720	1,91
16	Romania	ROM	714	1,90
	Other		12695	33,73
	Total		37633	100,00

The greatest number of games were played by Russians for the period - 14633.

Games

P	Country	N	Games	Percentage
1	Russia	RUS	14633	21,66
2	Germany	GER	3953	5,85
3	Yugoslavia	YUG	3411	5,05
4	Spain	ESP	3221	4,77
5	Poland	POL	3149	4,66
6	Ukraine	UKR	2927	4,33
7	Argentina	ARG	2579	3,82
8	Hungary	HUN	2021	2,99
9	Croatia	CRO	2015	2,98
10	India	IND	1372	2,03
11	Romania	ROM	1326	1,96
12	Chile	CHI	1258	1,86
13	Cuba	CUB	1217	1,80
14	England	ENG	1144	1,69
15	Sweden	SWE	1130	1,67
16	Belarus	BLR	1118	1,65
17	France	FRA	1109	1,64
18	China	CHN	1095	1,62
19	United States	USA	1079	1,60
20	Bulgaria	BUL	1049	1,55
	Other		16762	24,81
	Total		67568	100,00

The most active players were from Tadjikistan. Only 8 chessplayers from Tadjikistan have international rating, they played 112 games, in average - 14 games each (maybe Tadjikistan Championship?). 51 Bolivians played 500 games, in average - 9,8 games each. 34 Sri Lanka's players played 209 games, in average - 6,15 games each. 191 Belarusians played 1118 games, in average - 5,85 games each.

Tajiks have the highest average rating - 2293,88. Players from Philippines have the second average rating - 2285,69.

Average Rating

P	Country		Players	Games	Average rating
1	Tadjikistan	TJK	8	112	2293,88
2	Philippines	PHI	96	66	2285,69
3	China	CHN	233	1095	2276,59
4	Armenia	ARM	131	469	2276,08
5	Bosnia & Herzegovina	BIH	119	272	2275,30
6	Ukraine	UKR	837	2927	2272,81

If we take in consideration only countries with more than 1000 players with rating, then in this case Russians lead with average rating 2248,52, followed by Americans with 2244,01.

The greatest number of women with FIDE rating live in Russia.

Women

	Country		Women	Percentage
1	Russia	RUS	515	19,52
2	Germany	GER	180	6,82
3	Poland	POL	153	5,80
4	Yugoslavia	YUG	135	5,12
5	Romania	ROM	134	5,08
6	Ukraine	UKR	91	3,45
7	Hungary	HUN	86	3,26
8	China	CHN	66	2,50
9	United States	USA	57	2,16
10	Czech Republic	CZE	56	2,12
11	Bulgaria	BUL	55	2,08
12	France	FRA	52	1,97
13	India	IND	49	1,86
14	Georgia	GEO	48	1,82
15	England	ENG	45	1,71
16	Netherlands	NED	45	1,71
	Other		871	33,02
	Total		2638	100,00

There are 747 grandmasters on the Earth. The greatest number of grandmasters and international masters live in Russia. However, the greatest number of FIDE masters live in Germany.
Iceland takes first place on grandmasters per 1 million of population (9 grandmasters and 0,28 million of people) - 32. India - 0,005 (5 GMs, 1000 million) and China - 0,007 (9 GMs, 1300 million) are not so successful. Japan (125 million) has no grandmasters at all.
It is interesting that Vietnam has 3 GMs, but no one IMs. Uzbekistan has 7 GMs and 8 IMs, but no one FMs.

Titles

Titles	Country		GM	Average rating gm	IM	Average rating im	FM
1	Russia	RUS	119	2545,28	304	2415,07	276
2	Germany	GER	49	2509,14	146	2401,75	491
3	United States	USA	48	2507,50	79	2408,19	206
4	Yugoslavia	YUG	41	2479,46	94	2383,39	271
5	Ukraine	UKR	37	2545,30	116	2422,35	20
6	England	ENG	33	2523,91	42	2381,86	57
7	Israel	ISR	32	2535,63	31	2404,19	31
8	Hungary	HUN	28	2491,89	91	2372,02	135
9	France	FRA	22	2539,36	43	2386,12	63
10	Bulgaria	BUL	20	2499,35	44	2366,89	5
11	Spain	ESP	18	2486,28	46	2406,15	78
	Other		300		1054		1526
	Total		747		2090		3159

Grandmasters from China have the highest average rating.

Average Rating of Grandmasters

	Country		Average rating gm	GM	Average rating im	IM	FM
1	China	CHN	2591,11	9	2477,93	15	20
2	Ireland	IRL	2588,00	1	2389,50	4	7
3	Moldova	MDA	2586,00	3	2385,93	14	3
4	India	IND	2584,00	5	2379,81	27	11
5	Bosnia & Herzegovina	BIH	2583,20	5	2395,77	13	26
6	Estonia	EST	2577,50	2	2421,20	10	6
7	Belgium	BEL	2577,00	4	2382,88	8	33
8	Brazil	BRA	2571,17	6	2379,75	16	24
9	Armenia	ARM	2558,08	12	2411,21	19	4
10	Netherlands	NED	2556,33	12	2400,56	43	76
11	Philippines	PHI	2551,33	3	2393,25	16	5
12	Denmark	DEN	2550,86	7	2388,17	29	18

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