Statistics on FIDE-rated players

[Steve Rooney]

An interesting analysis published on Chessbase of number of FIDE-rated players in each country. England iis 20th in the table. Discuss ...

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6364

[Roger de Coverly]

Some of what's posted in that article is misleading - because he hasn't looked at how much chess is played and nationally rated only. In England it's not more than 10% of chess activity (if that) which is internationally rated.

International rating is elitist of course, historically because there was a minimum rating of 2000. Even further back, the minimum was 2200.

[Alex Holowczak]

"These structural weaknesses are particularly obvious in territories which are wealthy and have a good chess tradition: USA (3,235 games), United Kingdom (barely 1,487, less than Corsica with 2,167!), the Netherlands (3,820)."

Ouch.

Of course, the USA and the UK have their own grading/rating systems. I would imagine Corsica does not. If you want to play chess, you have to play FIDE-rated stuff or not at all. This is also true in most European countries; they have no concept of league chess on an evening, which is how most of our players play. England has more than 11,000 players on its grading list, and presumably the rest of the UK takes the total still higher. That would probably put it on a par with the Russian and German totals.

Frankly, this research is bunkum, and overlooks the way that chess operates in different countries.

[Ian Thompson]

I would imagine Corsica does not .

I would think it is included in the French national rating system, which only calculates ratings for players without FIDE ratings. The published French rating list shows the FIDE rating of players who have one and the national rating of those who do not.

Frankly, this research is bunkum, and overlooks the way that chess operates in different countries.

Agreed.

[Roger de Coverly]

I would think it is included in the French national rating system, which only calculates ratings for players without FIDE ratings. The published French rating list shows the FIDE rating of players who have one and the national rating of those who do not.

I believe the French chess scene consists of

(a) regional and national leagues in the 4NCL style ( FIDE rated)
(b) tournaments designed as 9 rounds in 6/7/8/9 days ( FIDE rated)
(c) rapid play G/30 - but without 10.2 therefore blitz rules.

I'm guessing that G/90 or equivalent evening leagues, G/120 or equivalent weekend leagues and G/105 or equivalent * 5 weekend tournaments are almost unknown.

[Steve Rooney]

Clearly the data refers to FIDE-rated players so ignores national-rated players but I don't think this means it's "bunkum".

If you look at the spreadsheet it breaks down it down in grading bands. If you take the 2200+ category say, how many players of that level in England have only ECF grade and not Fide?

[Alex Holowczak]

Clearly the data refers to FIDE-rated players so ignores national-rated players but I don't think this means it's "bunkum".

If you look at the spreadsheet it breaks down it down in grading bands. If you take the 2200+ category say, how many players of that level in England have only ECF grade and not Fide?

There are several 180+ players in the Birmingham League who are not FIDE-rated. Jonathan Swindells is graded 190, and doesn't have a FIDE rating. If not 2200, they're certainly 2000+. The Maliks are fairly young and graded in the 180s, but aren't FIDE-rated. There will be similar cases in London and Manchester.

[Roger de Coverly]

There are several 180+ players in the Birmingham League who are not FIDE-rated. Jonathan Swindells is graded 190, and doesn't have a FIDE rating. If not 2200, they're certainly 2000+. The Maliks are fairly young and graded in the 180s, but aren't FIDE-rated. There will be similar cases in London and Manchester.

Using the download file from the ECF grading site and treating "has FIDE code" as a proxy for "internationally rated", I get 19 players over 200 and 246 from 175 to 199 who didn't have FIDE codes last August.

As far as the "elite" are concerned, the numbers quoted are broadly correct. What is wrong is drawing conclusions without considering how many games are played in nationally rated events only.

[Joey Stewart]

It seems fairly typical of the slapdash 'modern' approach to reasearch. I am sure it would have been possible to make enquiries to those countries national federations and find out how many games are played internally (or, at least, a good proportion) but, as that might have actually taken some time, he decided to just take the data that was easily available and try to draw up a conclusion wide enough to cover the whole chess world.

[Roger de Coverly]

he decided to just take the data that was easily available and try to draw up a conclusion wide enough to cover the whole chess world.

I think he's also trying to make the (valid) point that you should reform the voting procedure in FIDE from one federation one vote to something of an electoral college where the number of votes is weighted by a proxy for size such as number of players or number of games.

Particularly if Russia and other East European and former Soviet federations support Karpov at the FIDE presidential elections, but Kirsan wins using enticements to smaller federations, you end up with a situation where the FIDE president is only supported by representatives of perhaps 1-5% of the "serious" world chess players.

[Alex Holowczak]

I think he's also trying to make the (valid) point that you should reform the voting procedure in FIDE from one federation one vote to something of an electoral college where the number of votes is weighted by a proxy for size such as number of players or number of games.

This point is a good one, but such a conclusion does not require statistics. Common sense does the trick.