Chess Organizations
Chess as a sport is officially organized by FIDE, the French organization entrusted with running worldwide chess. There are, though, a number of chess organizations and sub-organizations that have significant power over the chess world, and have made significant contributions to the sport of chess. The most significant chess organizations in the world today are listed as follows, with their particular attributes and powers.
1. FIDE
FIDE is properly known as Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or by its English name as the World Chess Federation. It is the premiere chess association in the world, and is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the top chess organization in the world. FIDE keeps the official rules of chess and all of its officially recognized variants, and awards the coveted master titles in chess. It also organizes the World Chess Championship.
2. Professional Chess Association
The Professional Chess Association was an organization founded by International Grandmaster Garry Kasparov after a falling out with FIDE. This organization existed from 1993 to 1996, each year electing its own world champion, and contesting the FIDE champion. The organization eventually lost its sponsor and folded, and was officially reunited with FIDE in 2006, when the two champions of each organization played each other.
3. Grandmaster’s Association
This was a short-lived brainchild of Garry Kasparov, and one that would eventually morph into the Professional Chess Association. It was mostly significant as it represented the initial splintering off from FIDE by Garry Kasparov.
4. Russian Chess Federation
Though the Russian Chess Federation is technically just the Russian arm of FIDE, it deserves recognition. For several decades during the twentieth century, Russians were the dominating force in chess, partially due to the efforts and promotions of the Russian Chess Federation. The Russian Chess Federation also deserves note for accidentally overlooking the qualifications of a Grandmaster tournament and allowing the then unknown and unrated Garry Kasparov to enter and win the competition that would propel him to become the third highest rank player in the world.
5. United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is the American arm of FIDE, but a substantial force in itself. It keeps its own ratings, and organizes a number of different events around the country. It is the top American chess organization and currently has around 80,000 members, with its peak membership being around 100,000 members in the early part of this decade. Its membership doubled at the height of American Bobby Fischer’s popularity, and then doubled again in the late 1990s as a result of the increase in scholastic chess organizations.
6. Internet Chess Club
The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is the largest paying chess server on the internet, partly because it was the first. It has room for chess discussions of normal chess and all of its variants, and currently has over 30,000 members. It also spawned the Free Internet Chess Server, which is similar to the original website, and was started by some of the ICC’s founding members, but offers all of its servers for free.
7. International Correspondence Chess Federation
This version of the International Correspondence Chess Federation has been around since 1951. This organization allows its members to play correspondence chess, or chess that is played across some distance. Nowadays, most correspondence chess is played via e-mail, making international play far more accessible, though in the past it has been played using regular post, couriers, or even homing pigeons.