Countries With The Most Chess Grandmasters

This data has been organized by . Be sure to check out his incredible blog on Chess.com!

Read our full article on Countries With The Most Chess Grandmasters:

* Federation transfers are treated as happening on January 1st of a given year.
* Deaths are treated as happening on December 31st of a given year.

Follow us here 😀:
✅ Sign up for FREE online play:
💜 Check us out on Twitch:
📸 Follow us on Instagram:
📱 Like us on Facebook:
🎶 Follow us on TikTok:
💙 Follow us on Twitter:

#chess #chessgrandmaster #chessmaster

188 Comments

  1. In mother Russia, you are either a grandmaster or a disappointment

  2. Tell me why there were no INdian GMs on the chart before 2012 even though chess originated here?

  3. Sickof seeing Just Some Guy Without a Mustache says:

    India had 1 grandmaster by the year of 2011. That 1 gm became world champ. India has seen the fastest development in chess over the past decade.

  4. crazy to think that Germany has so many grand masters but achieving so little internationally

  5. I didnt know Slavs had the most grandmasters. Nice

  6. And Germany doesnt even have a big population, lmao

  7. In mother Russia you don't play chess. Chess plays you.

  8. Seems like Israel has the most GMs per capita in this list?

  9. A couple more funny (if not particularly useful) "per capita" calculations for countries with grandmasters.
    Rated players per 1 grandmaster ("every Xth rated player in the country is a GM")

    1. Armenia 47.74

    2. Qatar 49.33

    3. Monaco 49.67

    4. Andorra 76.50

    5. China 78.90

    6. North Macedonia 109.60

    7. Georgia 112.97

    8. Cuba 114.15

    9. Turkmenistan 121.40

    10. Israel 124.59

  10. ਗਿੱਧੇ ਦੀਆਂ ਰਾਣੀਆਂ says:

    1:30 there comes Vishy and company

  11. Not one comment about how impressive it is that a small country like the Netherlands only disappeared for a few years out of the top 15 in all those decades.. I'll do it then 🙂

  12. That is why if I can defeat a Russian chess player in one of my online matches, I feel very happy.

    Btw I am not a pro and I only have 1600 in rapid and 1450 in blitz 😂

  13. Serbia has 52!? Wow didn't believe my country with 7mil population had so many gms, I'm proud rn, also I'm emaresed that I'm a 1300 rn

  14. It's funny how the vast majority of Israeli grandmasters are Russian grandmasters that immigrated in the 90s

  15. That's a lie because you didn't even mention Azerbaijan which has 2 grandmasters that are in top 10 in the world.

  16. Armenia has 39 GM with population about 3 million people! It's amazing!

  17. It says nothing unless you compare it to population. GMs per capita would be a better metric.

  18. Being a GM used to be much more of a big deal than it is now

  19. Interesting how the overall number of GM's increased over not so many years by at least 10x and keeps growing, devaluing the title.. I doubt that the game of chess grew in popularuty over last half-a-century, perhaps the opposite. Also, unlike 40~50 years ago, GM just does not mean much anymore – ordinary people used to know their names. May be invent a higher title or change the rules. Can't have hundreds and hundreds of GM's.

  20. Vishwanathan'e impact on the Indian Chess Scene cannot be overstated, even if I try. He is great player, but his impact makes him one of the Gods of Chess.

  21. That 96 for USA at the end was Beth Harmon…

  22. Norway be like we don't care about quantity we care about quality 😎

  23. I didnt even know as a german that chess is such a big thing here but rigjt now im proud we even beat america nearly

  24. Yugoslavia was a bad boy in any sport,you name it they have it, Hungary aswell they just lacked in group sports (,outside football)

  25. are the german GMs native germans or how many of them are naturilzed germans? chess is generally not very popular among young people

  26. Even though Germany is 3rd in having most GM but they do not even have 1 player that 2700+ in current ratings. It is interesting, I wonder what they are missing.

  27. Yugoslavia pumped out the best per Capita in almost everything……..

  28. Serbia and Armenia are the best per capita.

  29. Now, show the number of grandmasters as a percentage of the total population.

  30. China and India are only here because of population size lol

  31. Quiet upward moves by china. They won both mens and womens in last Olympiad!

  32. Norway : we have carlsen and stockfish

    Russia : kasparov,Karpov,tal,spassky,karjakin,nepo,botvenik,and many more

  33. Germany have quantity not quality while.norway has quality not quantity

  34. Armenia turned from 40 to 39 in 2020, Aaronian traitor

  35. USA stole GMs from others countries.
    Ok, usually cuz gives a better life.
    But honestly USA is an utopic country that doesn't have true natives. All the best from USA are made from people that dont have root from USA.
    All caucasians are ex-europeans.
    All "pochos" are from latam, and it's so funny that name themselves as "americans". Nakamura is too easy to be reconozed like asian.
    I like what USA represents as an utopic city, is the best country for living, only I'm in disagree that americans belive that means they are caucasians. Not for me. Floyd Maywather, Nakamura, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan, Jackson, Andy Ruiz, etc… They all are Americans, they looks like americans. Americans are all the people that can belive and follow the american dream. How many venezolans and more strangers changes their nationality for to be an american?? IDK, but when they can, then, they are.
    If you are a caucasican american, maybe racist or not racist, come on! Your root is european, you r american because your grandparents belived in the american dream.
    I'm mexican, I'd visited USA, but I dont want to live in that country. Why? Because I live in the Mexican dream, and whoever that want to believe it, it's for me, a mexican… That's what it means for wherever can believe. That's the reason for a country is better that another one, people that believe are people that can to do a better country.

  36. Vishy really is the father of Indian chess revival

  37. How Many Grandmaster in the land of the Carlsen, Norway. Last time I heard Philippines had more GM there lol.

  38. Interesting observation. In India ,Tamil Nadu has the highest chess grandmasters. South indians predominate. Must be the south indian DNA and thoosai and idli.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.