Taking action. Getting Results!

World Championship

A stable structure is in place for the World Championship cycles, through a system of Zonals, Continental Championships, Grand Prix, World Cup, Candidates Matches and the World Championship Match.

The current system offers more opportunities for hundreds of players, around the world, to participate in high level official competitions, with prize money for all the events exceeding 7 million USD. Furthermore, it is a comprehensive system that produces the best player.

Women’s Chess

We have a Women’s World Championship cycle which also includes Zonals, Continental, Grand Prix, World Championship Knock-out and a World Championship match. New events for women have been introduced such as the Grand Prix Series, Women’s World Team Championship, World Blitz Championship and Club Cups amongst others.

From 100 Women Grandmasters in 1995 there are now over 350 Women Grandmasters in the world. Additionally, there are 21 women players with the highest Grandmaster title. The Women’s Commission is now a very active commission with eight Women World Champions contributing significantly to its progress.

FIDE has also decided recently that every Presidential ticket must include a woman. It will continue to extend this practice to ensure that FIDE becomes more representative of its members.

Chess in Schools

Grass root development is one of the fundamental aims of FIDE. Under the umbrella of the World Chess Federation, customized chess schools programmes have been implemented in many countries around the world.

Chess in Education Conferences were organized for the purpose of promoting chess in schools and we are building a base to develop chess in schools all over the world. FIDE also introduced extensive World and Continental title events for schools on an individual level and promoted team events in various Continents.

FIDE also supports special CIS programmes through the Continents.

Youth Events

FIDE has made great improvements in the conditions and opportunities for our young players. FIDE has insisted and will continue to insist on high standards for organizers and take action when that is not the case.

The World Youth Championships have record attendances and high levels of competition. The participation has increased from 770 players in 2000 to over 1,300 players last year. FIDE has adopted of policy of rotation amongst continents of World Youth Championships to aid the development of chess around the world.

CACDEC (Chess Development)

There has been a huge increase in the amounts of money going to CACDEC countries with the 2010 CACDEC budget set at USD 300,000. The support to Federations is now being targeted more efficiently on specific projects. Arbiters, Trainers and Women’s Commissions are now all liaising with CACDEC to ensure proper and efficient use of resources. Federations have been supported directly in various Continents with training seminars in Federation organizational skills.

Ratings

The rating system is one of the most important instruments to show the development of a player and also the Federation. From 17,000 players on the rating list in 1995, FIDE now has an extensive list of over 113,000 names. This has been achieved not only by the widening of the base over the years but also by a big increase at all levels.

Ratings are now efficiently published every two months. Meetings with qualified people are being regularly held to examine the K factor, the development of ratings, impact on titles as well as on tournaments. Extending the rating base in a calculated manner should lead to a greater popularization of chess.

Calendar

There has been an enormous increase in the number of FIDE and Continental events, with over 70 events per annum. There is now a full calendar and FIDE is co-ordinating with organisers, bidders and Continents to minimize clashes.

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is one of the major events in the world of sports attracting more than 150 countries and around 3,000 athletes and officials. There is, today, a big interest and competition from several countries to bid for this event compared to the situation 15 years ago when FIDE was struggling to find an organiser. In the last Olympiad in Dresden, Germany 2008, there was a record attendance, with 142 countries participating.