English Chess Forum

I was looking through the list of FIDE country codes (as you do with an Olympiad around the corner) and I noticed that there is a code for FID (FIDE). You can find it under 'F' in the drop-down country menu here:

http://ratings.fide.com/advseek.phtml

There are 23 players registered with FIDE under the FID country code. I presume (from the names if nothing else) that this is a catchall code for those players whose countries have no chess federation? Can anyone confirm this?

And still on country codes, I see that there are indeed really, really small chess federations. I had heard of these, but while Palau is a country, it does seem faintly ridiculous that Aruba can be a separate chess federation (I'm not even going to ask if they are voting in the FIDE presidential election, as they almost certainly are, but I would be interested in knowing if they have sent teams to the Olympiad).

Palau, a Pacific island with an area of 459 square kilometres and a population of around 20,000, has 13 FIDE rated players. While Aruba, a 33-kilometre-long island in the Caribbean off South America, is part of the Lesser Antilles and part of the Kingdom of Holland. At 193 square kilometres, it is smaller than Palau, but has a larger population (100,000). It does only have 10 FIDE-rated players, but several are stronger than the Palau players.

Still, I'd be one of the top-rated players if I moved to Palau! How long do you have to live somewhere before becoming a naturalised chess player?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:And still on country codes, I see that there are indeed really, really small chess federations.

Somewhat closer to home, the population of Guernsey is around 66 thousand and Jersey 92 thousand - both per wiki.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:While Aruba, a 33-kilometre-long island in the Caribbean off South America, is part of the Lesser Antilles and part of the Kingdom of Holland.

No it isn't, it's part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Holland is not synonymous with Netherlands. South Holland and North Holland are two regions of The Netherlands.

Alex Holowczak wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:While Aruba, a 33-kilometre-long island in the Caribbean off South America, is part of the Lesser Antilles and part of the Kingdom of Holland.

No it isn't, it's part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Holland is not synonymous with Netherlands. South Holland and North Holland are two regions of The Netherlands.

Oh gah! I knew that.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Still, I'd be one of the top-rated players if I moved to Palau! How long do you have to live somewhere before becoming a naturalised chess player?

Depends on the federation.

IM Jack Rudd wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Still, I'd be one of the top-rated players if I moved to Palau! How long do you have to live somewhere before becoming a naturalised chess player?

Depends on the federation.

Though in addition to anything the federation in question may say, FIDE also have a section of their handbook related to this: http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html? ... w=category

Although there's a general rule that you have to have lived somewhere for two years, if the federation you want to transfer to is flexible in their principles, and wants you sooner, you can transfer immediately at a cost of 750 euros (250 standard transfer fee and 500 euros additional for not fulfilling the residency requirement of FIDE). This assumes you're male and under 2300 (and not FM), or female and under 2100 (and not WFM). For titled / higher rated players, there are additional transfer fees, and compensation fees which need to be paid to the federation you are transferring from (unless they choose to waive them).

I notice a typo in 2.3c of these rules. It should I think, say "Compensation Fee payable to the old Federation" not "Compensation Fee payable to the new Federation".

Back on the original topic:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:I was looking through the list of FIDE country codes (as you do with an Olympiad around the corner) and I noticed that there is a code for FID (FIDE). You can find it under 'F' in the drop-down country menu here:

http://ratings.fide.com/advseek.phtml

There are 23 players registered with FIDE under the FID country code. I presume (from the names if nothing else) that this is a catchall code for those players whose countries have no chess federation? Can anyone confirm this?

I think that's unlikely. Most of the 23 are listed inactive. I looked at a couple, the highest rated (2300), and the highest active (2027 I think). The former seemed to have played all of his games in Mexico, the latter in Spain, so I'd guess these to just be administrative errors, or data missing for players who either haven't played much or not for a while i.e. the FIDE database probably has country code as mandatory, and has to default to *something* if no country is recorded for a player.

Maxim Devereaux wrote:

IM Jack Rudd wrote:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Still, I'd be one of the top-rated players if I moved to Palau! How long do you have to live somewhere before becoming a naturalised chess player?

Depends on the federation.

Though in addition to anything the federation in question may say, FIDE also have a section of their handbook related to this: http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html? ... w=category

Although there's a general rule that you have to have lived somewhere for two years, if the federation you want to transfer to is flexible in their principles, and wants you sooner, you can transfer immediately at a cost of 750 euros (250 standard transfer fee and 500 euros additional for not fulfilling the residency requirement of FIDE). This assumes you're male and under 2300 (and not FM), or female and under 2100 (and not WFM). For titled / higher rated players, there are additional transfer fees, and compensation fees which need to be paid to the federation you are transferring from (unless they choose to waive them).

I notice a typo in 2.3c of these rules. It should I think, say "Compensation Fee payable to the old Federation" not "Compensation Fee payable to the new Federation".

Oh. It might be cheaper to set up a "new" chess federation...

Maxim Devereaux wrote:Back on the original topic:

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:I was looking through the list of FIDE country codes (as you do with an Olympiad around the corner) and I noticed that there is a code for FID (FIDE). You can find it under 'F' in the drop-down country menu here:

http://ratings.fide.com/advseek.phtml

There are 23 players registered with FIDE under the FID country code. I presume (from the names if nothing else) that this is a catchall code for those players whose countries have no chess federation? Can anyone confirm this?

I think that's unlikely. Most of the 23 are listed inactive. I looked at a couple, the highest rated (2300), and the highest active (2027 I think). The former seemed to have played all of his games in Mexico, the latter in Spain, so I'd guess these to just be administrative errors, or data missing for players who either haven't played much or not for a while i.e. the FIDE database probably has country code as mandatory, and has to default to *something* if no country is recorded for a player.

That sounds likely. I don't know how many federations FIDE has, but which countries (proper ones) don't have FIDE federations? From something Stewart Reuben said earlier, it seems many African countries don't have federations. Is it possible to come up with a figure for the number of FIDE federations (those with voting rights), any subsidiary voting blocs and other affiliated organisations, to identify which federations are not "proper" countries (i.e. how many are proper countries), and hence derive a number for how many countries don't have federations that are part of FIDE?