On Feb 16, 12:47*pm, "Chess One" wrote:
An interesting chart circa 1977 allows the following figures for

Region; population [in 1,000s] , chess players *[in 1,000s], titled players
[masters and GMs]

USSR * *250,900 * *4,180 * *84

Eastern Europe [7 countries
* * * * * * 126,900 * *209 * *168

USA * *212,900 * *50 * *39

Western Europe [15 countries
* * * * * * 328,500 * *153 * *103

Source: Fide and Arpad Elo. Caveat [Elo's] not every country provides
reliable data.

In the same set of references* there is a figure for 1950 when the title
systems was first standardised by Fide, there were 27 grandmasters, and 94
masters. By 1977 there were 157 grandmasters and 355 masters.

Phil Innes

* Chapter, "The Sedentary Sport 1914-1980", title; Chess, The History of the
Game. Author Richard Eales.

What percentage of the chessplayers, compared to the rest of the
pouplation, molest children?
Perhaps we need an OPERATION ROUNDUP to lock up all of the child
molesters invovled in scholastic
chess!

Marcus Roberts