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As well as organising the World Chess Championship, FIDE calculates Elo ratings of players, defines the rules of chess, periodically publishes albums of the best chess problems, and appoints International Masters, GrandmastersThe title International Grandmaster is awarded to superb chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. It is a lifetime title, in chess literature usually abbreviated as GM or IGM (this is in contrast to WGM for Woman Grandmaster and IM for Internat, and Arbiters.
As well as the men's world championship, FIDE organises championships for women and juniors, regional championships, and the Chess OlympiadThe Chess Olympiad is a chess event which has been officially organised by FIDE since 1927 and takes place every second year. Prior to World War II the event was occasionally held annually. There was also an "unofficial" series of Chess Olympiads which en. It oversees few other tournaments, although other top-level events, almost without exception, respect FIDE rules and regulations.
In its early years, FIDE had little power. This was largely because the Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 refused to join, as it saw chess and politics as being inextricably bound up, and FIDE was a non-political organisation. This changed, however, when incumbent world champion Alexander AlekhineAlexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (sometimes spelled "Aljechin") (in Russian, ), ( October 31 or November 1, 1892 March 24, 1946) was a chess master, one of the great world chess champions. He was known for his fierce attacking style. Alekhine was born int died in 1946. FIDE stepped up to organise a tournament to find a replacement, and the Soviet Union, aware that this was a process it had to be involved with, joined.
From that initial 1948 tournament (won by Mikhail BotvinnikMikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik ( August 17, 1911 May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess. Born in St. Petersburg, the son of a dental technician, he first came to the notice of the chess world at the age o) to 1993, FIDE was the only body organising world chess championships. They were involved in controversies, however: in 1975, Bobby FischerRobert James "Bobby" Fischer (born March 9, 1943) is a former world chess champion, and the only American to win the FIDE world chess championship. He won the FIDE World Chess Championship on September 1, 1972, and lost the FIDE title when he failed to de defaulted his title after FIDE refused to meet all his demands for his match with Anatoly KarpovAnatoli Yevgenyevic Karpov (born May 23, 1951) is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He is considered one of the greatest players in chess history, especially in tournament play: he is the most successful tournament player in history,. In 1984, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes called off the match between Karpov and Garry KasparovGarry Kimovich Kasparov (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and the strongest (highest rated on the FIDE October 2004 list at 2813) chess player in the world. He was classical world chess champion from 1985 until 2000. He was born as Garri Weinst without result. In 1993 reigning champion Kasparov and challenger Nigel Short (who had qualified through the FIDE system) broke away from FIDE to play their 1993 match under the auspices of the newly-formed Professional Chess Association (PCA). Since that time there have been two world championships - one held under FIDE's aegis, and the other under a variety of organisations'. Lately, FIDE's championships have consisted of a single knock-out tournament with games under quicker time controls, rather than the traditional series of long matches, a change which has also proved controversial.
The decision to hold the 2004 World Championship in Libya has proved controversial, as have aspects of FIDE's handling of the so-called Prague Agreement (a plan to reunite the two world championships, masterminded by Yasser Seirawan). FIDE has been criticised by the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) as well as individual players.
Ilyumzhinov has himself proved a controversial figure, with question marks over the sources of the money he has donated to FIDE, and accusations against him that he has not paid promised prize money among other things.
In 1999, FIDE was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Two years later, it introduced the IOC's anti-drugs rules to chess. FIDE has stated that it would like chess to become part of the Olympic Games.