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Chess in the Balkans

SCG is better known as 'Serbia and Montenegro', better known to many as ex-Yugoslavia.

(March 2006) Among the 67365 names listed on the FIDE rating list for January 2006, 979 sported the prestigious grandmaster (GM) title. The 979 GMs represented 78 different federations. The ten federations with the most GMs are shown in the next table. Most of the three-letter federation codes should be self-explanatory -- RUS for Russia, GER for Germany, and USA for the United States of America -- but the code in the fifth position may not be as obvious : SCG. GMs per Federation (2006)   GMs RUS 155 GER 61 USA 60 UKR 53 SCG 50 HUN 36 ENG 33 ISR 33 FRA 29 ESP 24 The code SCG is an acronym which stands for 'Srbija i Crna Gora', better known to English speakers as 'Serbia and Montenegro', which may be better known to many as ex-Yugoslavia. For many years Yugoslavia was one of the world's top chess playing countries, second only to the USSR and the USA in the medal harvest at the biennial chess Olympiad. The FIDE rating lists for the years 1990 to 2004 reflect the breakup of Yugoslavia into five separate countries followed by the agreed name changes. The big breakup occurred in 1991. The 'Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' became 'Macedonia' in 2001, and 'Yugoslavia' became 'Serbia and Montenegro' (SCG) in 2004. Players per Federation   1990 1991 ... 2000 2001 ... 2003 2004 BIH   48 ... 104 114 ... 132 158 CRO   200 ... 493 539 ... 670 773 FRM   44 ... 157         MKD         160 ... 175 178 SCG               2069 SLO   91 ... 268 285 ... 326 368 YUG 1047 777 ... 1683 1802 ... 1928   If you count population, none of the modern Balkan states are big countries. If you count chess GMS, all of them are.   Federation/Country Population (millions, 2004 est.) GMs BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina 4.0 5 CRO Croatia 4.5 18 FRM Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)     MKD Macedonia 2.1 8 SCG Serbia and Montenegro 10.8 50 SLO Slovenia 2.0 8 YUG Yugoslavia     For our photo gallery from the 2006 SCG Championship, or for more about chess in Serbia and Montenegro, see the link box at the bottom of this article. *** Serbia and Montenegro Image: Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection

Related Resources (offsite) • Photos: SCG Chp 2006  Elsewhere on the Web • SCGchess.org