FIDE · Standard rating list · October 2026
How many chess grandmasters are there?
There are 1,900 chess grandmasters on FIDE's October 2026 standard rating list. Russia has the most (184), followed by the United States (115) and Germany (103). The list also holds 4,307 International Masters, 539 Woman Grandmasters and 569,652 rated players in all.
- 1,900Grandmasters · Oct 2026
- 89Countries with a GM
- 569,652Rated players
Monthly · FIDE standard rating list · FIDE standard rating list OCT26 (standard_oct26frl.zip)
Chess grandmasters by country, October 2026
89 countries have at least one grandmaster. The 67 with 3 or more are ranked here, each with its own page; each figure opens its record.
With one or two grandmasters: Tunisia (2), Uruguay (2), United Arab Emirates (2), Malaysia (1), Venezuela (1), South Africa (1), Ecuador (1), Bolivia (1), South Korea (1), Ireland (1), Costa Rica (1), Zambia (1), Dominican Republic (1), New Zealand (1), Jordan (1), Morocco (1), Albania (1), Cyprus (1), Taiwan, China (1), Tajikistan (1), Faroe Islands (1), Senegal (1).
A blank cell means no player registered with that country holds the title on this list. Every country on one page: the grandmaster ranking. Per head of population: chess grandmasters per capita by country.
Frequently asked questions
How many chess grandmasters are there in the world?
There are 1,900 chess grandmasters on FIDE's October 2026 standard rating list. Russia has the most (184), followed by the United States (115) and Germany (103). The list also holds 4,307 International Masters, 539 Woman Grandmasters and 569,652 rated players in all.
Which country has the most chess grandmasters?
Russia, with 184 grandmasters on the October 2026 list. The United States has 115; Germany has 103.
Who is counted?
Every player with the GM title on FIDE's standard rating list, by the federation they are registered with. The list holds players with a published standard rating, including those flagged inactive; a grandmaster with no published rating is not on it. England, Scotland and Wales are separate FIDE federations: their players count toward the world total but have no country row here, and none are assigned to the United Kingdom.
How the counts are made
FIDE publishes a standard rating list on the first day of each month. StatOrigin downloads the month's archive (standard_oct26frl.zip), pins its exact bytes (SHA-256 d83d5817c9a4…) and counts the rows by title and federation. The evidence check recounts every figure from the archive, so each one traces to the publisher's own file.
Download the official FIDE rating list (standard_rating_list.zip)
Every monthly list: FIDE rating lists by federation. Ranking with previous periods: chess grandmasters by country.
Cite this page
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to StatOrigin and FIDE.
StatOrigin. (2026). Chess grandmasters by country (October 2026) [Data set]. Retrieved October 22, 2026, from https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters
"Chess grandmasters by country (October 2026)." StatOrigin, 2026, https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
StatOrigin. "Chess grandmasters by country (October 2026)." Data set, 2026. Accessed October 22, 2026. https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters.
@misc{statorigin_chess_grandmasters_2026, title = {Chess grandmasters by country (October 2026)}, author = {{StatOrigin}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters}, note = {Data set. Accessed 2026-10-22} }