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Introduction to World Chess Federation (FIDE) Zones

The World Championship qualifying cycle starts with zonal tournaments organized by FIDE zone

(June 2005) In our introduction to the World Chess Championship (see the link box at the bottom of this article under 'Glossary'), we noted that the qualifying cycle starts with tournaments known as the zonals. Winners of the zonals qualify into the next stage of the championship cycle. Zonals get their name because they are organized by FIDE zone. FIDE membership is open to countries, not to players, and the FIDE zones are based on member countries. The FIDE Directory 2003 listed 166 countries split into 21 geographic zones, further aggregated into 4 continents. Each zone has its own officers and administrators. Our first table shows how zones are distributed by continent. FIDE Continents, Zones, & Countries Continent Zones Countries 1 • Europe 9 53 2 • Americas 5 36 3 • Asia 4 40 4 • Africa 3 37 Some zones correspond to single countries. The national championships of these countries serve as zonal events. Zone 1.6 • Russia Zone 1.9 • Ukraine Zone 2.1 • USA Zone 2.2 • Canada Zone 3.3 • China The first digit in the zone number is the continent, so Russia (zone 1.6) is located on the European continent. See the link box again for a complete list of zones and countries. Some zones include many countries. Zones with more than 10 countries Zone Countries 2.3 27 3.2 17 3.1 17 4.2 16 1.1 16 4.3 12 Rules for qualification into a zonal tournament are the administrative responsibility of each zone. This is sometimes done by holding preliminary subzonal events, which can be the national championships of the countries in the zone. *** How are the world's players distributed by zone? The next table, derived from the FIDE Rating List for January 2005, shows that almost 60.000 players have been rated by FIDE. Statistics FIDE Rating List January 2005 All Players 58649 Players 13823 Inactive Women Players 3953 Women 1287 Inactive Countries 166 Belonging to zones 142 With rated players 139 Codes Match The rest of our discussion is based on the total number of players, inactive players included. A few notes to the table:- The percentage of inactive players (24%) is significantly lower than the percentage of inactive women players (33%). Are women being discouraged from playing at the top levels of chess? Codes Match is a check that the same country codes are used in both the zone lists and the rating lists. There were three mismatches (e.g. YUG in the zones becomes SCG in the ratings). These were corrected for the following analyses. Of the 142 countries with rated players, 76 have less than 100 FIDE rated players, while 20 countries have 10 players or fewer. Which countries have the most rated players? This table shows the top-10. Countries having the most FIDE rated players Country Players GER 7787 RUS 7077 ESP 3767 FRA 3219 POL 2358 SCG 2214 HUN 2118 IND 1863 CZE 1727 USA 1463 Although the country codes are largely self-explanatory, the codes are documented in the 'List of FIDE Zones' (link box again). Since most of the countries on the top-10 list of players are located on FIDE's European continent, it's no surprise that Europe has the largest number of FIDE rated players and Grandmasters (GMs). FIDE players by continent Continent Players GMs 1 • Europe 47032 750 2 • Americas 5706 106 3 • Asia 5251 79 4 • Africa 660 3 The same information is shown by zone in the last table. Zones representing single countries are marked with an asterix ('*'). FIDE players by zone Zone Players GMs 1.1   11373 117 1.2   11851 142 1.3   2295 44 1.4   8254 115 1.5   3723 94 1.6 * 7077 148 1.7   541 18 1.8   618 24 1.9 * 1300 48 2.1 * 1463 58 2.2 * 376 5 2.3   2015 18 2.4   895 8 2.5   957 17 3.1   3006 19 3.2   1410 21 3.3 * 309 17 3.4   526 22 4.1   162 3 4.2   367 -- 4.3   131 -- Using the zonal qualification structure, any player in the world has the opportunity to climb the ladder and to become the next World Chess Champion.

Related Resources • Glossary : World Championship (offsite) • List of FIDE Zones (offsite) • FIDE : World Federation • World Championships (offsite)