Sri Lanka: The Chess Boom in 60 Seconds 🇱🇰
Sri Lanka: how many people play rated chess, how many grandmasters and who is the best player - every year since 2001.
2001: 25 rated players · 0 grandmasters · best: De Silva Nuwan Didula (2,200)
2011: 356 rated players · 0 grandmasters · best: M.K.A. Russell (2,270)
2026: 7,135 rated players · 0 grandmasters · best: Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (2,470)
What the number means: 50,000 = 50,000 people who play official tournament games with a FIDE rating.
Millions more play online or at home - this counts only official rated players.
Rated players = everyone on FIDE's standard (classical) rating list of that month - players who have played official rated games.
Terms used:
- FIDE: the international chess federation
- standard chess: classical chess with long thinking time (not blitz or rapid)
Data: FIDE standard rating lists (ratings.fide.com), January 2001 - January 2026 and October 2026 (2026 = the October list). Players under the FIDE flag (many Russian and Belarusian players since 2022) are not counted for any country.
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