Fédération Internationale des Échecs

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FIDE logo

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world. It is usually referred to as FIDE (pronounced "fee day"), its French acronym.

FIDE was founded in Paris, France on July 24, 1924. Its motto is Gens una sumus, meaning "We are one people". Its current president (as of October 2006) is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is also president of Kalmykia, an autonomous Republic in Russia.

1 Role of FIDE
2 History
3 Member federations
4 FIDE Presidents
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Role of FIDE

As well as organising the World Chess Championship and Chess Olympiad, FIDE calculates Elo ratings of players, defines the rules of chess, periodically publishes albums of the best chess problems (the FIDE Albums), awards the titles of FIDE Master, International Master, International Grandmaster, women's versions of those titles, a number of organisational titles including International Arbiter, and Master and Grandmaster titles in problem and study composing and solving.

In addition to the overall world championship, FIDE organises championships for women and juniors, regional championships, and the Chess Olympiad. It oversees few other tournaments, although other top-level events, almost without exception, respect FIDE rules and regulations.

[edit] History

In its early years, FIDE had little power. This was largely because the Soviet Union refused to join, as it saw chess and politics as being inextricably bound up, and FIDE was a non-political organization. This changed, however, when incumbent world champion Alexander Alekhine died in 1946. FIDE stepped up to organise a tournament to find a replacement, and the Soviet Union, aware that this was a process in which it had to be involved, joined.

From that initial 1948 World Championship tournament (won by Mikhail Botvinnik) to 1993, FIDE was the only body organizing world chess championships. They were involved in controversies, however: in 1975, Bobby Fischer defaulted his title after FIDE refused to meet all his demands for his match with Anatoly Karpov. In 1984, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes called off the match between Karpov and Garry Kasparov without result.

The greatest controversy came in 1993, when reigning champion Kasparov and challenger Nigel Short (who had qualified through the FIDE system) broke away from FIDE to play their 1993 match under the auspices of the newly-formed Professional Chess Association (PCA). This caused a 13 year split in the world title. During the split, FIDE for a time (1998-2004) ran its championships as a single knock-out tournament with games under quicker time controls, a change which proved controversial. Another controversy was holding the 2004 Tournament in Libya. From 2002 to 2005 FIDE failed to organize matches for the 2002 "Prague Agreement" to re-unite the world title, until the world title was finally re-unified by the 2006 Kramnik-Topalov match.

As of 2007, the format of the World Championship looks set to change again, and has again been the subject of criticism from the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) as well as individual players.

In 1999, FIDE was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Two years later, it introduced the IOC's anti-drugs rules to chess. FIDE has stated that it would like chess to become part of the Olympic Games.

On 2 June 2006 delegates from more than 150 national chess federations cast their ballots in Turin, Italy, to elect the president of FIDE. The result was a clear victory for the incumbent president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who collected 96 votes, compared to 54 for his challenger Bessel Kok.

[edit] Member federations

There are at present 158 member nations of FIDE. There were 159 until recently, when one was dropped. The list fluctuates, as new nations join and sometimes national federations collapse or are unable to pay their dues.

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guernsey, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Surinam, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wales, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Burundi, Ghana and Ivory Coast have been temporarily suspended from membership in FIDE because of their failure to meet their financial obligations. Their memberships will be permanently revoked at the meeting in Turin, Italy on May 27, 2006 if they have not paid their dues by that time.