FIDE · October 2026 · World Bank population 2025
Chess grandmasters per capita by country
Monaco has the most chess grandmasters per capita: 3 grandmasters for a population of 38,341 (2025), or 782.5 per 10 million people. Among countries of at least one million people, Armenia leads with 126.3 per 10 million (39 grandmasters, 3,086,700 people). StatOrigin computes each ratio from FIDE's October 2026 list and World Bank population records.
- 782.5GMs per 10M · Monaco · computed
- 67Countries ranked (3+ GMs)
- Oct 2026FIDE list
Ratio computed by StatOrigin · inputs: FIDE standard rating list, World Bank WDI SP.POP.TOTL
Grandmasters per 10 million people, October 2026
The 67 countries with 3 or more grandmasters, ranked by grandmasters per 10 million people. The grandmaster count and the population each open their record; the last column is computed by StatOrigin (grandmasters ÷ population × 10,000,000) and is not published by FIDE or the World Bank.
Grandmaster counts without the ratio, for every country: chess grandmasters by country.
Frequently asked questions
Which country has the most chess grandmasters per capita?
Monaco has the most chess grandmasters per capita: 3 grandmasters for a population of 38,341 (2025), or 782.5 per 10 million people. Among countries of at least one million people, Armenia leads with 126.3 per 10 million (39 grandmasters, 3,086,700 people). StatOrigin computes each ratio from FIDE's October 2026 list and World Bank population records.
How is the ratio calculated?
Grandmasters on FIDE's October 2026 standard rating list, divided by the country's total population from the World Bank (World Development Indicators, SP.POP.TOTL, 2025), times 10 million. Neither FIDE nor the World Bank publishes this ratio: StatOrigin computes it from the two records linked in each row and rounds it to one decimal.
Why do small countries rank so high?
A handful of grandmasters in a small country is a large share of its people, and one title gained or lost moves the ratio a long way. Only countries with 3 or more grandmasters are ranked, but the leaders still have small populations; the answer above also names the leader among countries of at least one million people.
How the ratio is made
The grandmaster counts are StatOrigin's counts of FIDE's October 2026 standard rating list (standard_oct26frl.zip), by the federation a player is registered with; the evidence check recounts each one from the pinned archive. The populations are the World Bank's total population (World Development Indicators, SP.POP.TOTL), midyear estimates counting all residents, each the newest year in the panel.
Download the official FIDE rating list (standard_rating_list.zip)
For each country StatOrigin divides the first record by the second and multiplies by 10 million. The ratio is not a published statistic and has no record of its own: to check a row, open its two linked records. FIDE federations are not always countries (England, Scotland and Wales play separately and have no row), and a player's federation is not always their country of birth or residence.
Cite this page
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to StatOrigin, FIDE and the World Bank.
StatOrigin. (2026). Chess grandmasters per capita by country (October 2026) [Data set]. Retrieved October 22, 2026, from https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters/per-capita
"Chess grandmasters per capita by country (October 2026)." StatOrigin, 2026, https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters/per-capita. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.
StatOrigin. "Chess grandmasters per capita by country (October 2026)." Data set, 2026. Accessed October 22, 2026. https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters/per-capita.
@misc{statorigin_chess_grandmasters_per_capita_2026, title = {Chess grandmasters per capita by country (October 2026)}, author = {{StatOrigin}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://statorigin.org/statistics/chess-grandmasters/per-capita}, note = {Data set. Accessed 2026-10-22} }